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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
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Brave New World (original 1932; edition 2006)

by Aldous Huxley

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53,69977020 (3.94)1305
Towering classic of dystopian satire, BRAVE NEW WORLD is a brilliant and terrifying vision of a soulless society--and of one man who discovers the human costs of mindless conformity. Hundreds of years in the future, the World Controllers have created an ideal civilization. Its members, shaped by genetic engineering and behavioral conditioning, are productive and content in roles they have been assigned at conception. Government-sanctioned drugs and recreational sex ensure that everyone is a happy, unquestioning consumer; messy emotions have been anesthetized and private attachments are considered obscene. Only Bernard Marx is discontented, developing an unnatural desire for solitude and a distaste for compulsory promiscuity. When he brings back a young man from one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old unenlightened ways still continue, he unleashes a dramatic clash of cultures that will force him to consider whether freedom, dignity, and individuality are worth suffering for.… (more)
Member:YGT
Title:Brave New World
Authors:Aldous Huxley
Info:Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2006), Paperback, 288 pages
Collections:Your library
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Work Information

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1932)

  1. 794
    1984 by George Orwell (chrisharpe, zasmine, MinaKelly, li33ieg, hpfilho, Ludi_Ling, Anonymous user)
    zasmine: For Orwell was inspired by it. And Orwell's 1984 is as much of a prize as it.
    li33ieg: 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451: 3 essential titles that remind us of the need to keep our individual souls pure.
    Ludi_Ling: Really, the one cannot be mentioned without the other. Actually, apart from the dystopian subject matter, they are very different stories, but serve as a great counterpoint to one another.
    Anonymous user: It's essential to read Huxley's and Orwell's books together. Both present the ultimate version of the totalitarian state, but there the similarities end. While Orwell argues in favour of hate and fear, Huxley suggests that pleasure and drugs would be far more effective as controlling forces. Who was the more prescient prophet? That's what every reader should decide for him- or herself.… (more)
  2. 531
    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (phoenix7g, meggyweg, Babou_wk, hpfilho)
    Babou_wk: Contre-utopie, société future où l'unique but de la vie est le bonheur. Toute pratique requérant de la réflexion est bannie.
  3. 282
    A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (MinaKelly)
  4. 200
    The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (mcenroeucsb)
    mcenroeucsb: Both are benchmarks for dystopian literature.
  5. 151
    The Giver by Lois Lowry (afyfe)
  6. 163
    We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (hippietrail, tehran)
    hippietrail: The original dystopian novel from which both Huxley and Orwell drew inspiration.
    tehran: Brave New World was largely inspired by Zamyatin's We.
  7. 70
    The Tempest by William Shakespeare (Sylak)
    Sylak: Caliban in The Tempest has many parallels with John the Savage in Brave New World.
  8. 71
    Animal Farm by George Orwell (sturlington)
  9. 50
    The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (artturnerjr, KayCliff)
    artturnerjr: If you read only one other dystopian SF story, make it this one (well, you should read 1984, too, but you knew that already, didn't you?).
  10. 149
    Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (fundevogel)
  11. 50
    Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (mcenroeucsb)
  12. 72
    Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (sanddancer)
  13. 40
    This Perfect Day by Ira Levin (KayCliff)
  14. 40
    Daedalus; or, Science and the Future by J. B. S. Haldane (leigonj)
    leigonj: Haldane's ideas of eugenics and ectogenesis, which are laid out alongside others including world government and psychoactive drugs, strongly influenced Huxley's novel.
  15. 30
    Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm (rat_in_a_cage)
    rat_in_a_cage: Hinweis auf Rückentext bei »Hier sangen früher Vögel«.
  16. 86
    Stranger in a Strange Land (Uncut Edition) by Robert A. Heinlein (meggyweg)
  17. 20
    City of Endless Night by Milo Hastings (fannyprice)
    fannyprice: Both books play with the implications of eugenics and social classes.
  18. 31
    Men Like Gods by H. G. Wells (Sylak)
    Sylak: Basically a parody of Wells' own book published seven years earlier.
  19. 20
    Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut (Anonymous user)
  20. 10
    Kallocain by Karin Boye (Mouseear)

(see all 39 recommendations)

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» See also 1305 mentions

English (702)  Spanish (25)  French (7)  Dutch (6)  Portuguese (Brazil) (6)  German (6)  Catalan (4)  Swedish (2)  Finnish (2)  Italian (1)  Slovak (1)  Danish (1)  Portuguese (1)  All languages (764)
Showing 1-5 of 702 (next | show all)
This is a classic dystopian fiction that really makes you think about our current culture. ( )
1 vote philibin | Mar 25, 2024 |
I have wanted to re-read this book for some time as I read it during my teens and had forgotten a lot of the details. This cautionary tale of the perils of genetic engineering has dated a little but the story still packs a punch. I haven't devoured a book like this for a long time. Well worth a second look, or a first look if you haven't read it. ( )
  SarahEBear | Mar 25, 2024 |
an intriguing read that leaves you with many questions. Can be read as both a utopia and a dystopia ( )
  highlandcow | Mar 13, 2024 |
I'm so happy that I decided to read this book, because it was simply incredible! I still can't believe it was written in 1930, because it is extremely modern; it describes the world that doesn't exist yet, but we may almost see it.

I really enjoyed the first part of the book, Bernard and Lenina and their almost love story were great - but I have to admit that I was not a huge fan of John the Savage. We saw London and the new society through his eyes, but John is like us, so it seemed a bit boring. I don't know what to think about the ending, I have a few theories what the author wanted to show us, but I'm not sure. I would be much happier if it ended on the discussion between John and Mustafa.

I loved this book, it really made me think. In my opinion everybody should read it.

From my blog: https://dominikasreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/06/brave-new-world-by-aldous... ( )
  Donderowicz | Mar 12, 2024 |
Brave New World is the predecessor dystopian novel that spookily predicted a lot of things before George Orwell's infamous 1984. Unlike the morbidly unforgiving and grimy environment that Orwell paints in 1984, this novel here is the polar opposite; Huxley creates a civilization that is uncomfortably sterile and happy. Happiness is presented in a very peculiarly logical perspective which justifies the way that that particular civilization is run.

However, there are some outliers in this civilization and the story mainly revolves around these characters. This was also the first novel that I have read which kind of switched the main character towards the middle of the story and that was an odd transition for me.

Although there were a lot of scarily accurate predictions about our incapability to face obstacles and solitude over the preference of indulging in instant gratifications which only temporarily numbs our pain, the narrative of the novel bored me a little. It personally felt quite tedious to get through. And maybe that's just because I lack the imagination to really picture the dystopian society that Huxley was trying to portray.

This novel is considered to be a classic and if you are into dystopian novels, definitely give this a try as this novel is arguably the one that started them all. ( )
1 vote buddhawithan.n | Feb 29, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 702 (next | show all)

» Add other authors (131 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Huxley, Aldousprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Atwood, MargaretIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Binger, CharlesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bradshaw, DavidIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brochmann, GeorgTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Harari, Yuval NoahIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Herlitschka, Herberth E.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hernández, RamónTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Heuvelmans, TonAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
McAfee, MaraIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mok, MauritsTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Montagu, AshleyIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moody, PaulineTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Orras, I. H.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rosoman, LeonardIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Salemme, AttilioCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Snow, GeorgeCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Southwick, RobertEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Szentmihályi Szabó, PéterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
York, MichaelNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Les utopies apparaissent bien plus réalisables qu'on ne le croyait autrefois. Et nous nous trouvons actuellement devant une question bien autrement angoissante : comment éviter leur réalisation définitive ?… Les utopies sont réalisables. La vie marche vers les utopies. Et peut-être un siècle nouveau commence-t-il, un siècle où les intellectuels et la classe cultivée rêveront aux moyens d'éviter les utopies et de retourner à une société non utopique moins 'parfaite' et plus libre.
(—Nicholas Berdiaeff)
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A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories.
Quotations
Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself.
..."What fun it would be," he thought, "if one didn't have to think about happiness!"
"I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin ... I'm claiming the right to be unhappy". "Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." ... "I claim them all".
"All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny."
"No civilisation without social stability. No social stability without individual stability."
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Brave New World is by Aldous Huxley. If you have H.G. Wells as the author of Brave New World, please correct your data. Thank you.
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Towering classic of dystopian satire, BRAVE NEW WORLD is a brilliant and terrifying vision of a soulless society--and of one man who discovers the human costs of mindless conformity. Hundreds of years in the future, the World Controllers have created an ideal civilization. Its members, shaped by genetic engineering and behavioral conditioning, are productive and content in roles they have been assigned at conception. Government-sanctioned drugs and recreational sex ensure that everyone is a happy, unquestioning consumer; messy emotions have been anesthetized and private attachments are considered obscene. Only Bernard Marx is discontented, developing an unnatural desire for solitude and a distaste for compulsory promiscuity. When he brings back a young man from one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old unenlightened ways still continue, he unleashes a dramatic clash of cultures that will force him to consider whether freedom, dignity, and individuality are worth suffering for.

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Book description
Huxley's bleak future prophesized, in Brave New World was a capitalist civilization, which had been reconstituted through scientific and psychological engineering, a world in which people are genetically designed to be passive and useful to the ruling class. Huxley opens the book by allowing the reader to eavesdrop on the tour of the Fertilizing Room of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning center, where the high tech reproduction takes place. Bernard Marx (one of the characters in the story) seems alone, harboring an ill-defined longing to break free. Satirical and disturbing, Brave New World is set some 600 years into the future. Reproduction is controlled through genetic engineering, and people are bred into a rigid class system. As they mature, they are conditioned to be happy with the roles that society has created for them. Concepts such as family, freedom, love, and culture are considered grotesque.
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