War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
And Big Brother is watching...

Thought Police.  Big Brother.  Orwellian.  These words have become part of our national vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic novel 1984, the story of one man's nightmare odyssey through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but individual thought and memory.  A minor functionary named Winston Smith joins a covert brotherhood and pursues a forbidden love affair against the cold, gray backdrop of the Republic of Oceania - only you become a hunted enemy of the state... and of Big Brother.

Today, half a century after it was written, Orwell's prophetic, haunting tale of conformity and identity strikes a disturbing chord.  As we follow Winston Smith through his rebellion, imprisonment, torture, and reeducation, we witness firsthand the worst crime we can inflict upon ourselves and others: the destruction of the truths and freedoms that make us who we are.

With an Afterword by Erich Fromm

A PLUME/HARCOURT BRACE BOOK
http://www.penguinputnam.com

Cover design by Melissa Jacoby

From amazon.com:

This astonishing allegory, one of the most scathing satires in literary history, remains as fresh and relevant as the day it was published. -- George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution has become an intimate part of our contemporary culture, with its treatment of democratic, fascist, and socialist ideals through an animal fable. The animals of Mr. Jones' Manor Farm are overworked, mistreated, and desperately seeking a reprieve. In their quest to create an idyllic society where justice and equality reign, the animals of Manor Farm revolt against their human rulers, establishing the democratic Animal Farm under the credo, ''All Animals Are Created Equal.'' Out of their cleverness, the pigs -- Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball -- emerge as leaders of the new community. In a development of insidious familiarity, the pigs begin to assume ever greater amounts of power, while other animals, especially the faithful horse Boxer, assume more of the work. The climax of the story is the brutal betrayal of Boxer, when totalitarian rule is reestablished with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: ''But Some Animals Are More Equal than Others.''