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First edition, first impression, in the rarer red jacket. This copy has a gift inscription from the novelist James Hanley, whom Orwell admired for his "vitalizing effect of getting working-class experience and working-class values onto paper" ("The Proletarian Author"). Orwell especially praised Hanley's Grey Children, published in the same year as his own investigation of poverty, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). Grey Children and Wigan Pier describe the harsh living conditions in South Wales and northern England, respectively. In February 1937, Orwell wrote to Hanley while fighting in the Spanish Civil War: "It was kind of you to write & I am glad you found [Wigan Pier] interesting. I shall probably still be in the line here when it comes out, so shan't know how it gets on... Gollancz thought parts of it might give offence in certain quarters but that it was worth risking" (Letters I, p. 263). The concern Orwell mentions was regarding his criticisms of British socialist intellectuals for adhering to the Soviet Union, a misgiving shared by Hanley, who "had no time for communism, and in later life was hostile to all political parties" (ODNB). In common with Hanley, Orwell worked for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, shaping Nineteen Eighty-Four. As a prolific writer, Hanley "had no interest in idealizing working-class life... His vision of man [is] essentially solitary, unable to communicate, and inhabiting a bleak and nightmarish world" (ibid.). Hanley's other admirers included T. E. Lawrence, Edwin Muir, and John Cowper Powys. His gift inscription on the front free endpaper reads "For Norman & Billy with love from James, 14.6.49". Publication was on 8 June. The first impression was issued in red and green jackets simultaneously. Judging from surviving examples, this was done in proportions of about two green to one red. Orwell's final book has exerted a monumental impact on political consciousness and the English language, coining terms such as "double think" and "Big Brother". The novel's "title, the adjectival form of the author's last name, the vocabulary of the all-powerful party... It's almost impossible to talk about propaganda, surveillance, authoritarian politics, or pervasions of truth without dropping a reference to 1984" (Packer). READ MORE Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettering and top edge red. With red dust jacket. Spine lightly faded, as often, contents fresh; jacket unclipped, spine sunned, panels and flaps bright red, a couple of nicks neatly reinforced with tape on verso: a near-fine copy in an excellent jacket. Fenwick A12a. Orwell, The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters, I, p. 263, 1968; Orwell, "The Proletarian Author", BBC Home Service, 6 Dec. 1940; George Packer, "Doublethink Is Stronger Than Orwell Imagined", The Atlantic, July 2019.

"1984" is a dystopian novel set in a totalitarian society ruled by a party led by the enigmatic figure, Big Brother. The story revolves around Winston Smith, a disillusioned man working for the Party whose job involves altering historical records to align with the Party's propaganda. Winston secretly harbors dissenting thoughts against the oppressive regime and begins a forbidden love affair with Julia, a fellow rebel. As they engage in acts of rebellion and attempt to challenge the Party's control, they are drawn into a web of surveillance, manipulation, and betrayal. The novel explores themes of censorship, surveillance, the nature of truth, the dangers of totalitarianism, and the resilience of the human spirit against oppressive regimes.