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First edition of
George Orwell's nineteen eighty-four, |
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"On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns — after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces — at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally." |
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ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. A Novel. London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. Octavo, original green cloth, original green dust jacket. $3500. First edition of Orwell's classic novel, of great influence on twentieth-century thought. "Orwell's warning of the potential dangers of totalitarianism made a deep impression on his contemporaries and upon subsequent readers, and the book's title and many of its coined words and phrases (“Big Brother is watching you,” “newspeak,” “doublethink”) became bywords for modern political abuses" (Britannica). Issued in both green (this copy) and red dust jackets (no priority established). Book very good; dust jacket with light edgewear, small closed tear to top of rear panel and two small internal tape reinforcements to verso. A very nice copy of a notoriously difficult book to find in collectible condition. |
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