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1985 Hardcover – January 1, 1978
- Print length272 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLittle Brown & Co
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1978
- ISBN-100316116513
- ISBN-13978-0316116510
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Product details
- Publisher : Little Brown & Co; First Edition (January 1, 1978)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 272 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0316116513
- ISBN-13 : 978-0316116510
- Item Weight : 3 pounds
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,169,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16,638 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies
- #231,389 in History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) was a novelist, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. He is best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), but altogether he wrote thirty-three novels, twenty-five works of non-fiction, two volumes of autobiography, three symphonies, more than 250 other musical works, and thousands of essays, articles and reviews.
Burgess was born in Manchester, England and grew up in Harpurhey and Moss Side. He was educated at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He lived in Malaya, Malta, Monaco, Italy and the United States, among other places. His books are still widely read all over the world.
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In the fiction segment, while there is no Big Brother or Thought Police per se, nor are there superstates like Oceania, Euarasia, and Eastasia, i.e. the UK, USA, Australia, etc. still exist as independent countries, the unions have totally seized power (the cynical joke goes "TUK = TUC," in other words, The United Kingdom is the Trades Union Congress, and Englad is often informally referred to as Tucland), the State is the employer for something like 99% of the workforce, and the unions basically hold governments and individuals alike by the bollocks. The unions (or Syndicates, as they're also called in the novella) don't have quite the total physical and mental control of the people that Big Brother's Ingsoc does, but it's plenty nightmarish. Instead of Orwell's "Newspeak," there is "Worker's English (WE)," which is also a highly dumbed-down version of the language. The only groups with any sense of intellectual and economic freedom are gangs of thugs and petty thieves....or, dare I say, landlocked pirates?
The novella portion starts off with the protagonist's wife dying in a hospital fire due to the firefighters being on strike and refusing to attempt to put out the fire.* An ominous start to an even more ominous story. (*Later on in the novel, there is a reference to an incident where thousands freeze to death in the American Midwestern winter, specifically Minnesota, because the public utility workers are on strike and thus refusing to turn on the heat.)
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
While "1985" doesn't exactly have a "happy" ending, at least the protagonist, Bev Jones, doesn't go down without a fight, and while he is tortured at a re-education camp,the tortures aren't quite as horrific as The Ministry of Love or Room 101 from Orwell's "1984," and at least Jones doesn't go out like a totally brainwashed meek little wussy the way Winston Smith does in Orwell's book, i.e. Jones dies, but he doesn't die loving the State or the unions.
Part I contains Burgess's view of Orwell's 1948 political parody of English socialism, '1984'.
Part II is a Burgess try for a similar effect called '1985'. It's more like 'Clockwork Orange' than Orwellian.
Orwell was an egalitarian socialist who believed there was room for individualism, while warning about the Stalinist form of socialism. He hated central planning and oligarchical privilege. He recognized that collectivism compounds bondage and government power. He found hope in the proletariat, rather than the bourgeoisie. His parody is based on the realism of what he saw developing in 1948.
Burgess supports Orwell in emphasizing the declining role of freedom of choice. His version involves more violence and leans to anarchism rather than socialism. For the USA he coins Unhappy Syndicated America. We met Bill, the symbolic worker, He points out that our education fetish is not beneficial to workers. The government is a machine for printing money. It always gives in to unions for government workers. Any social cause needs martyrs.
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Part two is the "novel". Burgess has a different style to Huxley and Orwell in that he is more interested in how a "cacotopian" future affects people rather than seeking to explain how such a future operates. He is particularly good at showing that there is always some resistance and how a controlling state leads to unimaginative education and restless youth.
The story is very relevant in modern times where sensitivities are liable to cause restrictions on behaviour.
It starts off with writings about George Orwell, his life, his musings and his place in society, and how all of this may have influenced 1984. This is really interesting for anyone who has read 1984 (seriously, read it first if you haven't).
After that there is a novel, called 1985. I expected it to be 'what would happen if Anthony Burgess wrote 1984', but actually I found it read more like 'what would happen if George Orwell wrote A Clockwork Orange'. However the novel is fantastic, I don't want to write any spoilers, but it is a great book!