the kitchen except a hunk of
dark-coloured bread which had got to be saved for tomorrow's breakfast. He
took down from the shelf a bottle of colourless liquid with a plain white
label marked VICTORY GIN. It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese
rice-spirit. Winston poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a
shock, and gulped it down like a dose of medicine.
Instantly his face turned scarlet and the water ran out of his eyes.
The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the
sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club. The next
moment, however, the burning in his belly died down and the world began to
look more cheerful. He took a cigarette from a crumpled packet marked
VICTORY CIGARETTES and incautiously held it upright, whereupon the tobacco
fell out on to the floor. With the next he was more successful. He went
back to the living-room and sat down at a small table that stood to the
left of the telescreen. From the table drawer he took out a penholder, a
bottle of ink, and a thick, quarto-sized blank book with a red back and a
marbled cover.
For some reason the telescreen in th
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