George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four is unquestionably the most famous dystopian novel of all times. Written in the year of 1948, the author swapped the last two digits while describing a future totalitarian society where the minds, attitudes and actions of the subjects are thoroughly scrutinized by the "Thought Police", suspected dissidents tracked down and where the worship of the mythical party leader Big Brother is forced upon the masses. The low-ranking party member Winston Smith begins secretly to question the whole system and initiates a forbidden love affair with another party member.


Eric Blair was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bengal, in the then British colony of India, where his father, Richard, worked for the Opium Department of the Civil Service. His mother, Ida, brought him to England at the age of one. He did not see his father again until 1907, when Richard visited England for three months before leaving again until 1912. Eric had an older sister named Marjorie and a younger sister named Avril. With his characteristic humour, he would later describe his family's background as "lower-upper-middle class."