Product Description

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARGARET ATWOOD. Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #878 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

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

The future?
Society really is getting more and more like this.

This is a vision of the future where the population is controlled by subtlety and manipulation, the basic premise being that if people are too doped up to realise that they have been conned by a tiny minority who have everything then that elite can remain in charge for ever.

In Huxley's world the method of control is to program people to indulge only their most transitory and materialistic desires all of which can be fulfilled quite readily and in doing so suppress any idea that there "might be more to life than this" and this leaves the population with happy but trivial lives.

The morality of this is questioned through the introduction of an outsider to the society and his actions form the basis of the plot. To be honest I think the story isn't as involving as the world it is set in but the questions the book raised easily merit this book classic status.

It seems we are getting closer and closer to the kind of happy trivial life that Huxley forced upon his population and if you are inclined to wonder whether or not there is more to life than work and shopping then this book is probably going to be right up your street.

Prophetic?
Brave New World and 1984 are considered to be the two great prophetic works of the 20th century. Yet whereas 1984 depicts a stereotypical dystopia, Brave New World depicts a world where everyone is happy, everyone is beautiful, everyone can have whatever they want. As a work of prophecy I think Brave New World is far wittier than people give it credit.
In Brave New World people are created in factories where they are designed and conditions to fit neatly in society. This eliminates families which eliminates any associated problems. People are happy and beautiful, there is no hunger, no disease and no war, and in the rare occassion when something does go wrong they have soma, the perfect drug. Recreational sex is encouraged at all levels of society (Wait until you read the part where young children engage in "erotic play") but at the expense of love. There are no wives or husbands, boyfriends or girlfriends. "Everyone belongs to everyone else."
Since Brave New World was written in the 30s, we have gained the recreational sex and drugs we were promised, genetic engineering has become one step closer, celebrity culture has become a cult, art and literature has been pushed aside by gumph like MTV and reality tv shows, artistic films are shunned in favour of sex and action (Remember the subject matter of the feelies), people ignore their problems with the help of prescribed drugs, people are obsessed with youth and appearance, and, worst of all, I think genuine love is losing ground to fleeting lust.
Orwell wrote of a savage dictatorship at a time when both Hitler and Stalin were setting new standards in brutality. Since then we have generally become more liberated. Are homosexuals still shunned? Are women banned from certain jobs? We have gained one right after another following the War. It is fashionable in the current climate to imply that people are still kept in little boxes, but apart from the occassional case of boot-stamping; the introduction of ID cards in Britain or Guantanamo Bay (And bear in mind there was a time when ALL prisons were like that) Orwell's world is not ours.
Obviuously, Brave New World is a gross exaggeration on the world of today, but it's messages and ideals are frighteningly accurate. When viewed merely as works of literature 1984 is a superior read. Brave New World is an enjoyable book that occassionally trips up when it attempts to be too clever; moreover one must always bear in mind it is satire.
Eh, with that rant to one side, Brave New World is an excellent and thought provoking read, and is more relevant today than in was in 1932.

Essential reading
One of the twentieth century's most important dystopian novels, possibly even one of it's most important novels at all. A fantastic combination of engaging storyline and a social commentary that continues to be incredibly relevant.