Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel written by George Orwell.
Nineteen Eighty-Four . Nineteen Eighty-Four popularised the adjective Orwellian , which describes official deception , secret surveillance , and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state . `` Orwellian '' is an adjective describing a situation , idea , or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free and open society . Often , this includes the circumstances depicted in his novels , particularly Nineteen Eighty-Four but political double-speak is criticized throughout his work , such as in Politics and the English Language .