In June 1952, Orwell’s widow Sonia Bronwell sold the only surviving manuscript at a charity auction for £50. The draft remains the only surviving literary manuscript from Orwell, and is held at the John Hay Library at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Variant English language editions
In the original published UK and US editions of 1984 numerous small variations in the text exist, the US edition altering Orwell’s agreed edit of the text as was typical of publishing practices of the time in regard to spelling and punctuation, as well as some small edits and phrasings.
While Orwell rejected a proposed book club edition which would see substantial sections of the book removed, these minor changes passed somewhat under the radar. Other more significant revisions and variant texts also exist, however.
In 1984, Peter Davison edited Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript, published by Secker and Warburg in the UK and Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich in the US.
This reproduced page for page Sonia Bronwell’s copy of the original manuscript in facsimiles, as well as a complete typeset versions of that text – complete with Orwell’s holograph and typewritten pages, and handwritten amendments and corrections.
The book had a preface by Daniel Segal. It has been reprinted in various international editions with translated introductions and notes, and reprinted in English in limited edition formats.
In 1997, Davison produced a definitive text of Nineteen Eighty Four as part of Secker’s 20 volume definitive edition of the Complete Works of George Orwell.
This edition removed errors, typographic errors, and reversed editorial changes in the original editions made without Orwell’s oversight, all based on detailed reference to Orwell’s original manuscript and notes.
This text has gone on to be reprinted in various subsequent paperback editions, including one with an introduction by Thomas Pynchon, without obvious note that it is a revised text, and has been translated as an unexpurgated version of text.
In 2021, Polygon published Nineteen Eighty Four: The Jura Edition, with an introduction by Alex Massie.
Plot
In an uncertain year, believed to be 1984, civilisation has been ravaged by world war, civil conflict, and revolution. Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain) is a province of Oceania, one of the three totalitarian super-states that rule the world.
It is ruled by “The Party” under the ideology of “Ingsoc” (a Newspeak shortening of “English Socialism”) and the mysterious leader Big Brother, who has an intense cult of personality.
The Party brutally purges out anyone who does not fully conform to their regime, using the Thought Police and constant surveillance through telescreens (two-way televisions), cameras, and hidden microphones.
Those who fall out of favour with the Party become “unpersons”, disappearing with all evidence of their existence destroyed.
In London, Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party, working at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the state’s ever-changing version of history.
Winston revises past editions of The Times, while the original documents are destroyed after being dropped into ducts known as memory holes, which lead to an immense furnace.
He secretly opposes the Party’s rule and dreams of rebellion, despite knowing that he is already a “thought-criminal” and is likely to be caught one day.
While in a prole neighbourhood he meets Mr. Charrington, the owner of an antiques shop, and buys a diary where he writes criticisms of the Party and Big Brother.
To his dismay, when he visits a prole quarter he discovers they have no political consciousness. As he works in the Ministry of Truth, he observes Julia, a young woman maintaining the novel-writing machines at the ministry, whom Winston suspects of being a spy, and develops an intense hatred of her.
He vaguely suspects that his superior, Inner Party official O’Brien, is part of an enigmatic underground resistance movement known as the Brotherhood, formed by Big Brother’s reviled political rival Emmanuel Goldstein.
One day, Julia discreetly hands Winston a love note, and the two begin a secret affair. Julia explains that she also loathes the Party, but Winston observes that she is politically apathetic and uninterested in overthrowing the regime. Initially meeting in the country, they later meet in a rented room above Mr. Charrington’s shop.
During the affair, Winston remembers the disappearance of his family during the civil war of the 1950s and his tense relationship with his estranged wife Katharine.
Weeks later, O’Brien invites Winston to his flat, where he introduces himself as a member of the Brotherhood and sends Winston a copy of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Goldstein.
Meanwhile, during the nation’s Hate Week, Oceania’s enemy suddenly changes from Eurasia to Eastasia, which goes mostly unnoticed. Winston is recalled to the Ministry to help make the necessary revisions to the records.
Winston and Julia read parts of Goldstein’s book, which explains how the Party maintains power, the true meanings of its slogans, and the concept of perpetual war.
It argues that the Party can be overthrown if proles rise up against it. However, Winston never gets the opportunity to read the chapter that explains why the Party took power and is motivated to maintain it.
Winston and Julia are captured when Mr. Charrington is revealed to be an undercover Thought Police agent, and they are separated and imprisoned at the Ministry of Love.
O’Brien also reveals himself to be a member of the Thought Police and a member of a false flag operation which catches political dissidents of the Party.
Over several months, Winston is starved and relentlessly tortured to bring his beliefs in line with the Party.
O’Brien tells Winston that he will never know whether the Brotherhood actually exists and that Goldstein’s book was written collaboratively by him and other Party members; furthermore, O’Brien reveals to Winston that the Party sees power not as a means but as an end, and the ultimate purpose of the Party is seeking power entirely for its own sake.
For the final stage of re-education, O’Brien takes Winston to Room 101, which contains each prisoner’s worst fear. When confronted with rats, Winston denounces Julia and pledges allegiance to the Party.
Winston is released into public life and continues to frequent the Chestnut Tree café. He encounters Julia, and both reveal that they have betrayed the other and are no longer in love.
Back in the café, a news alert celebrates Oceania’s supposed massive victory over Eurasian armies in Africa. Winston finally accepts that he loves Big Brother.
Characters
Main characters
Winston Smith: the 39-year-old protagonist who is a phlegmatic everyman harbouring thoughts of rebellion and is curious about the Party’s power and the past before the Revolution.
Julia: Winston’s lover, who publicly espouses Party doctrine as a member of the fanatical Junior Anti-Sex League. Julia enjoys her small acts of rebellion and has no interest in giving up her lifestyle.
O’Brien: A mysterious character, O’Brien is a member of the Inner Party who poses as a member of The Brotherhood, the counter-revolutionary resistance, to catch Winston. He is a spy intending to deceive, trap, and capture Winston and Julia.
Big Brother and Emmanuel Goldstein never appear but play a big part in the plot and have a significant role in the worldbuilding of 1984.
Big Brother: the leader and figurehead of the Party that rules Oceania. A deep cult of personality is formed around him. It is not revealed whether he actually exists.
Emmanuel Goldstein: ostensibly a former leading figure in the Party who became the counter-revolutionary leader of the Brotherhood, and author of the book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. Goldstein is the symbolic enemy of the state—the national nemesis who ideologically unites the people of Oceania with the Party, especially during the Two Minutes Hate and other forms of fearmongering. However O’Brien claims that the book was actually written by the Party.
Secondary characters
Aaronson, Jones, and Rutherford: former members of the Inner Party whom Winston vaguely remembers as among the original leaders of the Revolution, long before he had heard of Big Brother. They confessed to treasonable conspiracies with foreign powers and were then executed in the political purges of the 1960s. In between their confessions and executions, Winston saw them drinking in the Chestnut Tree Café—with broken noses, suggesting that their confessions had been obtained by torture. Later, in the course of his editorial work, Winston sees newspaper evidence contradicting their confessions, but drops it into a memory hole. Eleven years later, he is confronted with the same photograph during his interrogation.
Ampleforth: Winston’s one-time Records Department colleague who was imprisoned for leaving the word “God” in a Kipling poem as he could not find another rhyme for “rod”; Winston encounters him at the Ministry of Love. Ampleforth is a dreamer and intellectual who takes pleasure in his work, and respects poetry and language, traits which cause him disfavour with the Party.
Charrington: an undercover officer of the Thought Police masquerading as a kind and sympathetic antiques dealer amongst the proles.
Katharine Smith: the emotionally indifferent wife whom Winston “can’t get rid of”. Despite disliking sexual intercourse, Katharine married Winston because it was their “duty to the Party”. Although she was a “goodthinkful” ideologue, they separated because the couple could not conceive children. Divorce is not permitted, but couples who cannot have children may live separately. For much of the story Winston lives in vague hope that Katharine may die or could be “got rid of” so that he may marry Julia. He regrets not having killed her by pushing her over the edge of a quarry when he had the chance many years previously.
The Parsons
