Tuesday 21 January 2025 @ 19:00
£10 / £8 - Friends go free
Archaeology, Lecture Theatre (G6),
University College London
31-34 Gordon Square, London
WC1H 0PY
The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one: Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.
What was Orwell’s final warning? On the 75th anniversary of George Orwell’s death, join D. J. Taylor, Sandra Newman and Jeffrey Wasserstrom to discuss the afterlife of Orwell’s final novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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Are all interpretations of Nineteen Eighty-Four equal?
Published just months before Orwell’s death, Nineteen Eighty-Four immediately sparked debate about its meaning. Was it a warning? A prophecy? Who or what was its target? When reviewers began interpreting the novel as an attack on the British Labour Party in particular, Orwell and his publishers felt compelled to issue a statement to the press clarifying his own beliefs. He was, he said, a supporter of the government, but he had set the novel in Britain because he wanted to show that “the seeds of totalitarian thought” could be found anywhere.
When Orwell died just six months later, the statement took on the status of a deathbed appeal. However, despite Orwell’s best efforts, Nineteen Eighty-Four continues to be claimed by readers across the political spectrum and is increasingly wielded in support of extreme views, especially on social media. How have we got here? And will we ever be able to see the man beneath the myth?
Book event