trade paperback, 159 pages
English language
Published June 1, 2013 by Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.
Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevent than ever before.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodoties, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
This sixtieth-anniversary edition commemorates Ray Bradbury's masterpiece with …
Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevent than ever before.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodoties, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
This sixtieth-anniversary edition commemorates Ray Bradbury's masterpiece with a new introduction by Neil Baiman; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Nelson Algren. Harold Bloom, Margaret Atwood, and others: rare manuscript pages and sketches from "Ray Bradbury's personal archive and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature. (back cover)
I had read this book a long time ago and remembered it as a difficult read - my english was not quite on the same level as it is today. When re-reading it now i was blown away. An amazing story paired with wonderful storytelling. After reading "boring" contemporary novels this was delightfully refreshing
Una novela infantiloide. Y no me refiero a los personajes, que viven en un sistema que los quiere idiotizados, me refiero a la forma en la que está escrita, parece un libro dirigido a niños o a gente de derecha (que ya sabemos que no le da la cabeza para mucho). Si quieres una buena distopía: 1984.
It's been years since I read this, years before being online and years before newspapers started folding. It's a different world now, and this short novel, written in the early 1950s, is eerily prescient. Ray Bradbury did not predict the internet, exactly, but something very much like it; many people are addicted to sitting in their "parlors," places in their houses in which meaningless conversation is piped, soap opera like, to keep people senselessly occupied. There are no educational programs, and books are burned. Suspect someone of hoarding books? Send an alarm! The firemen will come and burn down the guilty person's house and arrest him/her.
Books cause thinking and different opinions. Some books make people uncomfortable. Many books would belie the history that's been rewritten for the masses. Therefore, books are poisonous--away with them all!
This story focuses on one fireman named Guy Montag, and his yearning for life …
It's been years since I read this, years before being online and years before newspapers started folding. It's a different world now, and this short novel, written in the early 1950s, is eerily prescient. Ray Bradbury did not predict the internet, exactly, but something very much like it; many people are addicted to sitting in their "parlors," places in their houses in which meaningless conversation is piped, soap opera like, to keep people senselessly occupied. There are no educational programs, and books are burned. Suspect someone of hoarding books? Send an alarm! The firemen will come and burn down the guilty person's house and arrest him/her.
Books cause thinking and different opinions. Some books make people uncomfortable. Many books would belie the history that's been rewritten for the masses. Therefore, books are poisonous--away with them all!
This story focuses on one fireman named Guy Montag, and his yearning for life and curiosity about what came before and what else there could be--which leads him to books.
Meanwhile, there is a war going on--somewhere. No one knows anything about it, or anything about other countries, or the plight of other people. People aren't even raising their own children. There is little empathy to be found, but certainly enough violence--children are killing children. Among these young people is a girl named Clarisse, who is labeled as an outcast for asking the wrong sorts of questions and being so--social. Guy never hears exactly what becomes of her.
Guy Montag's main adversary is Captain Beatty, a fireman who has obviously read many books. He's an interesting character, one who must be conflicted, and yet he's more adamant about destroying books than anyone around him. For most, it's a job. For Beatty, it's a philosophy and a mission. Meanwhile, Montag's wife, Mildred, is a study in boredom, depression, and emptiness.
Bradbury painted a scary mirror all those years ago--in just about 172 pages. Incredible.
It is clear why this book is considered a classic. Truly a great read!
It's almost prophetic about modern life! Enjoyed it a lot.
451°F is certainly a classic science fiction book. I re-read it since I'd just re-read Starship Troopers but it didn't seem to "age" as well as that book. The philosophy is just as important, but didn't seem to be delivered as effectively. There is a much increased use of imagery in Fahrenheit 451, and that makes it a much different read than books like Starship Troopers. Still, a critical book in the science fiction canon.
Content warning Major Plot Details
“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is an immensely powerful, well-written dystopia that gets in one's mind through its deceptively simple narrative and heartfelt earnestness. A book about the dangers of censorship and modern-mass culture, it is just as reason...ant today as it was nearly sixty years ago. One notices immediately the vividness of the characters, drawn deeply and delicately. One feels for these characters, even if we do not know much about them – which is a testament to Bradbury's power as a writer and how much he cares about his work. One feels the tension and confusion of Guy, the enchantment of Clarisse, compelled by Beatty's defense of the system, pity for Millie's blindness, and even fear of the Mechanical Hound. What makes the book powerful in my opinion is not its relevance but its simplicity. Unlike books like “1984” and “Brave New World,” the changes in this future society are quite subtle and the story itself is on the surface quite simple. Furthermore, Montag's journey from fireman to rebel is intensely personal and his awakening is has a very visceral feeling - my favorite moment in the book is in part three when Guy is walking through the wilderness and he is beginning to feel nature, to feel the world around him in a new way. The numbness he felt in the city has begun to melt away in a world of new sensations. So much has been said about this particular book but as Bradbury attempts to get across, the books are not important but it is what books do to people which is important. People are the carriers of the ideas within books. Bradbury, an admitted bibliophile, calls not so much for books but for thinking, questioning people informed by the wisdom of books, their worlds expanded and made complex by their ideas.
