Orwell's 1984 now comes with ‘trigger warning'

Telegraph

07-06-2025

George Orwell's estate has been accused of attempting to censor 1984 by adding a 'trigger warning' preface to the 75th anniversary edition of the dystopian novel.
The new introductory essay describes the novel's protagonist Winston Smith as 'problematic' and warns modern readers may find his views on women 'despicable'.
Critics claim the preface, written by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, an American novelist, and included in the 75th anniversary edition published in the US last year, risks undermining the work's warning against state control of thought.
In 1984, citizens of the superstate Oceania are punished for subversive thoughts by the Thought Police.
Now, in a real-world twist, the estate that oversees Orwell's literary legacy stands accused of ideological policing.
'We're getting somebody to actually convict George Orwell himself of thought crime in the introduction to his book about thought crime,' said Walter Kirn, a novelist and critic, on the podcast America This Week, hosted by journalist Matt Taibbi.
'We're not yet in a world where books and classic books are being excised or eliminated,' Kirn added, but warned the Orwell estate-approved edition of 1984 had been 'published with an apology for itself'.
Ms Perkins-Valdez's preface is included in the anniversary edition of the 1949 classic, published by Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
In it, the award-winning novelist said she aimed to approach 1984 as a new reader, and admitted that, given the protagonist's views, she might once have abandoned the book entirely.
'I'm enjoying the novel on its own terms, not as a classic, but as a good story, that is, until Winston reveals himself to be a problematic character,' she wrote. 'For example, we learn of him: 'He disliked nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones'.'
The novel follows Winston Smith, a minor bureaucrat who secretly rebels against the regime with Julia, a fellow party member. Their doomed affair is cut short when they are arrested, tortured and brainwashed into betraying one another.
Although Ms Perkins-Valdez eventually concludes Orwell was portraying misogyny as a feature of totalitarianism, her comments have provoked a backlash.
Her preface also takes issue with the novel's handling of race. As a black woman, she says she finds little to connect with characters in Oceania.
'The most 1984-ish thing I've read'
Mr Kirn questioned the need for Ms Perkins-Valdez's introduction, pointing out the 75th anniversary edition of 1984 already included a foreword by Thomas Pynchon, one of the greatest living American novelists.
'If you have a foreword by Thomas Pynchon to a book, you don't need another foreword, right? You got maybe the greatest living novelist of our time, who's also a recluse, to come out and write something. That's all you need.
'But no, these people felt they needed an introduction before the old white man's introduction. So this version of 1984 has a trigger warning!'
He called it 'the most 1984-ish thing I've ever f---ing read'.
The controversy follows real-life cases of so-called 'thought crime' in Britain.
In February, The Telegraph revealed that Julian Foulkes, a retired special constable, had been wrongly arrested and cautioned by Kent Police over a social media post that warned of rising anti-Semitism.
Officers who raided his home commented on his 'very Brexity' bookshelves and leafed through titles including The War on the West by Douglas Murray and The Demise of the Free State by David Green. His caution has since been deleted, and he has received compensation.
Last month, The Telegraph reported that Scotland Yard had charged a Jewish counter-protester for holding a placard mocking Hezbollah's leader, claiming the sign could 'distress' terrorist sympathisers. The charge was dropped after eight months.
Orwell himself has not escaped modern reassessment. In 2023, his wife's biographer Anna Funder described him as 'sadistic, misogynistic, homophobic, sometimes violent' and claimed 1984's darkness reflected the author's own.
'He desperately wants to be decent,' she told an audience at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2023. 'But writing a book like 1984, which is violent, misogynist, sadistic, grim, paranoid: that comes out of a writer's flaws.'
Nor is this the first time 1984 has been flagged for 'problematic' content. In 2022, the University of Northampton warned students it contained 'explicit material' that may be 'offensive and upsetting'.