Preliminary drafts representing about 44% of the published text of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four have survived and were reproduced in a facsimile edition published in 1984. As Sonia Orwell wrote on 28 August 1974 to Daniel G. Siegel, who now owns the manuscript, “it is such a rare document” for “unfortunately George always threw away all his mss. letters etc., so his actual working methods are very badly documented.”
Opening paragraph of 1984:
Draft version: It was a bright/cold, blowy day in early April and a million radios were striking thirteen.
Final version: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Opening paragraph of 1984: It was a bright cold day in April …
Big Brother is Watching You:
Hand written in blue ink by Orwell.
Big Brother is Watching You (handwritten by George Orwell)
The three slogans of the Party:
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
The three slogans of the Party on the Ministry of Truth building
Winston Smith opens his diary:
Draft version: April 4th, 1980 2 [hand written]. 1984 [hand written above 1980]
Final version: April 4th, 1984. He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him. To begin with, he did not know with any certainty that this was 1984.
Winston Smith opens his diary and writes: April 4th, 1984
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Continued here: Part 2, Part 3.
Source: Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Facsimile of the Extant Manuscript. Ed. Peter Davison. London: Secker & Warburg, 1984.
