Product Description

In his 1932 classic dystopian novel, "Brave New World", Aldous Huxley depicted a future society in thrall to science and regulated by sophisticated methods of social control. Nearly thirty years later in "Brave New World Revisited", Huxley checked the progress of his prophecies against reality and argued that many of his fictional fantasies had grown uncomfortably close to the truth. "Brave New World Revisited" includes Huxley's views on overpopulation, propaganda, advertising and government control, and is an urgent and powerful appeal for the defence of individualism still alarmingly relevant today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18940 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Daily Telegraph
‘one of the most important books to have been published since the war.’

The Times
‘Such ingenious wit, derisive logic and swiftness of expression, Huxley’s resources of sardonic invention have never been more brilliantly displayed.’

About the Author
Aldous Huxley was born on 26th July 1894 near Godalming, Surrey. He began writing poetry and short stories in his early twenties, but it was his first novel, Crome Yellow (1921), which established his literary reputation. This was swiftly followed by Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925) and Point Counter Point (1928) - bright, brilliant satires in which Huxley wittily but ruthlessly passed judgement on the shortcomings of contemporary society. The great novels of ideas, including his most famous work Brave New World (published in 1932 this warned against the dehumanising aspects of scientific and material 'progress') and the pacifist novel Eyeless in Gaza (1936) were accompanied by a series of wise and brilliant essays, collected in volume form under titles such as Music at Night (1931) and Ends and Means (1937). In 1937, at the height of his fame, Huxley left Europe to live in California, working for a time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. As the West braced itself for war, Huxley came increasingly to believe that the key to solving the world's problems lay in changing the individual through mystical enlightenment. The exploration of the inner life through mysticism and hallucinogenic drugs was to dominate his work for the rest of his life. His beliefs found expression in both fiction (Time Must Have a Stop, 1944 and Island, 1962) and non-fiction (The Perennial Philosophy, 1945, Grey Eminence, 1941 and the famous account of his first mescalin experience, The Doors of Perception, 1954. Huxley died in California on 22nd November 1963.

Customer Reviews

Everyone should be made to read this book
It's hard to explain the liberation I felt after reading this book. The maxim 'knowledge is power' has never been more true. Huxley shows with such clarity and lucidity, the way all our lives are controlled by over-organisation, indoctrination and propaganda. "The stuff of conspiracy theories," people might say? Think again.

Huxley shows how peoples perception of freedom is based on what you are told and understand freedom as actually being or looking like. He explodes this idea and goes on to show how our lives are shaped and controlled by those we elect to 'lead us'. To show how this can be done he cites the obvious yet accutely sharp example of Hitler's use of propaganda in bringing an entire German nation round to his way of thinking.

It goes without saying that if Hitler can use propaganda on such a dramtic level to control peoples views and ideas of what 'the truth' is, then its not beyond anyone else with large amounts of power to use those methods in other ways.

I urge anyone reading this review to buy the book, read it and pass it on to others. You will never look at the world and our system of governments the same way, ever again. If this leaves your perceptions of the world around you unchanged then Ill give you a refund myself.

Behind A Brave New World
If you have read both Brave New World and 1984 (George Orwell), then you must read this. It has no storyline or plot like the above, but it surely compares and explains both books a little better. It also relates examples from real history (Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia). The book can be seen as both a foreword, an epilogue and the research to "A Brave New World" I very much enjoyed both Brave New World and 1984, but after reading BNW Revisited you will have a completely new perspective of the world around you. A must read after BNW and 1984.

The screaming all over again!
Huxley managed to give me many sleepless nights the first time with the almost nightmarish reality which is happening now, of A Brave New World. This book is equally as good, in the context that I am still suffering the effects of it. It is must read if you have read Orwell's Masterpiece 1984 and a definite for those who have read A Brave New World.