Original artwork, not a still
1984 • 1949
It was a bright, cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
A thirteenth strike on a clock is the whole book in a sentence: ordinary April weather, and then the numbers are wrong. Orwell gives the reader a world that runs on a 24-hour clock and has quietly stopped being ours. It is regularly ranked among the great opening lines in English, and 'the clocks were striking thirteen' is now a stock way to signal that a story has slipped into dystopia.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for 1984Show the scene
This is the opening sentence of Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part One, chapter one. Winston Smith, chin tucked into his chest against the cold wind, slips through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, a shabby London block, and a swirl of gritty dust follows him in. The hallway smells of boiled cabbage and old rag mats, and a Big Brother poster watches from the wall. The novel was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg, and this line sets the date and the sense that something is off before anything has been explained.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: Nineteen Eighty-FourPart I, chapter 1Reference checked
- Wikipedia: Nineteen Eighty-FourPublicationReference checked
Context reviewed
