'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'
Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.
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Fue novelista, periodista, crítico literario y articulista. Hoy se le considera uno de los mayores autores en lengua inglesa del siglo XX. Participó en la Guerra Civil española y formuló una dura crítica del estalinismo desde posiciones socialistas. Sus obras 1984 y Rebelión en la granja se han convertido en un referente histórico por su contundente oposición a los totalitarismos.