First published in 1948, the present book 1984 is a dystopian novel by prominent twentieth century novelist, essayist and social critique Eric Arthur Blair under his popular pseudonym George Orwell. The novel is set in Airstrip One, a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, and public manipulation. The superstate and its residents are dictated to by a political regime euphemistically named English Socialism, shortened to