Product Description

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #453 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
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...

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

Brave New World
I think the future Huxley creates in Brave New World is both imaginative and hugely dystopic, but in describing the mindless existence of the new world's inhabitants Huxley emphasises just how valuable such things as freedom of thought and expression, which we take for granted, really are. So although Huxley's material is dystopic, there is joy to be taken from the heightened sense of the individual, which the reader gains.

Stylistically, I think this book is fantastic. Yes, some will complain it lacks a certain degree of complexity, but if so they have unappreciated Huxley's precise and elegant prose. This is an important book, not to be under-estimated, and hugely prophetic considering how long ago it was written.

Out of the way...
I find with most 'classic' books, the hype is more than the substance and again Brave New World falls into that category.

It is quite an easy read - except the constant Shakespeare quotations towards the end, but it is a novel that I feel fails to take a great idea and develop it totally - the end is a big let down for instance.

I am glad that I read it to understand why it holds such attention after all these years but it isn't a book that I feel I could recommend.

A terrible dystopia or a beautiful utopia?
I read this book on the recommendation of a work colleague after reading George Orwell's 1984 and, whilst it is fairly entertaining, it just isn't in the same league as Orwells's masterpiece. It might be wrong to compare the two given that they are very different books, but it seems that some people will read one and then turn to the other, as I did, so a basic comparison seems fair.

1984 is a harsh, brutal novel that preys on our fears of the police state taking over without us even knowing it, something that many would argue is happening right now. The populace portrayed in the book know and understand that their situation is bad but have grown to accept it because they are told and so believe that it is ultimately for the betterment of their nation as a whole.

Brave New World, on the other hand, gives us a future in which the masses are literally bred (in test tubes) into their roles in life, both for work and socially. People are conditioned through chemicals and mind manipulation, both before birth and during childhood, into not only accepting their status in society but actually enjoying it. I actually find Huxley's future quite appealing, especially today when many of us seem to wander through life looking miserable, doing jobs we hate and desperately trying to find our `place'. Even though Huxley's masses' status and happiness might be forced upon them from conception, at least they know, accept and actually enjoy being who and where they are regardless of how this is brought about.

This book is no where near as gritty, nor does it seem as real or as believable as 1984; Huxley's future is cleaner, happier and generally more pleasant that Orwell's, with both the setting and his writing lacking any real bite. Brave New World has been described as one of the great dystopian novels, but I actually see it in the exact opposite light, as a vision of what could be considered a utopian future. By all means read it, but please don't expect it to be a thrilling, terrible read that'll leave you feeling grateful that things aren't as bad as they could be. And I think that is something 1984 still does to this day.