George Orwell has 39 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 55 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 2,262 ratings. The most-rated is 1984.
1984
Summary
George Orwell (1903-1950) was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. Considered a classic of dystopian fiction, 1984 has contributed many terms to common usage, including "Big Brother", "doublethink", "newspeak", and "thoughtcrime", while the adjective "Orwellian" has entered the English language in the context of government deception, surveillance, and misleading terminology. The narrative unfolds in an imagined future when most of the world has fallen prey to omnipresent government surveillance, propaganda, and endless war. In the novel 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith wrestles with oppression in Oceania, a state where the Party scrutinizes every human action with Big Brother. Defying a ban on individualism, Winston expresses his thoughts in a diary and pursues a relationship with his colleague, Julia. These criminal acts bring Winston to the attention of Big Brother.
©1949 George Orwell (P)2020 Woodkeep Audio
The Most Famous Dystopias
Summary
The best dystopian novels of all time. 1984 is George Orwell's terrifying vision of a totalitarian future in which everything and everyone is slave to a tyrannical regime lead by The Party and Ministry of Truth. We is a dystopian novel by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin. The novel describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It is believed that the novel had a huge influence on the works of Orwell and Huxley, as well as on the emergence of the genre of dystopia. Aldous Huxley presents a future where the World Controllers have created the ideal society in Brave New World. All its members are happy consumers. Contents: George Orwell - 1984 Yevgeny Zamyatin - We Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Public Domain (P)2020 Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
Essays
Summary
The articles collected in George Orwell’s Essays illuminate the life and work of one of the most individual writers of this century - a man who elevated political writing to an art. This outstanding collection brings together Orwell’s longer, major essays and a fine selection of shorter pieces that includes “My Country Right or Left”, “Decline of the English Murder”, “Shooting an Elephant", and “A Hanging”. With great originality and wit, Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from a revaluation of Charles Dickens to the nature of Socialism, from a comic yet profound discussion of naughty seaside postcards to a spirited defense of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose, Orwell’s essays created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and continue to challenge, move, and entertain.
©1984 Estate of the Late Sonia Brownell Orwell (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
A Clergyman's Daughter
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. Intimidated by her father, the rector of Knype Hill, Dorothy performs her submissive roles of dutiful daughter and bullied housekeeper. Her thoughts are taken up with the costumes she is making for the church school play, by the hopelessness of preaching to the poor and by debts she cannot pay in 1930s Depression England. Suddenly her routine shatters and Dorothy finds herself down and out in London. She is wearing silk stockings, has money in her pocket and cannot remember her name. Orwell leads us through a landscape of unemployment, poverty and hunger, where Dorothy's faith is challenged by a social reality that changes her life.
©2020 George Orwell (P)2020 Penguin Audio
1984
Summary
Winston Smith lebt in einem totalitären Überwachungsstaat. Von allen Wänden starrt das Bild des Parteiführers "Großer Bruder", selbst in der eigenen Wohnung steht er unter ständiger Beobachtung. Winston, der als Angestellter selbst an der Verfälschung der Geschichte mitarbeitet, ist seit Langem ein Feind des Systems. Als er mit seiner Geliebten Julia den Kampf gegen den Staat aufnimmt, ist ihre Rebellion zum Scheitern verurteilt. Die aufrüttelnde Hörspielproduktion des dystopischen Klassikers ist gerade heute wieder erschreckend aktuell.
©2017 Der Audio Verlag (P)2017 Der Audio Verlag
Politics and the English Language: And Other Essays
Summary
Biographer Michael Shelden called Orwell’s Politics and the English Language “his most important essay on style”. First published in 1946, the essay exploded the language trends of the time and served as an inflection point in the debate about communication in the 20th century. This collection of essays published 1946-48 provides a comprehensive critique of the status of politics and speech in the mid-century. In addition to the eponymous title, five other essays are included in this edition: "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels", "The Prevention of Literature", "Why I Write", "Writers and Leviathan", and "Poetry and the Microphone". With themes that are relevant in the age of political correctness, texting, and meme warfare, Orwell’s warnings and practical suggestions are perhaps more important today than ever.
©2021 New Classic Books (P)2021 New Classic Books
1984
Summary
Orwells Roman über die Zerstörung des Menschen durch eine perfekte Staatsmaschinerie ist längst zu einer scheinbar nicht mehr erklärungsbedürftigen Metapher für totalitäre Verhältnisse geworden. Mit atemberaubender Unerbittlichkeit zeichnet der Autor das erschreckende Bild eines Staates, der seine Bürger ständig überwacht und nicht nur ihr Denken, sondern auch die Vergangenheit manipuliert. Der literarische Erfolg von 1984 verdankt sich einem beklemmenden Wirklichkeitsbezug, dem sich der Hörer nicht entziehen kann.
©1984 Estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell, A.M. Heath & co. Ltd. (P)2013 Hörbuch Hamburg HHV GmbH, Hamburg
La fattoria degli animali
Summary
Gli Animali della Fattoria Padronale cospirano contro il loro padrone, il terribile signor Jones, e decidono di ribellarsi ai soprusi e alle privazioni a cui li sottopone. Sotto la guida dei maiali, si appropriano della fattoria, e inaugurano un nuovo ordine basato sull'uguaglianza e sulla parità di diritti tra loro. I maiali, però, in breve si impongono con prepotenza sulle altre bestie e si trasformano nei nuovi padroni dei cavalli, delle mucche, dei polli, delle pecore: li ingannano con proclami sull'uguaglianza che di fatto non ci sarà mai. Ci saranno invece lavoro durissimo, maltrattamenti e poco cibo. In questo straordinario romanzo pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1945, George Orwell si fa beffa del regime dittatoriale, più precisamente dello stalinismo, dimostrando che è sempre ingannevole. Attraverso le sue metafore davvero indimenticabili, evidenzia quanto, per gli umili, la giustizia e la felicità siano obbiettivi difficili da raggiungere, praticamente utopistici. Questa versione audioBook sceneggiata è stata realizzata con la partecipazione di undici attori italiani di rilievo; le loro voci, insieme alle ambientazioni e al sound design vi faranno vivere un'esperienza d'ascolto sorprendente. Versione integrale.
©dominio pubblico (P)2020 GOODmood
![Cover art for 1984 [Italian Version]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51dhlG8PnML._SL500_.jpg)
1984 [Italian Version]
Summary
Nell'anno 1984 immaginato da George Orwell, il pianeta è governato da tre giganteschi supercontinenti: Oceania, Eurasia ed Estasia, perennemente in guerra tra loro. Winston Smith, il protagonista del romanzo, vive a Londra, città compresa nell'Oceania. È il Grande Fratello il potente e infallibile dittatore e capo supremo di quel continente, nessuno lo ha mai visto di persona ma i suoi giganteschi manifesti incombono su ogni strada e piazza. I cittadini sono continuamente osservati da teleschermi presenti nelle case e nei luoghi di lavoro, la loro vita è controllata e soggetta alle regole totalitaristiche del regime che tutto può. I suoi terribili dirigenti hanno un potere assoluto sulla vita e la morte di tutti. Nonostante le restrizioni e il clima di terrore, Winston Smith inizia a condurre un'esistenza sovversiva. Scritto nel 1948 e pubblicato nel 1949, questo straordinario romanzo è più che mai attuale. Niente sembra fuori tempo nella lucida rappresentazione della società schiacciata dalla dittatura che Orwell aveva immaginato. A giusta ragione 1984 si pone tra i capolavori della letteratura mondiale.
©1949 George Orwell. Tradotto da Paola Ergi (P)2020 GOODmood
La fattoria degli animali
Summary
Quando gli animali oppressi e sfruttati della Fattoria "Il Maniero" si ribellano al padrone e s'impossessano della tenuta, a guidarli è la speranza di dare inizio a una nuova società più libera e giusta. Ma a poco a poco una nuova élite brutale e prepotente, capeggiata dai maiali Snowball e Napoleon, assume il controllo della fattoria. Ben presto gli animali scoprono di non essere tutti uguali come credevano, e si ritrovano intrappolati in un'altra forma di tirannia. È la storia di una rivoluzione finita male. Orwell scrisse il romanzo alla fine del 1943 e faticò a trovare un editore: le accuse pesanti al regime staliniano, a quel tempo alleato del Regno Unito, furono causa di molti rifiuti. Pubblicata nel 1945, questa tragica fiaba è subito diventata un classico.
©2021 Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore (P)2021 Emons Italia S.r.l.
NBC University Theater: 1984
Summary
NBC University Theater initially started in Chicago with a remit to bring adaptations of classic novels, usually Anglo-American, to a radio audience. Additionally, if listeners signed up, they received college credit to a radio-assisted correspondence course. A study guide, The Handbook of the World's Great Novels, was available for 25 cents. In its later years, it also included short stories and plays, and went on to win the distinguished Peabody award. Unlike many other radio shows, University Theater, did not pursue glamorous stars for its productions, but instead relied on excellent distillations of the novels. and first-class acting alongside high production values. But now it is time to enjoy these timeless novels. Let’s begin.
©2019 Deadtree Publishing (P)2019 Copyright Group
Essays
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. The articles collected in George Orwell's Essays illuminate the life and work of one of the most individual writers of this century - a man who elevated political writing to an art. This outstanding collection brings together Orwell's longer, major essays and a fine selection of shorter pieces that includes 'My Country Right or Left', 'Decline of the English Murder', 'Shooting an Elephant' and 'A Hanging'. With great originality and wit Orwell unfolds his views on subjects ranging from a revaluation of Charles Dickens to the nature of socialism, from a comic yet profound discussion of naughty seaside postcards to a spirited defence of English cooking. Displaying an almost unrivalled mastery of English plain prose, Orwell's essays created a unique literary manner from the process of thinking aloud and continue to challenge, move and entertain. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Bernard Crick.
Public Domain (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Animal Farm
Summary
The allegorical novella Animal Farm by George Orwell was first published in 1945. It is the story of farm animals that rebel against the farmer, intending to establish a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. With stirring slogans, they set out to create utopia. However, the rebellion is betrayed and the farm ends up in a state worse than it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was its target. Today, it is quite clear that wherever and whenever freedom is suppressed, the message of George Orwell’s masterpiece is still relevant. Time magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. It also features at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels.
©1949 George Orwell (P)2020 Woodkeep Audio
La Fattoria degli animali
Summary
La satira classica della rivoluzione russa di George Orwell è una parte intima della nostra cultura contemporanea, citata così spesso che tendiamo a dimenticare chi ha scritto le parole originali. È un resoconto della coraggiosa lotta che trasforma la fattoria terriera del signor Jones in fattoria degli animali, una società interamente democratica costruita sul credo che tutti gli animali sono creati uguali. Per intelligenza, i maiali Napoleone, Squealer e Palla di neve emergono come leader della nuova comunità in una sottile evoluzione che porta una insidiosa familiarità. Il culmine è il brutale tradimento di uno degli animali, quando il dominio totalitario viene ristabilito con il pittogramma macchiato di sangue allo slogan fondatore: ma alcuni animali sono più uguali di altri.
©2021 David De Angelis. Tradotto da Michele Mari (P)2021 David De Angelis
Homage to Catalonia
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. 'Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic Socialism as I understand it'. Thus wrote Orwell following his experiences as a militiaman in the Spanish Civil War, chronicled in Homage to Catalonia. Here he brings to bear all the force of his humanity, passion and clarity, describing with bitter intensity the bright hopes and cynical betrayals of that chaotic episode: the revolutionary euphoria of Barcelona, the courage of ordinary Spanish men and women he fought alongside, the terror and confusion of the front, his near-fatal bullet wound and the vicious treachery of his supposed allies. A firsthand account of the brutal conditions of the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia includes an introduction by Julian Symons in Penguin Modern Classics.
©2020 George Orwell (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. '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.
Public Domain (P)2019 Penguin Books Ltd
George Orwell: A BBC Radio Collection
Summary
A radio anthology of George Orwell's finest novels, memoirs and essays, plus four biographical dramas and a bonus documentary, The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four. Visionary author and journalist George Orwell was the man behind two of the best loved and most influential novels of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. This collection celebrating his life and work features dramatisations of both these classic books, with stellar casts including Christopher Eccleston, Pippa Nixon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Tamsin Greig and Nicky Henson. Also included is a drama based on his autobiographical account of the Spanish Civil War, Homage to Catalonia, starring Joseph Millson and Lyndsey Marshal. Four biographical radio plays by Mike Walker and Jonathan Holloway - Burma, Dreaming, Loving and Jura - explore further episodes in Orwell's fascinating life, showing the disconnection between the man who was Eric Blair and the writer who was George Orwell. Timeless examples of his essays and journalism are showcased here, including 'A Hanging', 'Confessions of a Book Reviewer', 'My Country Right or Left', 'Pleasure Spots' and 'As I Please' (all read by Clive Merrison), while Joseph Millson narrates Down and Out in Paris and London, Orwell's vivid memoir of his time living among the poor in Europe's two great cities. Finally, in The Road to Nineteen Eighty-Four, David Aaronovitch examines what led avowed socialist George Orwell to write a book beloved of the Right, revealing how the novel grew from a forgotten political world shaped by the atom bomb. George Orwell worked for BBC Radio from August 1941 to November 1943, and even went on air himself. Sadly, none of the programmes in which he took part survive - in those days, radio was essentially a live medium and broadcasts were not recorded for posterity. But Orwell's connection to the BBC remains a fascinating part of its wartime history.
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
Dystopian Science Fiction Classics Collection: Brave New World, 1984, & Animal Farm
Summary
Dystopian literature is a genre of fictional writing used to explore social and political structures in a nightmarish world. The term dystopia refers to a society characterized by misery, squalor, or oppression, and the theme is most commonly used in science-fiction and speculative-fiction genres. Dystopian Science Fiction Classics Collection: Book one: Brave New World. Set in 2540 CE, Brave New World is a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley that was published in 1932. The novel takes place in a futuristic society called The World State, where life revolves around science and efficiency. Emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children, and citizens are socially engineered into an intelligence-based hierarchy. People are kept in a passive state through their consumption of a soothing drug called soma, and trouble-makers are exiled to various islands. The characters include Bernard Marx, a sleep-learning specialist, Helmholtz Watson, a lecturer, Lenina Crowne, a fetus technician, and John, also known as “Mr. Savage”. Brave New World was ranked at number five on the Modern Library’s 1999 list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Book two: 1984 is a novel by the British author George Orwell. Considered a classic of dystopian fiction, the book has contributed many terms to common usage, including "Big Brother", "doublethink", "newspeak", and "thoughtcrime", while the adjective "Orwellian" in the context of government deception, surveillance, and misleading terminology has entered the English language. The narrative unfolds in an imagined future when most of the world has fallen prey to omnipresent government surveillance, propaganda, and endless war. Great Britain has become a province of the super state Oceania, which is ruled by the Party, whose leader is called Big Brother. The Party employs the Thought Police to persecute individuality and independent thinking. Winston Smith, the protagonist, is an ordinary worker who secretly despises the Party and dreams of rebellion. Time Magazine included the novel on its 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005, and it is placed at number 13 on the editor’s list and at number six on the reader’s list of Modern Library's 100 Best Novels. Book three: Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in the UK in 1945. It is the tale of farm animals that rebel against the farmer, intending to establish a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. With stirring slogans, they set out to create utopia. However, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state worse than it was before under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. This is the setting for one of the most revealing satiric fables of all time - an acerbic tale for adults that records the process from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism which is even worse. When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was its target. Today it is quite clear that wherever and whenever freedom is suppressed, the message of George Orwell’s masterpiece is still relevant. Time Magazine chose the book as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. It also features at number 31 on the Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Burmese Days
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. Based on his experiences as a policeman in Burma, George Orwell's first novel presents a devastating picture of British colonial rule. Burmese Days describes corruption and imperial bigotry in a society where, 'after all, natives were natives'. When Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Indian Dr Veraswami, he defies this orthodoxy. The doctor is in danger: U Po Kyin, a corrupt magistrate, is plotting his downfall. The only thing that can save him is membership of the all-white Club, and Flory can help. Flory's life is changed further by the arrival of beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen from Paris, who offers an escape from loneliness and the 'lie' of colonial life.
Public Domain (P)2021 Penguin Audio