A ‘feminist retelling’ of George Orwell’s 1984 book is in the works

One of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century, George Orwell’s 1984The sequel to the novel is in process. The British writer’s estate has granted approval to Julia, a novel by Sandra Newman (Country of Ice Cream Star) that reframes the horrifying story of fascism from the perspective of the original’s romantic interest.

1984The first publication of ‘In the Shadows’ was published in 1949. It is told through Winston Smith’s very limited perspective. Smith lives in a dystopia in which Great Britain has been called Airstrip 1. This country and the entire world move through an endless series of alliances and wars among three super-countries, Oceania and Eastasia. Airstrip One, home to the United States, is ruled by INGSOC (its sole political party), which is driven by a cult-of personality around Big Brother.

As an Outer Party member of INGSOC, Winston lives a sheltered, if not particularly glamorous, life working for the Ministry of Truth, the state’s propaganda arm that revises history to prove Big Brother correct. The Party’s official policy of newspeak works to eliminate even the thought of resistance in people’s minds, creating vague and threatening phrases instead of precise ones. Winston is able to change all of this when he meets Julia.

Image: The Criterion Collection

Julia is a particularly enthusiastic participant in the Two Minute Hate, a gathering in which the populace express their open disgust towards the state’s enemy, Emmanuel Goldstein. She catches Winston’s eye, which fills him with feelings of both arousal and disgust.

Winston finds Julia, a liberated spirit who has sex with pleasure and ridicules Big Brother. Their romance may be doomed but they continue to defy Big Brother. She claims to have slept with other Party members, a claim backed up by the fact that she has gotten items seemingly out of Winston’s reach, like chocolate and tea.

“Two of the unanswered questions in Orwell’s novel are what Julia sees in Winston, and how she has navigated her way through the party hierarchy,” says Bill Hamilton, the literary executor of the Orwell Estate, in a press statement. “Sandra gets under the skin of Big Brother’s world in a completely convincing way which is both true to the original but also gives a dramatically different narrative to stand alongside the original.”

In the press release it is stated that Julia will showcase a character who “understands the world of Oceania far better than Winston and is essentially happy with her life—Julia has known no other world and never imagined one. But one day, finding herself walking towards him in a long corridor, Julia impulsively hands Winston a note—a potentially suicidal gesture—and comes to realize that she’s losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world.”

1984Orwell initially considered it titling. The Last Man on EarthThe mixed blessings of the internet are that it is constantly being discussed, but its contents are mostly forgotten. Questions like “What’s up with the 1984 references?” regularly appear on Reddit, and both the phrases “Wow, This is Just Like 1984” and “Living in 1984” have earned entries on Know Your Meme.

Newman described the book as still unfinished by her on Twitter as a “feminist retelling,” is not the first person to adapt Orwell’s novel. In 1984, a movie adaptation was released starring John Hurt and Suzanna Hamilton. Roger Deakins’s washed-out cinematography and a Eurythmics score were also part of the movie. Here’s the surprisingly pop-y “Sex Crime.”

While there’s been no official release date set, Mariner Books, an imprint of the William Morrow Group at HarperCollins Publishers, says that it hopes to publish Julia in time for the 75th anniversary of Orwell’s novel, which would put its publication date in 2024.