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1984

George Orwell

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: April 30, 2025

Discussion: New School Classics- 1915-2005

Why we're reading this: New School Read - April 2025

Previous Group Reads:
- Contemporary Classic, July 2013
- Revisit the Shelf Gro…more
[close] New School Read - April 2025

Previous Group Reads:
- Contemporary Classic, July 2013
- Revisit the Shelf Group Read, June 2014
- Revisit the Shelf Group Read, November 2015

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Showing 2 of 393 topics — 15,670 comments total

New School Classics- 1915-2005

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What Members Thought

Feb 22, 2010 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: re-read, dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic, classic, 1001-books

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

I first read this when I was young (what we call a "tween" nowadays) back when the year 1984 was still in the future. I found it to be a powerful book even then. Reading it now, as an adult, in 2017, is quite jarring. Things that once seemed vaguely humorous because they were preposterous have come true.

My adolescent self found this to be a dismal and mysterious book. What I remembered best are the obvious things, the s ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2008 Suvi rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: _great-britain, novels, 1940-1969, sci-fi, _david-bowies-favorites

During the first half I was interested and then it kind of flopped. The person who wrote the introduction in my edition mentioned that the narrative lacks development, the dialogue is sometimes weak, and most of the people are two-dimensional, existing only to explain a political point. Funny, because those things explain why I didn't like it as much as I would've wanted. Interesting and groundbreaking ideas don't yet make a good novel. Orwell's was more like a ham-fisted effort to shout politic ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

May 23, 2014 Sandy rated it really liked it

I think I read this in high school but definitely was in need of a re-read since did not remember much. Was surprised at how readable and interesting this book was, yet ultimately incredibly sad. The version of the book I read had a preamble written by Thomas Pynchon which I found to be really helpfully when reading the book. It explained who some of the characters were based upon.

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May 25, 2010 claire rated it really liked it

brilliant. thoroughly grateful for my time overseas & meeting intellectual types that spur broader reading & thinking. nathan from kanses & pavlovs dog!

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