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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
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Fahrenheit 451 (original 1953; edition 2004)

by Ray Bradbury

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
53,60299021 (4.02)2 / 1405
Fiction. Science Fiction & Fantasy. HTML:

The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden.

Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs or the joy of watching pages consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. And Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do.

.… (more)
Member:oac
Title:Fahrenheit 451
Authors:Ray Bradbury
Info:HarperCollins
Collections:Your library
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Work Information

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)

  1. 1053
    1984 by George Orwell (readafew, Booksloth, rosylibrarian, moietmoi, hpfilho, BookshelfMonstrosity)
    readafew: Both books are about keeping the people in control and ignorant.
    BookshelfMonstrosity: A man's romance-inspired defiance of menacing, repressive governments in bleak futures are the themes of these compelling novels. Control of language and monitors that both broadcast to and spy on people are key motifs. Both are dramatic, haunting, and thought-provoking.… (more)
  2. 782
    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (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. 261
    Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (Smiler69)
  4. 273
    The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (ateolf)
  5. 284
    The Giver by Lois Lowry (thekoolaidmom)
  6. 252
    The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (jpers36, moietmoi, DionnePasion)
  7. 192
    Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (grizzly.anderson)
    grizzly.anderson: A great study of how Bradbury came to write Fahrenheit 451 as a progress through his own short stories, letters and drafts. A similar collection of stories but without some of the other material is also available as "A Pleasure To Burn"
  8. 174
    A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (goodiegoodie, kristenn)
  9. 82
    The October Country by Ray Bradbury (Booksloth)
  10. 105
    Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle (allenmichie)
  11. 72
    A Gift Upon the Shore by M. K. Wren (lquilter)
    lquilter: "A Gift Upon the Shore" is a post-apocalyptic world; some people seek to preserve books and knowledge, but they are seen as a danger to others. Beautifully written.
  12. 50
    Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (Morteana)
  13. 40
    The Fireman by Joe Hill (sturlington)
  14. 62
    The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects by Marshall McLuhan (bertilak)
  15. 63
    A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq by Fernando Báez (bertilak)
  16. 53
    Feed by M. T. Anderson (jlynno84)
  17. 75
    Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (andja)
  18. 20
    Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal (edwinbcn)
  19. 10
    Shadowlife by Martin Grzimek (spiphany)
  20. 10
    The Acolyte by Craig Davidson (ShelfMonkey)

(see all 29 recommendations)

1950s (1)
Read (31)
AP Lit (26)
100 (35)
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Showing 1-5 of 915 (next | show all)
This is a book that tries to show you how important are books in our world and make you read more. Completely fails doing so, because the story is stale and gets boring very fast, same goes for the characters. If this was your first book that you read, I doubt you will want to read more books afterwards. If we take in consideration that this book was written in a short period of time, it's quite good but compared to other dystopias, it's not that good. ( )
  nyshkin | Mar 20, 2024 |
For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a 1953 dystopian novel in which books have been outlawed and are routinely destroyed by “fireman”. Mr. Bradbury is one of the foremost science-fiction authors of the 20th Century.

Guy Montag is a fireman, a job which entails burning outlawed books, as well as the houses they are hidden in. He meets a new neighbor, a teenager named Clarisse McClelan, who opens his mind to new ideas. Guy returns home to find his wife, Mildred, has overdosed on sleeping pills. Between Clarisse’s happiness with simple pleasures, Mildred’s near-death experience, and the illiterate society, Guy starts questioning his own life and whatever he calls “happiness”.

Guy tries to engage his wife and her friends with intellectual conversation by reading a poem. Instead, they turn him in and his own department comes to burn down his house. He escapes, becomes a nomad and meets up with former intellectuals who each memorized books, embracing literature and culture.

After finishing Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and thinking about it a bit, I was surprised to find out how relevant this book is, almost 70 years after it was written.

The book was written when the “Red Scare” was prominent, the Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC) was ruining the lives of American citizens, and the populace was quickly transitioning from radio and books to the glory of television. In the book, “family” is a wall showing TV talk shows, which takes precedence over almost anything else.

These days, social media is “family”, and cell phones are addictive. Critical thinking is abandoned by talking heads with an agenda, propaganda, or stranger commenting on the Internet telling people what to think. Our focus and thoughts have been stolen by technology, instead of television and radio, but the nuance is still there.

The book, by itself, is not a great piece of literature. It’s flat, characters are not fully developed, lots of hyperbole takes over the narrative. However, like many other great stories it has a lot to say in between the lines as a cautionary tale which is still applicable.

The book reminds of that what we take for granted is valuable. Whether it be the physical books, or more importantly the ideas in them. The book raises important questions about the present (1950s or 2020s) and what alternatives we have. Ray Bradbury doesn’t try to predict the future, it extends a troubled aspect allowing us to see it from a different perspective.

The world in which Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 thankfully doesn’t exist, but we can apply the book’s warning today. Much like Brave New World, the story might be boring to a teenager, but becomes more interesting, and totally different as you grew older. ( )
1 vote ZoharLaor | Feb 26, 2024 |
Wow. For such a short story, it packs an awful strong punch.

I started this story as a way to pass the time until my power came back on. This isn’t something you just pick up and put down again. I have a strong feeling when I read this again, I will have a different message than what I read just now.

Insight on life, philosophy, trends, people. What have we become? We may not have tv walls but when was the last time you had a meaningful insightful interaction? Not just talking but a full truthful conversation. The ones where you forget all the things around you, and it is just you and the other person?

This book spoke to me and I to it. Our conversation was not long but it was very impactful. Life is all around us and boundaries are something that our mind makes for ourselves to feel comfortable. ( )
  AbsurdWizard | Feb 20, 2024 |
Scary. Depressing. Has the same weird no-hope-for-the-future vibe as the movie The Dark City. In the beginning, I had the idea that the author conveyed the idea of a book-less society by using weird abstract language, as if the main character missed a large part of normal vocabulary so he had to express his thoughts in a roundabout way -- almost like in 1984 where the ongoing simplification of English prevents people from talking or thinking about unwanted concepts such as freedom of speech, alternative thinking, individualism, etc. ( )
  jd7h | Feb 18, 2024 |
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an intense dystopian classic, which is rather unbelievable. It brings to you a world where forbidden books are burned. My heart crunched at the mere mention of this—how can someone burn books? And, definitely, I don't want to be a part of this kind of world. The plot is fast and picks up the reader's interest at an instant. Guy Montag is a fireman, and his character develops in the most interesting way. You would not really be able to believe that books have become forbidden drugs in that world. The whole scenario is focused on firemen and their work. Each character has its own voice, which makes this book a classic. But the climax has a major cliffhanger, so be ready to take
it in.

My favorite part of the book is towards the end, when Guy Montag finds his real self in books. Every reader should immerse itself in those beautiful lines. It was definitely a 5-star read and an amazing book. ( )
  Sucharita1986 | Feb 17, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 915 (next | show all)

» Add other authors (46 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Bradbury, Rayprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Aguilar, Julia OsunaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Aldiss, Brian W.Forewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Algren, NelsonAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Amis, KingsleyContributorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Atwood, MargaretAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Škvorecký, JosefTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Betjeman, JohnAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bloom, HaroldAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brick, ScottNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Buddingh', CeesTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Chambon, JacquesTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Crespo, AlfredoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
D'Achille, GinoCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Diamond, DonnaCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Eller, Jonathan R.Editorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Emmerová, JarmilaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gaiman, NeilIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Güttinger, FritzTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Highet, GilbertAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hoye, StephenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hurt, ChristopherNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kayalıoğlu, KorkutTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kayalıoğlu, ZerrinTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Keyser, GawieForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Knight, ArthurAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Knipel, CidTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lippi, GiuseppeTraduttoresecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mitchell, AdrianAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Monicelli, GiorgioTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moorcock, MichaelIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mugnaini, Joseph A.Cover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nordin, SivTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Owen, MattCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Parry, IdrisAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pennington, BruceCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pepper, BobCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Prescott, OrvilleAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Prichard, MichaelNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Robbins, TimNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Robbins, TimNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Robillot, HenriTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Singer, NancyDesignersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Stangl, KatrinIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Truffaut, FrançoisAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Veikat, MarjuToimetaja.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Weber, SamIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
أحمد خالد توفيقTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
"If they give you ruled paper,
write the other way."
Juan Ramón Jiménez
FAHRENHEIT 451:
the temperature at which
book-paper catches fire and burns
Dedication
This one, with gratitude,
is for
Don Congdon
First words
It was a pleasure to burn.
Quotations
Montag gazed beyond them to the wall with the typed lists of a million forbidden books.
It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away.
But that's the wonderful things about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing.
I'm afraid of children my own age. they kill each other. Did it always use to be that way? My uncle says no. Six of my firends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid. My uncle says his grandfather remembered when children didn't kill each other. But that was a long time ago when they had things different. They believed in responsibility, my uncle says. Do you know, I'm responsible. I was spanked when I needed it, years ago. And I do all the shopping and housecleaning by hand.
But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.
Last words
Disambiguation notice
This is the original novel by Ray Bradbury, not the 1966 film directed by François Truffaut or any other adaptation.
There are at least 2 works by this name: the novel by Ray Bradbury and its film adaptation. Please do not combine this with either.
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
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Canonical LCC
Fiction. Science Fiction & Fantasy. HTML:

The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden.

Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. And he enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs or the joy of watching pages consumed by flames, never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think. And Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do.

.

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Book description
"The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning... along with the houses in which they were hidden." Fahrenheit 451 is an enlightening story that is almost daunting. In a place where firemen build fires to burn books, this story is somewhat forboding because although it may seem extreme, it causes the reader to look at how much we take books and freedom for granted. Guy Montag goes outside the norm of a society where relationships are based on material things in order to try to discover how life would be if one were to actually think and live for themselves instead of being told what to do and how to behave.

AR level 5.2, 7 pts
Haiku summary
A fireman burns books
But then he dares to read one
And goes on the lam
(DarrylLundy)

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