Set in a bleak future where individual will, thought and imagination are subordinated to the needs of 'The Party' (and its omniscient leader, Big Brother), Orwell's 1984 is a classic work of Dystopian fiction. The third-person narrative follows outer-party member and Ministry of Truth propagandist Winston Smith, as he grapples to oppose the dictates Big Brother, joins what he believes to be a conspiratorial resistance cell, and ultimately has to chose between his love for Julia (who also is not all she appears to be), his opposition to the status-quo, and his own survival.
Orwell's masterpiece has been so successful as to generate a whole vocabulary describing the art of political suppression, and its insights into the use of ideology, propaganda and technology as a means of collectively suppressing human will, remain relevant to this day.
