Nineteen Eighty-Four is a book.
Nineteen Eighty-Four . The novel is set in Airstrip One ( formerly known as Great Britain ) , a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war , omnipresent government surveillance , and public manipulation . The protagonist of the novel , Winston Smith , is a member of the Outer Party , who works for the Ministry of Truth ( or Minitrue in Newspeak ) , which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism . As literary political fiction and dystopian science-fiction , Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content , plot and style . In 2005 , the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 .