Published in 1949 as a warning against totalitarianism,1984 is a chilling dystopia whose ideas entered mainstream culture in a way achieved by very few books. Many of its concepts, such as Big Brother and the Thought Police, are instantly recognized and understood, often as bywords for modern social and political abuses. Winston Smith, the book’s hero, is the symbol of the values of civilized life, and his defeat is a poignant reminder of the vulnerability of such values in the midst of all-powerful states.

Luis Scafati’s illustrations admirably recreate the suffocating atmosphere of totalitarian regimes in a context where nothing is illegal since there are no laws to protect their subjects.