Dorian Lynskey’s The Ministry of Truth brilliantly seeks to uncover what forces shaped the novel 1984, both in terms of Orwell’s personal experiences and larger cultural elements, as well as survey how the novel has remained so popular in the seven decades since its publication. The first part of the book could be described as a mixture of biography, history, and literary history. Lynskey does diligent work in piecing together the events and experiences of Orwell’s life that had a profound impac...

“The Ministry of Truth” provides a fascinating if at times all too brief look at one of the most important books ever written. “1984” made such an impression on me when I read it in 1984 as a teenager that I would later name my daughter after the female protagonist. 70 years after its publication, it remains as relevant as ever. The fact that it is both embraced and attacked by all points on the political spectrum speaks for itself, but it was the Trump (mis-) Administration that catapulted “198...

This is about the making and repercussions of the book 1984 (also known as Nineteen-Eighty-Four). It is divided in two sections: Orwell’s life and how he came to write 1984 – and the impact and durability of 1984 since its’ publication in 1949.Orwell died of complications from tuberculosis in 1950, he survived 1984’s release by only 227 days (page 186, my book). 1984 was a long work in the making and Orwell was scrupulous about editing his writing. He eliminated portions of his work that he felt...

More like a 3.5 but goodreads sucks and won’t let me rate books PROPERLY.

Dorian Lynskey has written one of the greatest and most compelling biographies possible in this book, and it is not even about a person! However, the first part, with its emphasis on the life of George Orwell, is a brilliant biography in itself. Lynskey brilliantly brings the man to life, with all his foibles and character, in a way that perfectly helps the reader understand how 1984 became the masterpiece that it is. The latter section also does a fantastic job of illustrating how Orwells death...

Lynskey takes us through Orwell's career, decade-by-decade, and then continues a decade-by-decade discussion of Orwell's role in culture since his death in 1950. It's an important topic today, of course, as the USA has a presidential administration waging war on objective reality and some 60 million "believers" buying into the "alternative facts." As a subject, then, I think Lynskey's work is hugely important. As a reading experience, however, it's less compelling. Lynskey has done tremendous re...

Amazing overview of Orwell's life and how he came to write what is arguably the most influential book of the last century. I really appreciated the analysis of how subsequent generations have re-interpreted and (in some ways) re-written the book. I take his point that Trump was too incompetent to be a true Big Brother. However, it remains to be seen if a future competent and dedicated cadre creates a new version of Trump. As the T-shirt says: "Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning, not an instruction m...

Can there be any novelist or journalist from the last century who has proved more enduringly influential than George Orwell? And has any single novel had anywhere the same influence as his dystopian masterpiece, “Nineteen Eighty-Four”? As Dorian Lynskey writes in “The Ministry of Truth”, his masterful biography of “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, it “remains the book we turn to when truth is mutilated, language is distorted, power is abused, and we want to know how bad things can get”; a warning from his...

Excellent, excellent! I will try to review soon.

In January 2017, Sean Spicer claimed that the crowd gathered to see President Trump take the oath of office was the "largest audience to ever witness an inauguration." When accused of misrepresentation Kellyanne Conway said her statement was "alternative facts." Over the following four days, sales of George Orwell's novel 1984 rocketed to number one bestseller.Dorian Lynskey writes that more people know about 1984 than know 1984. It's catchphrases have entered the common language. Big Brother. D...

Part George Orwell biography, part social history, combined with a thorough, and always fascinating, look at the myriad influences which informed Nineteen Eighty-Four, and George Orwell's progress as a writer and thinker. The second part on the book looks at Nineteen Eighty-Four's enduring appeal and how it has come to mean different things in different eras. This analysis goes right up to the present day with an exploration of Nineteen Eighty-Four in the era of Brexit, Trump, post-truth and fak...

I love books about books and so this, the biography of George Orwell’s most famous novel, “1984,” was a must read for me. This is split into two main sections; the first dealing with Orwell’s writing of the novel and the second part looking at the impact of the book.If you are looking for a biography of George Orwell, this is not really the book for you. Although it covers part of his life, which mainly deals with the period where he was either considering writing, or actually working on, “1984,...

Tremendous resource and overall entertaining read. The final section is the weakest, but it is still good. Political biases pop up towards the end and some sections were a bit daunting for someone like me with little knowledge of contemporary English politics, but this is a solid, solid work of scholarship.Hopefully, there will be many secondary English teachers who supplement their teaching of 1984 with sections from this text. I know that I will be one.

Decided very quickly this was not a book for me. I did not complete it. Tried it in June 2019.I am not a fan of either dystopian or utopian novels! There is a lot of name dropping of authors and titles that do not interest me. I wanted it to be about Orwell, but it isn't. The superficial way it covered his time in Spain, put me off immediately. Never does it say clearly how Orwell's experiences in the Spanish Civil War directly influenced his writing.I find the writing long-winded. It seems to m...

4.5 stars, but rather dry - even as an audiobook. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it more in physical form where I could more readily trace/write down titles of all the books mentioned, or less because then paying attention would be even more taxing.George Orwell had a long and varied life filled with lived experiences, but Nineteen Eighty-Four is probably his masterpiece. This biography of the book itself focuses on the conversations and literary influences that forged elements of the book...

Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-re...If this book had ended a chapter sooner, I would have given it a solid five-star rating. Instead, in the last chapter, author Dorian Lynskey succumbed to the most boring, cliched, overwrought hysteria imbibed by the boring and overwrought to discover in the not-leftist-of-the-moment if not the true Big Brother, then something that could pass for Big Brother if one squints just right.Oh, bother.Up to that point,...

I've a thousand and one things I'd like to say about The Ministry Of Truth. However, for the time being, I'll limit myself to this - if I had written this book, I think I would've died of pride.

Stunning and phenomenal look at George Orwell’s 1984. Traces the development of the book from its literary forbears, to the times and events which gestated the idea for the novel, to its immediate and distant impact. If you want to deepen your understanding of Orwell’s book, I recommend this timely and relevant dissection.

Can one write the biography of a book? This work tries hard...and succeeds admirably. It takes the influences in Orwell's life and slots them chronologically into a logical, fascinating sequence that leads up to the writing of "1984", with a few interesting (and only occasionally irritating) detours along the way. There's also a suitably detailed second half that sums up the impact of "1984" after Orwell's death, though it feels a touch more of an afterthought, compared to what comes before.

‘ “Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”--George Orwell, In 1949, George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Blair) published the most famous dystopian novel of the 20th Century. "1984" continues to be relevant to political life 73 years after its publication. Actually, with the advent of "alternative facts" and the gaslighting broadsides of Donald Trump and Company, it is probably too relevant for comfort. This first section of t...