As for the length, I read Goblet of Fire around the same age, so 1984 is very manageable in comparison (*checks* about half the wordcount).
(I read Brave New World pretty young, too. My copy of the Iliad/Odyssey was a children's version (Black Ships Before Troy / The Wanderings of Odysseus), but apparently was enough to impress grownups when they asked me about the Cyclops I was building out of Lego and I told them the story of Nobody.)
((I don't think I was *intending* to show off with the Nobody thing, but I did take pleasure in naming obscure presidents for the "kids who come in on Presidents' Day and name three presidents get a free box of mini cookies" thing one of the bakeries did. Chester A. Arthur, Millard Fillmore...))
no subject
I think Dad linked me to it, maybe as part of some classics thing? (I know I originally read it on online-literature.com, back before their copyright issues.)
I don't remember what I thought of the bleakness on my *first* read--I *was* a very psychologically fragile child, but sometimes that means that Objectively Horrifying things don't actually stand out against the high background levels of horror (I'm reminded of that "he's equally terrified of everything, and that's what makes him invincible" post)--but in my later childhood I rather enjoyed the sadistic brainwashing scenes.
As for the length, I read Goblet of Fire around the same age, so 1984 is very manageable in comparison (*checks* about half the wordcount).
(I read Brave New World pretty young, too. My copy of the Iliad/Odyssey was a children's version (Black Ships Before Troy / The Wanderings of Odysseus), but apparently was enough to impress grownups when they asked me about the Cyclops I was building out of Lego and I told them the story of Nobody.)
((I don't think I was *intending* to show off with the Nobody thing, but I did take pleasure in naming obscure presidents for the "kids who come in on Presidents' Day and name three presidents get a free box of mini cookies" thing one of the bakeries did. Chester A. Arthur, Millard Fillmore...))