Overview

• The 75th anniversary edition of '1984', published by Berkley Books, features a new foreword by Dolen Perkins-Valdez that highlights protagonist Winston Smith’s misogyny and the absence of Black characters.
• Conservative critics such as Walter Kirn and Ed Morrissey argue the foreword’s trigger warning undermines Orwell’s warning against state control of thought by imposing modern sensibilities.
• Defenders including historian Laura Beers and philosopher Peter Brian Rose-Barry view the introduction as part of a long-standing scholarly dialogue that reflects Orwell’s advocacy for critical inquiry.
• Dolen Perkins-Valdez frames her foreword as a reader’s first encounter with the novel, noting her emotional response to its dated attitudes and reaffirming its literary merit.
• The debate over interpretive forewords and trigger warnings in classic literature is intensifying as publishers and estates navigate historical context and contemporary ethical concerns.