After leaker Edward Snowden revealed the existence of massive domestic-surveillance programs operated by the NSA, the airwaves were clotted with pundits and politicians summoning a man with whom they appeared to possess only a passing familiarity. George Orwell, author of the dystopian classic 1984, warned of an all-knowing, all-seeing totalitarian state. We now know, they claimed, that it was a prescient observation. American readers, too, saw the parallels. With the Snowden disclosures dominating the news cycle, Amazon.com sales of 1984 increased 6,021 percent in a single day.
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