digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Read George Orwell's "1984" online in it's entirety

online-literature.com — In a modern day world where the government seems to resemble Big Brother more and more every day, it's interesting to read Orwell's prediction of the status of English society (Ingsoc) in 1984, even if it's overdue a few decades.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • InfamousX241, on 10/12/2007, -19/+2Errr... my bad. It's not full. Sorry guys.
    • Demq, on 10/12/2007, -4/+32just an ebook on the web... what's so news about this. A nice one though
    • KroseHoneyLips, on 10/12/2007, -20/+1meh. I am too pretty to read anyways
    • seventoes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Man digg... it seems like every time i start reading a book in English class, you guys find an eBook of it and post it on digg the next day. Anyways, this is a pretty good book, even if this isnt the full text.
    • BizarroDavid, on 10/12/2007, -22/+2If people want to know the ending, here it is:

      Winston loves big brother, and then he gets shot.
    • mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14I have the text in a doc so that I can give it to anyone who may need it. 1984 is probably one of the most important books people should read today, especially with the direction our governments are headed in.

      Hell, Orwell was only 20 or 30 years off. Almost every one of the aspects of that book are in effect in society today (somewhat here in the US, apparently more in GB), albeit to a lesser (read: more silent) extent.

      Another movie people should watch is V for Vendetta. I see that as much of a modernized version of 1984 that we can relate to.

      Yes, the 1984 text is not "news" or "new", but it is very important, so keep on spreading it around.
    • xtmno3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Yeah, you may be able to read 1984 online, but Big Brother will watch you when you do it!
    • orbit1979, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14"Read George Orwell's "1984" online in it's entirety"

      .....and go blind staring at what is effectively a light bulb.
    • MasterQ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@seventoes

      It is full text... this is just a direct link to chapter 1. Here is the chapter listings http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
  • CarpeFishem, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13We're heading more towards Brave New World or Mockingbird rather than 1984.
    • BlackMagic2, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26Thats what Big Brother wants you to think!
    • mozzep, on 10/12/2007, -6/+31how are we heading towards To Kill a Mockingbird?
    • noamsml, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17We were, but the 2000's actually steered the US towards both a brave new world AND 1984. An interesting, and seemingly unlikely combination.
    • samadam, on 10/12/2007, -7/+26Well someone has read his mandatory high-school english books! Can I ask how this relates to Julius Caesar or Flowers for Algernon or Romeo and Juliet or Of Mice and Men or Lord of the Flies or Farenheit 451?

      I am sure you can fit in a The Giver reference!

      Jeez people, read some other quality literature outside of school. If you can find this many references in the four you read, try reading 20 others.
    • spookyttws, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8@mozzep

      His mom must've named him Scout. Either that or he's convicting an innocent black man.
    • SpazticChips, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Are you serious? The underlining tone is a totalitarian government, which we have now. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World has that also, but Mocking Bird, no. This is one of my favorite books and I quote it a lot in debates. "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" and then the Big Brother figure.
    • BlackMagic2, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3I only read 3 of those books :/

      My Junior English teacher was new... for almost the entire semester he read Frankenstein out loud to us :D

      I was in the back listening to music the entire time I was in the class, passed with an A
    • negativenancy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Can someone please explain to me how today's society reminds you of BNW? I mean, I can see 1984 being applied, with its oppressive and lying governments but I don't see the parallels to BNW's hedonistic society... we're more tight-minded than ever.
    • BizarroDavid, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9When the poster said that we're becoming a BNW, I think it means that rather than an overt, external totalitarianism, we're sliding towards complete irrelevance. After all, people will probably spend more time and money on video games, MP3 players, and HDTV's than politics, current events, books, or thoughtful debate.

      But not you, digg. You're special.
    • mozzep, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6the governments in BNW and 1984 both had similar goals: limiting information, controlling the public, letting a few run the many, etc. They accomplished it different ways, 1984's way is always discussed. if anything the government in 1984 is less like ours than BNW, but we're still terribly far from either... the only example that sticks out in my brain between BNW and our society is the use of Xanax or other pills like that to make people happy. Also, people and children becoming more promiscuous. I'm sure I'd know more if I read the book again. It's been a few years with both.
    • prisoner24601, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"We're heading more towards Brave New World..."

      Since it seems like there's a front page article on digg just about every day where people are complaining that "drug possession laws are too harsh" or "we ought to legalize marijuana" or something, I think you might well be onto something there. It seems a large portion of our society has indeed come to the "Who cares what's going on in the world? Just give me my soma dose" mindset.
    • KenOh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@samadam

      I can think of a reference for The Giver.

      Doesn't have much to do with the book though.
    • ryanissuper, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10We are DEFINITELY heading towards to kill a mockingbird. Why, just yesterday I defended a negro in court and was paid in corn.
    • spyd3rweb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Equillibrium is another good movie to watch.
    • mikesbaker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2we are heading towards "We". Oh and if you don't know what "We" is or who wrote and you haven't read it ***** off because that was the book that started the genre of dystopia futures.
  • DStuart, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10I may be missing a link, but it doesnt look like the full version...isn't it still under copyright????....and it should be buried merely for the stupid diescription. It was never a description of the future, but of the 'present' when it was written.....oh get educated people
    • grimjestor, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10to all of you who think this is not the full version:

      only the first chapter shows up when you follow the link. you have to go back to the index and all the chapters show up.

      if someone has already posted this, go ahead and bury me... i'd be happier in the ground anyway.
    • ryanissuper, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2A book about 2-way video cameras watching you at all times written in 1949 was a description of the present? I think you need to get educated.
    • DStuart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, in response to ryanissuper, I would have to say I don't think ryan is particularly super afterall. The notion that the title comes from the reversal of the last two digits of when the book was written (i.e., the majority was written in 1948...it was published in 1949), is a perfectly acceptable stand point, and anyone who focuses on the technology rather than what is represented by the technology is an idiot.
      • Beveridge89, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0What? 1984 is about the dangers of Totalitarianism, specifically Stalinism. Orwell could have just switched the last two digits to get the year, but given Orwell own views, it seems quite unlikely he was making any point about 40s Britain.
  • jeffiek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16It's all there:

    http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
    • hlovy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0War is Peace, and "It's" has an apostrophe even when "its" not a contraction for "it is."
    • JimXugle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7It's also illegal in the USA since 1984 is still protected by copyright.

      However, I'm not the FBI nor the copyright owner.... so I don't really have an interest in what people download onto their own machines.
    • CarpeFishem, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4@ mozzep

      Mockingbird, by Walter Tevis. Not To Kill a Mockingbird.
    • theratster, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@ JimXugle

      Actually, I believe copyright only extends for a finite period, like 30 years ( I believe).

      1984 was written in 1949... so that's almost 60 years. I'm sure the copyright has expired!
    • cloudsoup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It isn't all there. The printed version has an appendix all about Newspeak - it's an integral part of the book. If I recall, it's written as if by someone in the future, after the events described in the book, explaining what had been happening to the language.

      The idea with Newspeak - for those not familiar - was that sufficiently constraining language would make thinking certain thoughts impossible. Orwell was appalled by the Soviet show trials of the 30s and by the abuse of languge by the Soviet communists in the USSR and in Spain, and by the Nazis, and - let's not forget - by the BBC, for which he worked during the war. I don't mean he or I think there's any sort of moral equivalence but rather that the corrosive effect of propaganda on speech and thought could be seen on all sides.

      Room 101 was one of the rooms he worked in at the Beeb.

    • cloudsoup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1'Clearly neither of you have read 1984. Nothing in that book is being done. Cameras in public is not 1984 Big Brother at all'

      So the telescreens that monitored almost everyone's moves almost all the time isn't an obvious analogue? Recall how unusual Smith's room was, in that he could avoid the telescreen ***watching*** him, or the room on the Proles area where he went with Julia. Even then, they were monitoring him all the time.

      I'd say you'd never read it.
  • Popdmb, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6Live George Orwell's 1984 offline in America.
    • musicmantrs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13Actually its more London with the most cameras per person in the world.
    • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -9/+9Clearly neither of you have read 1984. Nothing in that book is being done. Cameras in public is not 1984 Big Brother at all.
  • baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6for other great books in several file formats to choose from all for free...

    http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
  • antifreeze11, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17its been online for ages. i personally dont like reading books online though. its just not the same.
  • fasda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Wouldn't it be more enjoyable if you just got it from a library or bookstore?
    • sembetu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6While I've owned a couple of physical copies over the years, and I have one now... it is nice to be able to access great books like this online.
  • mattman12345, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11one of the best books i've ever been forced to read!
  • anoneMoose, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Don't give Scientologists any more ideas. hehehe
  • SuperMank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'd rather just borrow a copy from a library, I mean, then I can take it anywhere without worrying about battery/straining my eyes as much.
  • broomett, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Yes...PLEAE do, Diggers. That way,m when you all stupidly say "Big Brother" over something like cameras in a public place, you will finally realize how stupid you have been.
  • amightywind, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2"even if it's overdue a few decades"

    This generation is a joke, definitely the sons of the sixties flower children. I fear for the Republic.
  • scabbers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16http://www.mininova.org/tor/194156

    Audiobook - George Orwell - 1984

    Just imagine it's a "podcast" or something.
  • Akina, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Bad link.

    Here's the menu link: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
  • j0siahAstacy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Fantastic!!! I just finished reading this book last week.
  • Deldrach, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is very good news, because I bet most the people that allude to 1984, have never actually even read the book.
  • noamsml, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wait, you mean that wasn't the newspaper?
  • geekee, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11N. Korea, a socialist country, is by far the closest thing to 1984. They have speakers in every home broadcasting propaganda that cannot be turned off. They don't like citizens to have even bicycles because mobility of citizens makes the govt. nervous. This is what Orwell was afraid of. At it's inception, the US was probably the most free country to ever exist. However, the slide into socialism that has pervaded Europe and the US is slowly limiting freedom, for the common good.
    • geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Slide into socialism? How about pushing through the "patriot act" then using provisions to further your political agenda. 1984 was based off the Spanish Civil War, specifically Franco's anti-democratic and rightist regime. Europe's "socialist" agenda is far different from the USSR's socialist idea. One limits freedoms, the other doesn't. I think that after we've seen the rightest regimes of Franco, Pinochet and the leftist regimes of N Korea and Russia, restricting freedom isn't dominated by one end of the political spectrum.
    • Jagdwulfe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3@Geronimo I disagree, with the EU's nannystate mentality I find that just as bad as the state in Big Brother. When you can't move up the social-economic ladder due to the oppressive tax system. The censorship of violent video games and movies is another good example.
  • qualish, on 10/12/2007, -14/+3Plot spoiler warning: "And he loved Big Brother." The End.
    • Clbck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4^^ Spoilers.

      Also, there is not supposed to be an "And" right there.
  • nullcodes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3oh sure .. you can read it online .. but Big Brother will be watching..
  • grimjestor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7digg this up.

    why? because even if you don't like the book (which makes you some kind of idiot, i may add) this is basically an online library of classics, mostly essential literature that everyone ought to read.

    you in america have local libraries, if you can pry yourselves away from the wii or whatever, but we in the rest of the world are not so lucky. so yeah. good stuff.
    • paulcooper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What kind of counrty doesn't have local libraries?
    • condormcs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Reply to: What kind of counrty doesn't have local libraries?
      Croatia for one if ur an English speaker, also its good to see literature being so available
      checkout Dailylit.com as well to get books by mail: this was dugg a week ago
  • sembetu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Also check out titles from these and other great authors:

    Aldous Huxley
    Hermann Hesse
    John Keats
    Niccolo Machiavelli
    William Wordsworth
    Leo Tolstoy
    Lord Alfred Tennyson

    I was happy to see titles like Siddhartha, and Steppenwolf, and Brave New World, The Prince, Anna Karenina, and others. Very good stuff here.
    • fasda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Orwell's Animal Farm is a nice read too.
  • WardenRant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Great book, highly recommend it
  • adalgiso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Ingsoc is short for English Socialism, the government of 1984, not English Society...
  • bijoo110, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Quote from "1984":
    WAR IS PEACE
    FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
    IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
  • Ninja337, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0This book is very relevant to a Web 2.0 world... Where there is a (web)camera for every citizen... Where a secret oligarchy decides what is printed and what is not... Where personal information is not safe... And also, controlled by a bunch of left wing nutjobs.
  • karlthebug, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Its funny that people think the shocking central theme in 1984 has to do with government surveillance. The real mechanism of control in the book is the manipulation and perversion of language, something that has been going on in the US for decades now. If you watch any major cable news network you can see this in action - buzzwords, soundbites, language designed to generate anger and fear.

    If anyone thinks that 1984 never happened because there isn't an obvious "Big Brother", just read the book, then sit and watch 15 mins of Fox or CNN. I mean really watch and pay attention. Doublespeak is everywhere.
    • charlie55, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4that would be a terrible thing if there were not thousands of other news sources and bloggers for us to choose from.
    • Ninja337, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Web 2.0 is doubleplusungood
  • thorndike, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Why bother reading it now....we are living it.
  • netarchitect, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Freedom is slavery
    War is peace
    Ignorance is strength
  • AimlessAbyss, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Pluhme. (Buried already.)
  • llamabox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The audio book is wonderful. I just finished it recently and i loved the person doing the reading. Really brought the book alive for me.
  • TheDude77, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Every Digger should already own a copy (or two) of this.
  • Leomarth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5When you read it, read it slowly and try to extract the principle behind each action in the book. Once you start thinking of the principles behind actions, you'll begin to look at your life, and the actions around you, in a different way.
  • CarpeFishem, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5We're not 1984, because you can throw little hissy fits at the government in the privacy of your own home or at a public library. Every time you denounce George W. Bush (or think about it, or write about it), jack-booted thugs are not kicking down your door. People are not encouraged to spy on their own family members. Sex is not illegal, neither is thinking about it. Yes, there is media bias (doublespeak), but it's not one-sided. You have Fox News, Michelle Malkin, Debbie Schlussel, Little Green Footballs, and talk radio hosts sending out their doublespeak, but you also have CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Thinkprogress, DailyKos, and HuffingtonPost sending out their doublespeak. That hardly qualifies our world as approaching 1984.

    Now, for Brave New World: try to watch a half-hour of TV without seeing an ad for some beauty treatment that lets you stay younger longer. Try to go to a store without seeing people buying that product, or trying out diet pills, etc. Go to the movies and find a theatre that plays a majority of films that aren't just mindlessly churned out to satisfy people's most base desires: cheap thrills, cheap laughs, cheap sex. Go to Digg and try to find a front page that doesn't include a story on some gadget that will make things easier and more efficient for everyone, or try to find a front page that doesn't have some story on a new entertainment device/development.

    America is a free nation, not a dictatorship, and people, with their freedom, are pursuing happiness through technology that will let them stay younger longer, let them avoid the consequences of unhealthy lifestyle choices, and let them be immediately and continually entertained. That is how things are moving toward Brave New World, and if you ever read Mockingbird, the world of that book will be the aftermath.
    • jeffiek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2" People are not encouraged to spy on their own family members. "

      You don't have children attending 'DARE', do you?
  • adriyel, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4Submitter is a fscking *****. Ingsoc referred to English Socialism. Read the ***** book you stupid *****.
    • InfamousX241, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Chill dude, I got the words mixed up. Socialism and Society aren't worlds apart spelling wise.
  • ORD2FRA, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3As long as we are talking movies, rent Idiocracy by Matt Judge. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
  • LeBlue, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I only digg because 1984 was so good, whats so special about an ebook.
  • afdager, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Thank you SOOO much

    We're currently reading this book in school, with a test on Monday... and I forgot my book in my locker. How fortuitous for me that I just happened to find it while surfing digg!
    • InfamousX241, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Digg prevails! Excellent book, you'll be glad you read it.
  • MaxThaRoux, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Is it true that book is banned in the USA, well us in Canada we are reading it in high school actually... lol
    • RonAcierno, on 02/07/2008, -0/+1no its not banned in the US I read it for 12 grade english ( british Lit. ) and did a research paper on it
  • rhoadesb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1 No need to read it, I believe we are living it.
  • diggnitarial, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Also watch children of men. A modern 1984. And read Brave New World.
  • RonAcierno, on 02/07/2008, -2/+3I just bought the book from Barns and Noble like 10 hours ago lol
  • vikzzzz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ah the classic...
    Always reminds me of the "Peace Keeping Operations" (PKO) terminology of the UN... which actually never makes peace... but war.
  • mweflen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3The book is online in it is entirety? What does that mean exactly?

    maybe there should be a dystopian story about a society in which everyone forgets how to use grammar and punctuation. Oh wait, "Idiocracy" has already been released...
  • tybris, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11984 is like so 2010.
  • MacintoshSauce, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11984? I am already ***** living it in President Bush's America.
    • radantelope, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21984 was an indictment of utopianism and all-pervasive communism. The government of Oceania was one of stifling ultra-leftism. In many ways, it was similar to Stalin's Russia.

      Just the mere fact that you can express hate towards Bush without the Though Police kicking in your door and taking you to Room 101 is all the reassurance you need that you're living in a free country.

      Knock off the drama and grow up.
  • oopspoops, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2You just said something bad about Bush, you don't see where what you just said is total fail
  • yaosio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The democrats just voted to PERMENTANTLY EXTEND the patriot act. GG NExt map.
  • dukeeeey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2here is the book in mp3 format
    http://nw0.info/?p=eBooks%20and%20Audio%20Books/Audio%20Books/1984.George.Orwell.Unabridged.CDRip/

    loads of good 911 stuff too
    http://nw0.info/index.php?p=Documentaries/911%20Myths%20-%20David%20Ray%20Griffin/
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 60 of 60 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.