The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984

Written by Dorian Lynskey

Narrated by Andrew Wincott

"Rich and compelling. . .Lynskey’s account of the reach of 1984 is revelatory.”
--George Packer, The Atlantic 

An authoritative, wide-ranging, and incredibly timely history of 1984--its literary sources, its composition by Orwell, its deep and lasting effect on the Cold War, and its vast influence throughout world culture at every level, from high to pop.

1984 isn't just a novel; it's a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell's final work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes--Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, 2+2=5--that gain potency with every year. Particularly in 2016, when the election of Donald Trump made it a bestseller ("Ministry of Alternative Facts," anyone?). Its influence has morphed endlessly into novels (The Handmaid's Tale), films (Brazil), television shows (V for Vendetta), rock albums (Diamond Dogs), commercials (Apple), even reality TV (Big Brother). The Ministry of Truth is the first book that fully examines the epochal and cultural event that is 1984 in all its aspects: its roots in the utopian and dystopian literature that preceded it; the personal experiences in wartime Great Britain that Orwell drew on as he struggled to finish his masterpiece in his dying days; and the political and cultural phenomena that the novel ignited at once upon publication and that far from subsiding, have only grown over the decades. It explains how fiction history informs fiction and how fiction explains history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781984891600

Dorian Lynskey

Dorian Lynskey has written about music, politics, film and books for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, The i Paper, BBC Culture, GQ, MOJO, Empire, Billboard, The New Statesman, The Spectator, the Los Angeles Times and Literary Review. He is the author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs (2011), Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World (2024) and The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 (2019), which was longlisted for both the Orwell Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize. He co-hosts the hit podcasts Origin Story and Oh God, What Now? and has co-written three Origin Story books (Fascism, Centrism and Conspiracy Theory, all 2024) with his co-host Ian Dunt. He is on the editorial board of George Orwell Studies and is one of the judges for the Orwell Society/NUJ Young Journalists Award.

Reviews for The Ministry of Truth

[damiella-533991 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this in paralell with my re-read of 1984.

The angle this book took (being a biography of a book) worked really well. In the introduction it is said that:

"The book was a consummation of years of thinking, writing and reading about utopias, super-states, dictators, prisoners, propaganda, technology, power, language, culture, class, sex...."

The Ministry of Truth opens a window into what these were, what influences was Orwell exposed to (work, countries resided in, politics), what was the prevailing social and political climate of the time, how his other writings explored some of the themes which are fully developed in Nineteen Eighty-Four. The book Nineteen Eighty-Four has almost seeped into the edges of culture so even those who have never read it have an opinion on what it's about (at the very minimum Big Brother on TV - love it or hate it, you almost can't help but know it's there)

This book also has some really good references in the back that I'm looking forward to potentially sinking my teeth into (my TBR list continues to breed)

This was definitely a good book but due to lack of shelf space it won't be a keeper. I'll be placing it in my local little library so others can enjoy if they wish

[kwskultety · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Be advised – if you loved 1984 you will also love the many companion works cited in THE MINISTRY OF TRUTH. 1984 was well-known and influential, but it was just one among many dystopian/utopian works during Orwell’s life. The author has definitely done his research and it shows. The beginning is heavy with politics, then smooths out about 20% in with excellent compare and contrast of HG Wells, Orwell, and Aldous Huxley.

Orwell admired Brave New World, up to a point. He had fond memories of being taught by Huxley at Eton in 1918; a classmate claimed Huxley had given Orwell a “taste for words and their accurate and significant use”. However, [Orwell] was unconvinced by Brave New World’s tyranny of gratification. He notes that there was no “power-hunger, no sadism, no hardness of any kind. (E)veryone is happy in a vacuous way….it is difficult to believe that such a society could endure”.

The author goes on to note that 1984 and BNW overlap in one area: the status of the proles, then provides more compare/contrast dialogue. This is what makes the book shine – thoughtful and erudite treatment of multiple dystopian works and the ways they matter.

Other authors whose history is intermingled with Orwell’s are included in this book. We will learn more about Yevgeny Zamyatin (who Orwell was accused of plagiarizing), Ayn Rand, and Jimmy Burnham. The movie THX1138 and Animal Farm are also discussed at length. Each of these chapters add another layer explaining the genius of the tortured and driven Orwell. As the book progresses, the politics and descriptions of war-torn London do so as well. Finally, as the tubercular Orwell languishes in bed, post-war London starts its progression forward.

The second portion of the book brings 1984 into pop culture, and how the book affected music, movies, stagflation, and politics. Author Anthony Burgess compares his own blockbuster novel, A Clockwork Orange, to 1984 and shares his thoughts about Orwell. Time moves forward into the ‘60’s, ‘70’s and ‘80’s, with politics continuing to be at the forefront. McCarthyism rears its ugly head, if only for a moment. It is amazing how the author is able to use 1984 as the center of everything – this novel was much more influential than anyone could guess.

Altogether, this book is layered with anecdotes, political views, comparison, and original thoughts. If you are a fan of Orwell, you will adore this book. I certainly gained a new view of both Animal Farm and 1984 and plan to go back to re-read both.

[michael_lilly-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best and most relevant of the 20+ books I have read in the first two and a half months of 2022.

It's a book about a book ---a history of Orwell's book "1984" its origins, its impact, and the various ways in which it has been interpreted and misinterpreted. The book begins with Orwell's experiences while fighting and being wounded in the Spanish Civil War and continues up through about 2019.

Lynskey writes at p. 265: " 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is about many things, and its readers' concerns dictate which is paramount at any point in history. During the Cold War, it was a book about totalitarianism. In the 1980s it became a warning about invasive technology. Today it is most of all a defence of the truth."

From my point of view in early March of 2022 it is about all three of those things.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not an Orwell expert, but I am a fan: ever since reading Homage to Catalonia I have tried to write with the simplicity, specificity and clarity which Orwell exemplifies. The pandemic has given me the time to reread his Collected Essays Letters and Journalism (still in process) and our local library offers several critical books and biographies. Lynskey's is two books in one, the first an examination of the sources and influences Orwell drew on to write 1984, the second a consideration of the novels impact since publication. I might have guessed that Terry Gilliam's Brazil was inspired by Orwell but would not have guessed that David Bowie was fascinated with Orwell and tried to write a musical version of 1984. So, a very interesting book, very engaging and enlightening and perhaps a good starting point for diving into Orwell's life and work.

[stillatim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A little too timely, in the bad way (as if Orwell somehow predicted Trump, anymore than he predicted Reagan and his 'well yes, I do see that we cut a deal with Iran to fund a revolution in Nicaragua, I mean, I see those facts, but 'my heart' tells me I did not do this, so...' BS), but the kind of mish-mash of biography, criticism, and social history that makes for a good plane trip or quiet weekend in. Even if you're not particularly into it, the book is worth reading for the reminder that the pigs (i.e., 'communist leaders') in Animal Farm were evil precisely because they became just like the humans who ran the farm before them, i.e., the capitalists, a piece of literary criticism that doubles as trenchant social criticism. Nice!

[philipjhunt · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A biography. Of a BOOK. Odd indeed, but marvellously delivered. An exceptional achievement of thoroughgoing research and user-friendly writing. One of my best books of 2019.

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Ministry of Truth contains a biography of Orwell's life leading up the writing of his last and most famous work (part 1) and a biography of the novel after it was published (part 2).The takeaway while many have co-opted the novel for their own ends, it was and remains a criticism of Stalinism-style socialism. Orwell was himself a socialist but was disillusioned by the Russian version. Since Stanlism is mostly gone, it has become a period piece. Yet.. it remains vital. Orwell was a master of the neologism and quotes. Lynskey is not the most brilliant writer but his subject is so quotable it brings the prose alive like little diamonds sprinkled throughout.

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In January 2017, Sarah Huckabee Sanders 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 Sanders 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. Doublespeak. Newspeak.

In his book, Ministry of Truth, Lynskey examines the novel's origin, development, and influence in its time and its afterlife. Lynskey shows how Orwell's values and experiences shaped the novel and Orwell's purpose and intended message of the novel.

The book is in two parts, first telling the story of Orwell's life and beliefs, his world, the history of utopian and dystopian novels. In the second part, Lynskey covers the novel's influences, interpretations, and uses since its publication.

Since January 2017, dystopian novels have topped the best-seller lists and newly published ones find a ready audience. 1984 was not meant to be prophetic, but a warning based on Orwell's experience.

"What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening," Trump proclaimed in a July 2018 speech, echoing the 1984 lines, "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." Orwell feared that objective truth "is fading out of the world." Seventy years later, we still share that fear.



Upon its publication, some thought it was a book that would only speak to one generation. Sadly, it has proven resiliently evergreen.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

"The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one," [Orwell] explained in a press statement after the book came out. "Don't let it happen. It depends on you." quoted in The Ministry of Truth by Dorian Lynskey