Literature · 2
In what year was George Orwell's novel featuring ever-present home surveillance screens first published, well before TV sets were common in British households?
Answer
1949
Nineteen Eighty-Four was published in 1949, at a time when television ownership in the UK was still rare, making Orwell's vision of home surveillance screens especially prescient.
💡 Did you know?
George Orwell's 1984 described surveillance screens that watched citizens constantly—written before television became widespread in British homes.
Other options people guess
- 1945
- 1953
- 1956
Topics
- dystopian-fiction
- george-orwell
- publication-history
- 20th-century
Know your literature trivia?
Play a free Literature quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.
More Literature facts
Literature
Which Austrian author's 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature win drew backlash from conservative politicians who called her work pornographic?
Elfriede Jelinek's Nobel Prize win in 2004 drew backlash from conservative Austrian politicians who called her work pornographic—yet global sales of her books skyrocketed afterward.
Literature
Which Vladimir Nabokov novel was turned down by four publishers who feared obscenity charges before it was finally accepted?
Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" was rejected by four publishers before one finally accepted it, fearing obscenity charges that never materialized.
Literature
Which American author wrote the 1951 novella 'The Old Man and the Sea,' which helped earn him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954?
The entire first print run of Life magazine featuring The Old Man and the Sea — 5.3 million copies — sold out within two days of publication in September 1952.
Literature
Which American author wrote the 1851 novel 'The House of the Seven Gables,' set in Salem, Massachusetts?
Hawthorne added a 'w' to his surname to distance himself from his ancestor John Hathorne, the only Salem witch trial judge who never repented.
Literature
What derisive term did Ezra Pound coin for Amy Lowell's version of Imagism after she assumed leadership of the movement?
Imagist poets demanded one image per poem with no explanation, yet Amy Lowell—the movement's champion—wrote flowery, emotional verses violating her own manifesto.
Literature
What literary genre did Agatha Christie secretly write in under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott?
Agatha Christie's pen name Mary Westmacott fooled critics for years; even her publisher didn't initially know they were the same person.