George Orwell’s acclaimed dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, that examines the dangers of totalitarian rule, begins with the sentence: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
Born in India, Eric Arthur Blair used the pen name George Orwell, since the publication of his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London. The surname came from the River Orwell in East Anglia in Suffolk, England and the name became so popular very few people actually knew his real name.
Striking thirteen is a very old reference that refers to a warning that one should always be willing to question what one previously believed to be true. Since clocks never actually strike thirteen, any clock that does would clearly call into question the accuracy (and credibility) of any and all other strokes of the clock – perhaps the clock itself! Orwell’s opening line of Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), inferring that all the clocks were striking thirteen – is intended to predispose the reader to question everything in his fictional society and the world described in his novel.