What is 1984 about?

George Orwell wrote the dystopian sci-fi novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (alternately 1984) and published it in 1949. This book was Orwell’s ninth book and final work completed while he was alive. Orwell was inspired to create the dystopian regime in his novel by the authoritarian Stalinist Soviet Union and fascist Nazi Germany. 

The story is set in the year 1984, when the world is in a perpetual state of war. Big Brother, a dictator, runs the totalitarian nation Airstrip One, formally known as Great Britain. Big Brother gains supporters based on a cult of personality that the Thought Police, an arm of the Party, design and enforce.

Our hero is Winston Smith, a dutiful mid-level government employee at the Ministry of Truth. Smith detests the Party and privately hopes for a rebellion, keeping an illegal diary and engaging in a relationship with Julia, his colleague. Together, they learn about the Brotherhood, a secret resistance group. When Smith attempts to contact the Brotherhood, he encounters a member of the Party operating undercover. Smith is arrested and is tortured both mentally and physically by the Ministry of Love, released after he announces that he has come to love and embrace Big Brother.