book review on brave new world

Brave New World

By aldous huxley.

Aldous Huxley skillfully blends social critique with philosophical inquiries on the cost of sacrificing individuality for stability and technological advancement.

• Brilliant subversion of the dystopian trope
• Compact and masterful world-building
• Credible and well-developed characters
• Ambiguity in defining dystopia in clear terms
• Huxley appears technophobic in his treatment of technological advancements
• Female characters are portrayed unflatteringly

Bottom Line

" Brave New World " features a society where individuals are engineered and conditioned from birth to fit into predetermined roles, ensuring universal contentment, stability, and happiness. Huxley's world is characterized by a loss of individuality and personal freedom, with the populace kept docile and content through superficial pleasures and mindless consumption. The story follows Bernard Marx, a discontented citizen of the World State, and John, the "Savage," raised outside the World State in a more primitive society.

Rating [book_review_rating]

Continue down for the complete review to Brave New World

Article written by Ebuka Igbokwe

Bachelor's degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

“ Brave New World ” was published in 1932. It was Aldous Huxley’s fifth novel and introduces us to a prescient social commentator and a brilliant storyteller whose ideas about a possible future are as compelling as they are believable.

Huxley explored a novel idea in this book: presenting a world of pleasure and contentment as a dystopia. What began as a parody of an idea of a utopia he read in “ Men Like Gods ” by H. G. Wells was transformed into one of fiction’s most remarkable conceptions of dystopias.

Revisiting Brave New World

Huxley envisions a future society where people are engineered in hatcheries and conditioned for specific roles. Pleasure, consumerism, and conformity are paramount in this highly controlled world. The government uses behavioral conditioning and a drug called soma to maintain social stability.

The story follows Bernard Marx, an individual who struggles with his conditioned place in society, and John, a “savage” from a reservation where the customs of old times persist. As John is introduced to the “civilized” world, he becomes a focal point for the novel’s exploration of the clash between individuality and a society obsessed with controlling its citizens with conformity-inducing pleasurable activities.

The novel explores how technology can dehumanize people, the effects of mass production and consumption on society, and the hollowness of a culture driven by instant gratification. It raises questions about the costs of sacrificing individuality for social stability.

A World of No Pains, All Gains

“ Brave New World ” presents a unique plot for dystopias. Huxley imagines a world where everyone but the rebels are kept content and pleased by a government that controls all aspects of civilian life through technology. In such a world, people do not face anxieties or prolonged wants because their social infrastructure responds to these and provides for any lack. The subtle danger, as seen in the development of the novel, is that the individuals in the society were stunted in development, as they were prevented from having their ideas, feelings, and desires and were channeled into ends predetermined by the system. Huxley made the premise work because he set out to satirize his contemporaries’ common conceptions of utopia. Sometimes, his satire seems to work too well. The reader is almost convinced that the dystopia of the World State is not such a bad place to live in. At least, compared to life in the Reservation, the other place explored in the novel, Mustapha Mond’s London, is a choice habitat.

The tension between individuality and conformity is a central theme in the novel, and the book raises important questions about the cost of sacrificing individuality for societal cohesion. The World State produces its citizens by using genetic engineering and conditioning in factory-like settings. The citizens thus created are made to exact specifications and fit for exact roles, thus reducing human beings to mere commodities or cogs in a machine. This raises valid ethical questions, such as how much society can do to make the individual fulfill the needs of the state to which it belongs. “ Brave New World ” explores consumerism as a dominant social value and critiques a culture driven and controlled by constant consumption and instant gratification.

The theme of technology and its use in social control highlights the novel’s concern with its potential misuse to manipulate and dominate individuals. While these are valid fears, Huxley can be accused of being heavy-handed in his criticism of technology use. In the novel, he hardly speaks approvingly of an instance where technological advance is an unequivocal good. He also fails to give a nuanced treatment of where the line between anarchy and individual freedom or between healthy social order and oppressive rule lies.

Characterization in “ Brave New World ” is a key element in its narrative, and Aldous Huxley uses a range of characters to serve specific purposes.

Characters like Bernard Marx and John “the Savage” embody different critiques of their society, contributing to the novel’s depth. The characters in the novel often have distinct traits and personalities that make them memorable, and they undergo personal struggles that add emotional depth to the narrative. Bernard is dissatisfied because he is an Alpha without the traits of an Alpha and feels slighted by the lack of respect he gets from those he deals with. On the other hand, Helmholtz is an Alpha’s Alpha, and his dissatisfaction stems from having experienced all Alpha can have and become bored. Consequently, both of them express their rebellion in different ways. Bernard is resentful; Helmholtz is worldly-weary, aloof, and cynical. Another important detail is how Huxley introduces characters with contrasting perspectives, and the clash between their views presents a platform for exploring the novel’s theme to great lengths.

One of the shortcomings of the novel’s characterization is Huxley’s use of the characters as didactic pieces, making them feel less like realized humans and more like instruments. Also, the novel does not discuss the background of some of its major characters, like Mustapha Mond or Lenina Crowne, which limits readers’ understanding of their motives.

Generally, Huxley’s writing style is clear and accessible, although he uses complex diction and often employs a scientific tone and jargon in exposition. He uses satire and irony to drive home his points subtly but in a way that stimulates the reader, as seen in his use of hypnapaedic phrases, which subvert the meanings of common expressions. His description is detailed and evocative, painting a vivid and immersive image of the futuristic World State. He probes complex and profound philosophical and social issues in very approachable language. Huxley uses literary and historical allusions, which give concepts in his story an anchor of realism.

The story structure of “ Brave New World ” is simple and sparse. This makes it a perfect vehicle for the profound and imaginative ideas explored in the story in a way that does not overwhelm the reader.

From Bernard’s romance with Lenina, which leads to their trip to the reservation in the first arc of the story, to John’s immigration to World State from the reservation in the second, we learn much about the strange world, can identify with and understand the characters responding to the events in it, and Huxley ably handles the topical issues he intended to with the story.

The story is fast-paced, and Huxley seamlessly weaves exposition into the story without feeling like he is dumping information on the reader. The novel experiences, such as the games and other leisure activities, of the citizens of World State are integrated into the narrative.

The world-building is creative and ambitious and plays a crucial role in shaping the novel’s narrative. A futuristic World State with advanced technology, genetic engineering, and conditioned social norms provides a rich backdrop for exploring the novel’s dystopian themes. The novel is set in 632 A.F. (After Ford), equivalent to the 26th century, marking a new era where society venerates Henry Ford, the father of modern assembly line production. This shift reflects the society’s emphasis on efficiency, uniformity, and mass production, extending beyond industrial practices to encompass all aspects of human life. Cities in the World State, such as London, are highly structured and sanitized environments, featuring towering buildings and advanced infrastructure. The urban landscape lacks natural elements, reflecting society’s disconnection from the natural world and its obsession with artificial control and order.

Also, including the Savage Reservation in the story as a contrasting setting adds depth to the narrative by highlighting the clash between traditional and futuristic societies. It allows for a comparison between different ways of life. Aldous Huxley’s carefully crafted setting serves as a platform for his critique of contemporary social trends, including mass production, consumerism, and the potentially dehumanizing consequences of choosing hedonism as the ultimate social goal.

One major pro of “ Brave New World ” is Huxley’s brilliant subversion of the dystopian trope, in that he satirizes popular utopias to show how hollow and inconducive to the human spirit a pleasure-oriented world is. Another plus is how compact and masterful his world-building is, focusing on only aspects of the futuristic world that drive the story forward and spare attention from unnecessary details. Also, the characters are well-developed, credible to their history, and serve to explore the different philosophies presented in the book.

On the cons, Huxley develops so finely the dystopia of a pleasure-filled, perpetually content society that he blurs the line between an oppressive government and a good one. This ambiguity may lead some readers to believe the World State is a true paradise. Huxley appears technophobic in that he does not make clear that he protests the abuse of technology rather than technological advances. In almost all instances where advanced technology is featured in the story, it is abused. Finally, no female characters are positively portrayed in the novel. Of the two major female characters in the story, Lenina is described as an airhead, and Linda is a hopeless soma addict.

In all, “ Brave New World ” has had a profound and enduring impact on literature, culture, and societal discourse since its publication in 1932. As one of the most influential dystopian novels of the 20th century, it has sparked continuous reflection and debate on the ethical implications of technological advancement, government control, and consumerism. Its presentation of a society obsessed with hedonism and control has become a benchmark for evaluating contemporary societal trends and humanity’s potential future. The novel also remains a staple in academic curricula, prompting discussions on literature, philosophy, sociology, and ethics. In particular, it resonates in conversations about modern technological advancements and increasing concerns about privacy, surveillance, and bioethics, challenging contemporary readers to consider the balance between technological progress and preserving human values in society.

Brave New World: A Dystopian Vision of Technocratic Control

Book Title: Brave New World

Book Description: Written by Aldous Huxley, this is a dystopian novel that explores a future society where technology, conditioning, and genetic engineering control every aspect of human life. Citizens are bred for specific roles, conditioned to accept their predetermined social status, and kept content through a drug called soma.

Book Author: Aldous Huxley

Book Edition: Modern Classics Edition

Book Format: Paperback

Publisher - Organization: Harper Perennial

Date published: October 18, 2006

ISBN: 978-0060850524

Number Of Pages: 288

• Characterization
• Writing Style
• Lasting Effect on Reader

In ‘ Brave New World ,’ Huxley critiques consumerism, societal mass control, and hedonism. He foretells specific themes relevant to our modern age. Still, like most dystopian creators, he focuses more on the negatives of his world and offers little positives in his vision of the future.

• Engaging narrative
• Compelling characters
• A masterful exploration of philosophical themes
• Heavily didactic writing 
• Limited exploration of alternative views
• Somewhat technophobic in tone

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About Ebuka Igbokwe

Ebuka Igbokwe is the founder and former leader of a book club, the Liber Book Club, in 2016 and managed it for four years. Ebuka has also authored several children's books. He shares philosophical insights on his newsletter, Carefree Sketches and has published several short stories on a few literary blogs online.

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The Best Fiction Books » Science Fiction

Brave new world, by aldous huxley, recommendations from our site.

“It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us.” Read more...

The best books on Alternative Futures

Catherine Mayer , Politician

“It is a hilarious, and also very prescient, parody of utopias. Huxley goes back to the idea that coming together and forming a community of common interests is a great idea – it’s the basis of civil society. At the same time, when communities of common interests are taken to utopian degrees the self starts to dissolve into the larger community, you lose privacy and interiority; that becomes frightening. In Huxley’s parody, the people are convinced that they are melding together and that they are completely happy, but in the end it is utterly empty.” Read more...

The best books on Utopia

Ellen Wayland-Smith , Miscellaneou

“Brave New World was written in the 1930s, and the book portrays a happy dystopia. There is an abundance of sex. People have a good time.” Read more...

The best books on Dystopia and Utopia

Chan Koonchung , Novelist

“Huxley posits the idea that the political system actually does perfect things for people and it turns out to be nearly as scary as the horror shows actually created in the 20th century in the attempt to create the new man, whether as Aryan super-German or Marxist and whatever Mussolini and Franco were up to. So Huxley was showing us that this is a rum goal however ‘well’ it turns out.” Read more...

The Best Political Satire Books

P. J. O’Rourke , Political Commentator

“The lesson I draw from this is that the purpose of utopia is not so much as an achieved state, as to give people the freedom to pursue their own projects. That freedom requires that people are free of the fear of unemployment, or of financial disaster through poor healthcare. They should be free to have access to the kind of resources they need for their education and we should maintain and extend access to things like the Internet. Then we would have a situation where everyone is free to participate in whatever way they choose – rather than aiming for the mindless state of contentment that is the implied goal in Brave New World .” Read more...

John Quiggin , Economist

Other books by Aldous Huxley

Island by aldous huxley, moksha: aldous huxley's classic writings on psychedelics and the visionary experience by aldous huxley, our most recommended books, the left hand of darkness by ursula le guin, the dispossessed by ursula le guin, the word for world is forest by ursula le guin, some desperate glory by emily tesh, world war z: an oral history of the zombie war by max brooks, dune by frank herbert.

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Brave new world.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 14 Reviews
• Kids Say 25 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Satire of ultimate consumerist society still packs punch.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World is one of the most famous dystopian satires in the English language. Set in a society given completely over to pleasure and consumerism, it is both humorous and chilling, and ultimately raises questions about what makes us human…

Why Age 14+?

Brave New World is permeated by sex, although there are no explicit descriptions

In Brave New World, "soma" is the drug of choice for nearly everyone. It seems t

Science seems to have eliminated most violent tendencies in the inhabitants of C

African Americans are referred to as "Negroes" and Native Americans as "savages,

The novel is set in a society given completely over to pleasure and consumerism.

Any Positive Content?

Brave New World is an extremely influential dystopian science-fiction novel that

By showing the hollowness of lives devoted to consumerism, promiscuity, and empt

John, also known as "the Savage," comes as close to a sympathetic character as t

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brave New World is permeated by sex, although there are no explicit descriptions of sexual acts. Promiscuous sex is the norm, and characters routinely speak of "having" each other. Young children are encouraged to engage in sex play with their peers. Orgies are not unusual. Men chew sex-hormone gum. Women carry elaborate contraception kits. Having grown up on the reservation in New Mexico, John seeks a romantic relationship in Central London but cannot bear the gulf between his idealistic notions and his own physical urges.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In Brave New World , "soma" is the drug of choice for nearly everyone. It seems to be a tranquilizer with hallucinatory effects. It is addicitive, and prolonged use inevitably leads to physical deterioration. On the Indian reservation, mescal is drunk by the residents, and peyote is used during tribal initiations. A major character's mother succumbs to the slow deterioration brought on by soma.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Science seems to have eliminated most violent tendencies in the inhabitants of Central London. On the Indian reservation, however, life is far harsher and physically punishing. John's mother is abused by her lover, by other men, and by other women in the camp. There are also scenes of self-flagellation. The end of the novel features a violent orgy and a suicide, both of which are more implied than directly dramatized.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

African Americans are referred to as "Negroes" and Native Americans as "savages," terms not unusual at the time of the novel's publication. Because the inhabitants of Central London regard Henry Ford as a secular prophet, they use his surname as a mild expletive. Also, the word "mother" is practically an obsenity to a populace conceived and decanted from bottles.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The novel is set in a society given completely over to pleasure and consumerism. There are fictional products mentioned, but nothing that matches one-to-one with real-world items. The Ford brand is presented as a quasi-religion, but it's not meant to be taken seriously.

Educational Value

Brave New World is an extremely influential dystopian science-fiction novel that presents both a richly imagined future and a sharp critique of trends prevalent at the time of its publication that are still relevant today.

Positive Messages

By showing the hollowness of lives devoted to consumerism, promiscuity, and empty pleasure, Huxley tacitly endorses community, literacy, family, service, faithfulness, and reverence.

Positive Role Models

John, also known as "the Savage," comes as close to a sympathetic character as this novel permits. It is his belief that there is more to life than empty sex, emotion-numbing drugs, and meaningless pastimes. A white boy raised on an Indian reservation, he feels like an outcast among the Native Americans, only to be overwhelmed by the promiscuous consumer culture promoted by the World State.

Parents need to know that Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World is one of the most famous dystopian satires in the English language. Set in a society given completely over to pleasure and consumerism, it is both humorous and chilling, and ultimately raises questions about what makes us human. Although there are no explicit descriptions of sexual acts, promiscuous sex is the norm, and there is a violent orgy. There is also a suicide. Citizens of the World State take a tranquilizing, hallucinatory drug called soma, and on an Indian reservation, residents drink mescal and use peyote during tribal initiations.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

• Parents say (14)
• Kids say (25)

Based on 14 parent reviews

Everything in Context

Favorite book, what's the story.

In the far future, humanity has become almost completely dissociated from the process of reproduction. Fetuses are developed in bottles, cloned and treated with chemicals to produce infants that will fit within rigidly structured caste systems. Marriage and motherhood are unheard of. Citizens do their jobs and then relax by indulging in promiscuous sex, elaborate games, and doses of tranquilizing, hallucinatory \"soma.\" When John, a \"savage\" from an Indian reservation in what was once New Mexico, is brought to Central London, he must reconcile his beliefs with those of a bewildering, responsibility-free society.

Is It Any Good?

Along with George Orwell's 1984 , this chilling novel is one of the most famous dystopian science-fiction novels in the English language. Aldous Huxley envisions a future where a person's destiny is determined through in vitro fertilization and prenatal treatments, leading to adulthoods ruled by consumerism and aimless sex. Although originally a critique of social trends in the 1930s, the novel is still funny, disturbing, and relevant for today's readers.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how well author Aldous Huxley predicted the future when he wrote Brave New World in 1932. Was he only imagining the future, or was he also commenting upon trends at the time of the novel's publication?

Why do you think Henry Ford is viewed as a kind of prophet by the citizens of the World State? What satirical point was Huxley trying to make with this choice?

Why do you think Huxley has John quote Shakespeare so often in the novel? And why do you think Huxley chose to quote Shakespeare's play The Tempest in the book's title?

Why do you think Brave New World continues to be read and taught in high school and college literature courses?

Book Details

• Author : Aldous Huxley
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Science and Nature
• Book type : Fiction
• Publication date : February 1, 1932
• Number of pages : 288
• Last updated : June 9, 2015

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The chilling realities of a technological utopia turned dystopia

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian Fiction
• First Publication: 1932
• Language:  English
• Setting: New Mexico (United States), London, England ( in the year 2540)
• Characters: John, Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, Helmholtz Watson, Mustapha Mond, The Warden, Pope, Linda, Fanny Crowne, The Director, The Arch-Community Songster

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a literary journey that will shake you to your core. Published back in 1932, this dystopian novel was decades ahead of its time in issuing a haunting warning about the insidious creep of societal control, the dehumanizing perils of unbridled scientific advancement, and the fragility of individual freedom. Huxley’s vision of a totalitarian future cloaked in technological utopia is equal parts brilliant and chilling.

On the surface level, the “World State” that serves as Brave New World’s setting appears to be a shiny, happy, meticulously engineered paradise. Through advanced reproductive technologies and genetic engineering, humans are literally manufactured in hatcheries to fit predetermined caste roles within the regime’s strict social hierarchy. From birth, they’re indoctrinated by “hypnopaedic” programming to be model, unquestioning citizens who consume manufactured feelies ( Huxley’s version of movies and entertainment ) and take a steady drip of the ubiquitous drug soma to remain blissfully docile.

But scratch that glossy veneer and you’ll find a deeply disturbing underbelly. In this soulless dystopia, concepts like family, monogamy, heartbreak, and most forms of authentic human connection have been surgically removed as archaic “ offensive ” relics. Art, literature, and spirituality are quaint ancient pursuits to be mocked. And any glimmer of individualism or desire to question the regime is met with brutal reconditioning and social exile.

Enter our protagonist, the decidedly imperfect and dissident Alpha-Plus male Bernard Marx. Bernard is a subversive thinker who dares to harbor complex emotions and yearn for something beyond the vacuous, drug-addled life that pervades the World State. His overt disdain for the sheep-like herd mentality around him has left him isolated, the target of casual cruelty from coworkers.

Bernard’s life takes a sharp turn when he makes an illicit visit to the Savage Reservation – one of the few remaining pockets of the “primitive” human civilization left in the world. Here he encounters the captivating John, a young man born of natural childbirth raised in the old ways ( and with an endearing obsession with the works of Shakespeare, no less ). Recognizing a kindred maverick spirit, Bernard smuggles John back to unveil the “brave new world” beyond.

What ensues is a potent clash between cultures, ideologies, and worldviews that sends shock waves through the book’s precariously balanced society. John’s naive yet profound perspective throws the hypocrisies and deep-seated misery of the World State into stark relief, while Bernard faces a pivotal inner battle over whether to continue subverting the established order.

The Characters

Bernard Marx is a deliciously complex and memorable protagonist in the canon of dystopian fiction. He’s the eternal outsider at odds with the herd mindset, feeling deeply unmoored and isolated despite his elite Alpha-Plus status. Huxley imbues Bernard with undeniable flaws (like a staggering insecurity that masks his subversiveness), yet also makes him profoundly relatable and sympathetic—he’s the lone voice of dissent, struggling to deprogram himself from systemic brainwashing.

I was particularly struck by John the Savage’s perspective as the ultimate “outsider within.” Having been raised in a sheltered traditionalist environment, his brushes with so-called “civilized” society are disorienting whirlwind. His soulful introspection and existential grappling felt so raw and real to me. How many of us raised in modern society can also relate to that gnawing sense that there’s something deeply wrong and dehumanizing about the systems we inhabit? John gave voice to that inner conflict so powerfully.

Many readers agree that Huxley’s brilliant characterizations are what make Brave New World so impactful, even all these decades later. The World State citizens like the jaded Helmholtz Watson or the vapid, pleasure-seeking Lenina Crowne serve as chilling caricature archetypes—embodiments of the willful ignorance and soul-deadening conformity that the regime inflicts on its populace.

Writing Style and Themes

From the first few pages, it becomes clear that Huxley was a true master craftsman in command of gorgeously rich, impactful prose. His descriptive talents are unparalleled, painting shockingly visceral yet clinical depictions of the dehumanizing hatchery system, genetic engineering processes, and the vapid bacchanals of recreational intimacy without emotional intimacy. This juxtaposition between elegant language and deeply unsettling subject matter grips you in a constant push-pull.

Tonally, Huxley wields the full versatility of his writing, seamlessly alternating between biting satire, philosophically dense ponderings, and moments of stark emotional poignancy. Punctuated with ominous bits of wry, dark humor, Brave New World never lets you get too comfortable.

Thematically, this is a dense work that serves up a buffet of thought-provoking questions and ruminations to chew on. The battle between cold scientific rationality and human emotion. The chilling leveling effects of unchecked totalitarianism and dehumanization. The inextricable link between personal freedom and pain/hardship. The existential search for truth and meaning in a society that has supplanted all sense of spirituality, ethics and culture with hollow pleasures. I found myself underlining passage after passage as Huxley ignited a roaring philosophical debate within my own mind.

The book is also deeply prescient in foreshadowing many of the social and technological dilemmas we face today—issues around genetic engineering, overpopulation, and growing calamities unfolding due to reckless scientific advancement without moral/ethical guardrails. Huxley’s crystal ball in 1932 was frighteningly on-point about where we may be headed if we fully divorce ourselves from our humanity.

What People Are Saying

Brave New World has long been hailed as one of the greatest dystopian novels ever written, and over 90 years later, the effusive praise and intense discussion around Huxley’s masterwork hasn’t dimmed. Readers are still dissecting the book’s eerily on-point prognostications about our societal trajectory and continuing to derive new relevance from its timeless themes.

Critics have lauded Huxley’s ingenious world-building and creation of a plausible, intricately constructed anti-utopia. The regime’s ruthless scientific caste system, indoctrination methods, and systematic stripping of human connections have chilling modern parallels that resonate powerfully. Many point to how Huxley seemed to accurately predict the rise of mass distraction/entertainment and pharmaceutical numbing of the populace.

Academics have penned volumes analyzing the complex philosophical questions Brave New World forces us to confront. Ethics in scientific advancement, metaphysical ponderings on what makes us human and finds meaning, and the perils of unfettered control systems stripped of morality are just some of the rich veins mined.

Socially, the novel has sparked heated debates about totalitarianism, censorship, conformity, and the tension between collective “stability” and personal liberty. Both proponents of Huxley’s vision and staunch detractors make compelling arguments that remain salient today.

On a personal level, I can’t understate how profoundly Brave New World shook my core belief systems and inner world to their foundations. As both a ravenous reader and someone who works in the technology sector, Huxley’s dystopian prognostications gave me a full-body chill of discomfort.

We like to assume in 2024 that we’re enlightened, that we’ve learned the lessons of history’s darkest totalitarian chapters and hardwired safeguards to prevent such a dehumanizing societal backslide. Yet as I sank deeper into Bernard and John’s world, I recognized glaring mirrors being held up to many aspects of our current society. The relentless pursuit of manufactured, fleeting pleasures and comforts via consumerism, pharmaceutical crutches and vapid entertainment, for one.

I found the notion of an entire segment of people being preconditioned from birth to blindly consume, obey, have the “appropriate” emotions…to surrender any semblance of independent identity or thought, utterly chilling. And having seen intimately how unchecked growth and prioritizing of technological “disruption” at any cost can eat away at our humanity, Huxley’s warnings hit like a ton of bricks.

John the Savage’s perspective resonated with me on a visceral level too. How many of us feel that building inner emptiness that technology and perpetual “progress” can never satiate? That nagging sense that despite all our advancements and material abundance, we’ve lost some vital essence – a spiritual and communal richness that grounds us and gives existence profound meaning and beauty? Brave New World forced me to stare that feeling directly in the face.

While the subject matter is undeniably bleak and often deeply disturbing, I actually came away from this reading experience with an unexpected glimmer of hope. Huxley seems to posit that what elevates us and preserves our humanity is our capacity for love, emotional connection, and artistic expression—these are the catalysts for genuine meaning that no manufactured utopia can ever replicate.

Characters like Bernard and John were flawed and deeply scarred individuals. Yet their dogged insistence on retaining their inner identity, questioning the orthodoxy, and fighting for freedom represented the spark of the human spirit that no regime can extinguish. Their spirit resonated with me long after that gut-punch of a final chapter.

Wrapping It Up

Brave New World is a transcendent literary achievement that every reader needs to experience at least once. This is so much more than just a gripping, disquieting tale of a plausible dystopian future. It’s a brilliant philosophical exercise, an unblinking mirror into the uncomfortable truths about our modern society, and a timeless meditation on the perils of divorcing science and “progress” from ethics, freedom and our essential humanity.

Has Huxley’s imagined world manifested in all its horrifying specifics in 2024? Perhaps not (though some would argue we’re closer than we’d like to admit) . But the deeper questions and warnings this novel issued some 90 years ago are still just as vital, catalyzing intense introspection about where our trajectory as a civilization is leading us.

Above all, Brave New World is an exquisitely rendered reminder of the fundamental truth that great art, true emotion, human connections, and freedom of thought are not just lofty ideals to cling to…they are the core pillars that uphold our very existential vibrancy. To quote a character, “What is the price for a slice of reality?”

In the precarious balance of that question hangs the fate and soul of the “brave new world” we’re building every single day. This is a book that will burrow under your skin long after reading and rattle the way you view technology, comfort, individual liberty and, ultimately, what it means to be alive. Read it, analyze it, and discuss it. But most importantly, let it compel you to choose humanity, in all its messy, anguished, yet exquisite vibrancy.

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Book Review: “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a tale of three men awakening in “the nightmare of swarming indistinguishable sameness.” That this world is becoming real right now makes the novel, published in 1932, perfectly relevant. Brave New World contains insight and wonder as five distinctive characters arc with clever plot tie-ins and twists. Reading the classic dystopian-themed novel affords a serious, intellectual perspective on the cause of anti-civilization. But Mr. Huxley’s tale of biomedical totalitarianism — a society lulled into dogmatic, drug-induced submission to nihilism (“Christianity without tears”) — also expresses with poetry, foresight and pathos a chilling projection of what could become of the West. And, since he wrote this book, has.

The story, set in a future London, encompasses a trio who refuse to fully submit to altruism and collectivism. “[E]very one belongs to every one else,” a state Controller instructs a band of lower-level work trainees from a biologically pre-ordained population. “The students nodded, emphatically agreeing with a statement which upwards of sixty-two thousand repetitions in the dark [as they slept] had made them accept, not merely as true, but as axiomatic, self-evident, utterly indisputable.”

At the center is an everyman, Bernard Marx, who yearns for approval from others in a “World State” in which technology as an end in itself is worshipped as a religion. Mr. Huxley dramatizes techno-statism to an extreme; daily living means festivities on Ford’s Day, named after Ford Motor Company’s founder, Community Sings and Solidarity Services.

In our age of gaming, memes and streaming, as well as mindless worship of “first responders”, surveillance and security statism, drones and artificial intelligence, amid the Orwellian command to “stay safe” and sacrifice liberty, it’s impossible to deny the daring originality of Brave New World ’s thesis that medicine, biotechnology and sensory-driven machinery could serve to accelerate the rise of the omnipotent state. “Liquid air, television, vibro-vacuum massage, radio, boiling caffeine solution, hot contraceptives, and eight different kinds of scent were laid on in every bedroom,” Mr. Huxley writes. As hypnotic music’s piped into public spaces, the citizen transports, hovers and travels by flying machine and files with a herd of likenesses into lessons from “The Professor of Feelies [think the Movies] in the College of Emotional Engineering, the dean of the Westminster Community Singery...”

How did a free society become blank and brainless? Aldous Huxley’s vision is neither as piercing as Ayn Rand’s nor as gut-punching as George Orwell’s. But in Brave New World he knows and accounts for nihilism‘s cause and effect, writing: “The Nine Years War. That made them change their tune alright. What’s the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you?”

Those living under today’s oppressors, such as Boris Johnson, Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom, and anyone facing lockdown, can recognize the Controller’s proclamation that “... as I make the laws here, I can also break them.” Like today’s social pressure to conform via press and civic propaganda, Mr. Huxley’s omnipotent medical state counts upon the collective to keep the individual down, dispatching speakers at the Young Women’s Fordian Association, the Feelytone News and soma , the drug which everyone is induced to use.

Shakespeare, who provides the novel’s title, is dismissed as a bother. Books make way for pictures, the feelies, and chronic sensory stimulation. Anyone tempted to pause, reflect, speak out, doubt or question a dosage of drugs, let alone defy the state, is called before the Controller or the Human Element Manager. Or publicly negated.

The effect is everyone’s obedience to government control. The object of Bernard Marx’s affections is a pink-fleshed young woman named Lenina, who bristles at his uniqueness and seeks to induce artificial calm with soma with “the result that she could now sit, serenely not listening, thinking of nothing at all.” This nothingness, coupled with hedonism such as orgies with indiscriminate sex and drugs, constitutes life under global government control.

One method for inculcating total obedience indelibly unfolds in a scene at a state-run Hospital for the Dying, where, at “the foot of every bed, confronting its moribund occupant, was the television box. Television was left on, a running tap, from morning till night.”

Alternating between tempting the reader to fall for short-range feelgoods over going by reason with acts of cruelty and injustice, Mr. Huxley uses satire to soften the contrast, pivoting to America’s Southwest. Bernard and Lenina visit a place called Awonawilona, where Londoners go to remind themselves — by ridiculing natural human “savages” living without drugs — of the folly of being permitted to naturally age and grow old. There, they hear of “Earth Mother and Sky Father”. 

But they also observe evidence of living another way, meeting a man who comes to be known as John the Savage, who poses the novel’s primary conflict. The handsome man, raised by a white woman among savages, knows that, unlike test-tube-made citizens, he’s got a mother, which goes against the edict that the family, like the individual, must be denied. John rejects this dogma. John’s resolve changes everything.

John the Savage regards literature, not drugs or pictures on a “television box”, as the keystone to civilization. The Savage reads and quotes Shakespeare. The Savage questions why others do not.

The world offers abnegation, not answers. This, too, is author Huxley’s point. As the Controller, a brute named Mustapha Mond who studied physics, explains, “our science is just a cookery book, with an orthodox theory of cooking that nobody’s allowed to question, and a list of recipes that mustn’t be added to except by special permission from the head cook.” In a line ominously echoing America’s oncoming government, Mustapha Mond gets to his point and adds: “I’m the head cook now.” 

In a timely subplot, John is crippled by compulsory isolation. He, too, comes from where faith guides life. Among American natives, he was physically and mentally targeted, persecuted and tortured for being literate, civilized and, it must be noted, white by those who accept the tech-regime’s altruism of “… every one belonging to every one else…” 

Long before pictures and games became the daily fix sedating people into submission to statism, lack of privacy or instantaneously triggered outrage cued by the sound of a key word — decades before suicide, sniveling and mocking decency were accepted as a new normal — before college-bred World Wide Web masters lured millions into sharing platitudes as if they were new ideals, Mr. Huxley forewarned of a monstrous world in which pod people fixate on “boxes where you could see and hear what was happening at the other side of the world…”

“Alone, always alone,” John laments late in the plot. “If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely. They’re beastly to [the] one.” Though he bonds with Bernard and a good-looking writer named Helmholtz, John’s thoughts form a deeper introspection he comes to activate within himself. “‘O brave new world,’ he began, then suddenly interrupted himself; the blood had left his cheeks; he was as pale as paper.”

Here, in spine-chilling detail, Mr. Huxley hones the enduring appeal of his short, crisp novel. An exchange occurs when John, the mangled man-boy, cast out of the world’s tidy, pre-conceived dictatorship, and Mustapha Mond, who’s taken with the more civilized “savage”, if only to try to make him submit, rebuffs the opiates of collectivism and, implicitly, altruism, and short-range feelies. John tells the Controller:

“... I like the inconveniences.”

“We don’t,” said the Controller. “We prefer to do things comfortably.“

“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

“In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.”

“All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy.”

Of course, what John wants is recognition of his right to choose whether to risk being unhappy—the inalienable right to his own life—and Mr. Huxley chooses not to explicate this ideal.

What comes next may surprise the reader, as the depravity of life under docile dictatorship becomes lucid. Mond comes across a censored line of someone’s individualistic writing. The underlined margin note reads: “ Not to be published ”, under which the Controller draws “a second line, thicker and blacker than the first; then sigh[s], “What fun it would be,” he thought, “if one didn’t have to think about happiness.”

Aldous Huxley’s bitter fable of man’s search for solitude, love and the peace which comes from being left alone thoughtfully depicts the blank, industrialized world which foreshadows today’s darker new world. It’s true that one can read this as a cleverly inventive forewarning against a techno-biomedical state. But one ought to read Brave New World as a poetic story about the effort to live on one’s own terms here and now.

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The Literary Edit

Review: Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

When it came to the final six books I had left to read on the BBC Top 100 , Brave New World was the shortest, and thus the easiest one to chose as my next read. While it didn’t sound like the kind of novel I’d usually be interested in, at less than 300 pages its length was certainly more appealing than my other options.

Written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932, Brave New World takes its title from Miranda’s speech in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and is set in London of AD 2540. Brave New World is in essence a portrayal of a utopia (or dystopia, depending how you look at it) in which there is constant prosperity, people are always content, as they are well provided for and have been programmed to like all aspects of society. This programming is undertaken by workers in charge of breeding the future citizens of this idyllic world, which is united under one government, under Ford. As everybody has been programmed to like their class and job, everybody is constantly content and has no wish to do anything other than what is required of them. If they happen to become depressed, of course, there is always the mood altering drug Soma.

Often deemed as one of the most important science fiction novels ever written, it boasts an abundance of satire, futuristic extrapolation, and philosophical discussion; and indeed there’s no doubt that Huxley’s writing style is full of wit. While Brave New World hasn’t been my favourite from the BBC Top 100, the aim of my challenge was to read outside my comfort zone, and I can say that in reading Huxley’s best-known book, I’ve certainly done that.

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - review

"O brave new world, that hath such people in it!"

Brave New World is a classic - it is a dystopian novel similar in theme to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I was recommended to read this book, by my cousin, as I enjoy dystopian novels. Brave New World revolves around the idea of totalitarianism and is set in a futuristic world where a combination of science and pleasure form a rather feudalistic society. This idea of totalitarianism is achieved through test tube babies, and hypnotism, resulting in a pre-ordained caste system consisting of intelligent humans suited to the highest positions and conversely, serf-like beings genetically programmed to carry out menial works. In this world of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and the unfortunate Epsilons, exists drug-induced happiness, caused by what is known as soma. Here, "everyone belongs to everyone else" emphasising the system of forced promiscuity, brainwashed into the people from the moment of birth. At the core of this book is the horrific idea of eugenics and despite being written several decades ago, its message remains valid for our generation.

Brave New World explores the negatives of a ostensibly successful world in which everyone appears to be content and satisfied, with excessive carnal pleasures yet really, this stability is only achieved by sacrificing freedom in its true sense and the idea of personal responsibility.

I think this book is really interesting as it explores the dangers of technology and what it can do to a whole world; indeed, Huxley is trying to convey the idea that technology does not have the power to save us successfully. This theme is what makes the novel controversial - yet a classic that we can relate to, especially in today's world, where technology is close enough to ruling our lives, what with high tech computers, music players and gaming consoles fast becoming a natural part of our lives. Additionally, Brave New World explores the idea of just how far science can go without being immoral. Would we really want to live in a world where eugenics rule and despite everyone being equal on the surface, deep underneath bubbles the idea of inequuality and unfairness? Not for me, thanks! The novel presents the contradictory idea of a Utopia, a perfect world, yet the word "utopia" is derived from two Greek words meaning "good place" and "no place"; this suggests that the perfect world is impossible.

It is true that this book is a complex read and I must confess that some parts I did not understand; however, the novel's meaning has left a deep impression on me. It's certainly a book I won't forget, and I would recommend it to readers aged fourteen and over as the ideas presented are complex, and Huxley writes in a very adult-like manner, with exceedingly complicated sentences and very complex vocabulary.

Overall, Brave New World is a scary depiction of what could soon be our future. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this well written and thought provoking novel.

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Book Review: “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley

I was never very interested in reading this book until lately, when political pundits began setting it up as an opposite to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four . After reading it, I don’t really see them as opposites so much as complimentary, dystopian views of the direction our world may be headed.

Orwell’s vision of a world enslaved, body and soul, by a totalitarian communist state, dates from 1949. Huxley’s best known work came even earlier, in 1932. Where Orwell’s nightmare future state uses coded language and, on occasion, torture to condition the thoughts of its citizens, Huxley’s uses a cocktail of drugs, mass entertainment, and propaganda recordings repeated over and over while people sleep. Hypnopedia, they call it: sleep-teaching. In Orwell’s imagination, religion has been replaced with devotion to Big Brother. In Huxley’s fantasy, it’s the word of our Ford, whose symbol (based on a model of automobile) is the T, and whose vision of mass production and mass consumption has become the guiding principle of civilization.

In Orwell’s world, a citizen’s absolute obedience to the state is ensured by allowing him to form only sanctioned relationships, while family ties and other personal intimacies are neutralized by the fear of being betrayed for thought crime and whatnot. In Huxley’s world, the family has been totally abolished. Children are decanted from bottles, not born. Their socioeconomic destiny is fore-ordained by genetic tests, hormone treatments and chemical intervention before they take their first breath. Hypnopedia, mass entertainment, and unrestricted sex and drugs combine to keep them happy with their lot in life and leave them no time for solitary reflection. Concepts like “mother” and “father” have become obscenities, throwbacks to an all but forgotten world.

Orwell’s Winston Smith fornicates as an act of political defiance, and pays for it by being brainwashed back into conformity. Huxley’s John the Savage resists the sex play of the infantile, happiness-centered society he finds himself in, and eventually destroys himself rather than submit. A person who sticks out of the norm, in Orwell’s world, might be disappeared and made an unperson, the very memory of him erased by a communal fear of sharing his fate. Such a person in Huxley’s world is only sent to an island where he can enjoy the company of other exceptional people without disturbing the stability of society.

It is impossible to read both of these books today without filtering them through the lens of each other. Both are regularly featured in lists of “100 Books Everyone Should Read” and the like. Both began to be regarded as prophetic within a very few years. Both of them resonate in certain ways with the trend of today’s civilization. I wouldn’t choose either one over the other, or set them up as alternatives. Whether the revolution is driven by socialist ideology or by unchecked consumerism and the dehumanizing march of scientific progress is really only a detail. When you filter out the speculative details that make both books fun to read, you are left with similar grave messages about the possibility, perhaps the inevitability, of a future in which a utopian philosophy gains power and crushes individuality, true freedom, and the greatest achievements of human culture in the name of state security or social stability.

I listened to an unabridged audio-CD edition of this book read by the distinguished actor Michael York. He did a fabulous job reading it. It’s a brief book, sometimes a little talky and philosophical, often amusing and titillating, frequently horrifying, completely weird, and for at least one experimental passage where the point of view shifts every sentence or two, ludicrously difficult to sell as a vocal performance. So York deserves full credit for keeping me engaged throughout the book. As for Huxley, he wrote a sequel called Brave New World Revisited in 1958; ten other novels including Crome Yellow and Point Counter Point ; loads of essays, poems, and criticism; a play, a few short stories, and a children’s picture book called The Crows of Pearblossom . For a full list, click here .

Buy the book!d Aldous Huxley at Wikipedia Films based on this title Recommended Ages: 14+

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'Brave New World' Overview

Aldous Huxley's Controversial Dystopian Masterpiece

Leslie Holland / Chatto and Windus (London)

• M.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan
• M.A., Journalism, New York University.
• B.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan

Brave New World is Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel set in a technocratic World State, a society that rests on the core of community, identity, and stability. The reader follows two main characters, first the disgruntled Bernard Marx, then the outsider John, or “The Savage,” as they question the tenets of the World State, a place where people live on a baseline-state of superficial happiness in order to avoid dealing with the truth.

Fast Facts: Brave New World

• Title: Brave New World
• Author: Aldous Huxley
• Publisher:  Chatto & Windous
• Year Published: 1932
• Genre: Dystopian
• Type of Work: Novel
• Original Language: English
• Themes: Utopia/dystopia; technocracy; individual vs. community; truth and deception
• Main Characters: Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, John, Linda, DHC, Mustapha Mond
• Notable Adaptations: Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Brave New World for SyFy
• Fun Fact: Kurt Vonnegut admitted to ripping off the plot of Brave New World for Player Piano (1952), claiming that Brave New World ’s plot “had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'We.'" 

Plot Summary

Brave New World follows a few characters as they live their lives in the seemingly utopian World State metropolis of London. It is a society that rests on consumerism and collectivism and has a rigid caste system. Bernard Marx, a petty and depressive psychiatrist who works for the Hatchery, is sent on a mission to the New Mexico Reservation, where “savages” live. He is accompanied by Lenina Crowne, an attractive foetus technician. On the Reservation, they meet Linda, a former citizen of the World State who had stayed behind, and her son John, born through a “viviparous” procreation, a scandal in the World State. When Bernard and Lenina bring the two back to London, John serves as the mouthpiece for the conflicts between the Reservation, which still abides by traditional values, and the technocracy of the World State. 

Main Characters

Bernard Marx. The protagonist of the first part of the novel, Marx is a member of the “Alpha” caste with an inferiority complex, which prompts him to question the core values of the regime of the World State. He has an overall bad personality.

John. Known also as “The Savage,” John is the protagonist of the second half of the novel. He grew up in the Reservation and was birthed naturally by Linda, a former citizen of the World State. He bases his world view on Shakespeare’s work and antagonizes the values of the World State. He loves Lenina in a way that is more than lust.

Lenina Crowne. Lenina is an attractive foetus technician who is promiscuous according to the social requirements of the World State, and seems perfectly content with her life. She is sexually attracted to Marx’s melancholy and to John.

Linda. John’s mother, she got accidentally impregnated by the DHC and was left behind following a storm during a mission in New Mexico. In her new environment, she was both desired, since she was promiscuous, and reviled for the very same reason. She likes mescaline, peyotl, and craves the World State drug soma.

Director of Hatchery and Conditioning (DHC). A man devoted to the regime, he at first intends to exile Marx for his less than ideal disposition, but then Marx outs him as the natural father of John, causing him to resign in shame.

Main Themes

Community vs. Individuals. The World State rests on three pillars, which are community, identity, and Stability. Individuals are seen as part of a greater whole, and superficial happiness is encouraged, and difficult emotions are artificially suppressed, for the sake of stability

Truth vs. Self Delusion. Delusion for the sake of stability prevents citizens from accessing the truth. Mustapha Mond claims that people are better off living with a superficial sense of happiness than with facing the truth.

Technocracy. The World State is ruled by technology and is particularly controlling of reproduction and emotions. Emotions are mitigated through shallow entertainment and drugs, while reproduction happens in assembly-line fashion. Sex, by contrast, becomes a very mechanized commodity. 

Literary Style

Brave New World is written in a highly detailed, yet clinical style that reflects the predominance of technology at the expense of emotions. Huxley has a tendency to juxtapose and jump between scenes, such as when he interposes Lenina and Fanny’s locker-room talk with the history of the World State, which contrasts the regime with the individuals that dwell in it. Through the character of John, Huxley introduces literary references and Shakespeare quotes. 

About the Author

Aldous Huxley authored nearly 50 books between novels and non-fiction works. He was part of the Bloomsbury group, studied the Vedanta, and pursued mystical experiences through the use of psychedelics, which are recurring themes in his novels Brave New World (1932) and Island (1962), and in his memoiristic work The Doors of Perception (1954).

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Brave New World

Aldous Huxley | 4.14 | 2,074,677 ratings and reviews

Ranked #1 in GRE Prep , Ranked #1 in GRE — see more rankings .

Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Brave New World from the world's leading experts.

Sam Altman Partner & President/Y Combinator Recommends this book

Yuval Noah Harari Historian The most prophetic book of the 20th century. Today many people would easily mistake it for a utopia. (Source)

John Quiggin The lesson I draw from this is that the purpose of utopia is not so much as an achieved state, as to give people the freedom to pursue their own projects. That freedom requires that people are free of the fear of unemployment, or of financial disaster through poor healthcare. They should be free to have access to the kind of resources they need for their education and we should maintain and extend access to things like the Internet. Then we would have a situation where everyone is free to participate in whatever way they choose – rather than aiming for the mindless state of contentment that... (Source)

Ellen Wayland-Smith It is a hilarious, and also very prescient, parody of utopias. Huxley goes back to the idea that coming together and forming a community of common interests is a great idea – it’s the basis of civil society. At the same time, when communities of common interests are taken to utopian degrees the self starts to dissolve into the larger community, you lose privacy and interiority; that becomes frightening. In Huxley’s parody, the people are convinced that they are melding together and that they are completely happy, but in the end it is utterly empty. (Source)

Catherine Mayer It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us. (Source)

Chan Koonchung Brave New World was written in the 1930s, and the book portrays a happy dystopia. There is an abundance of sex. People have a good time. (Source)

Igor Debatur Question: What five books would you recommend to young people interested in your career path & why? Answer: The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche The Castle by Franz Kafka 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Source)

Sol Orwell Question: What books had the biggest impact on you? Perhaps changed the way you see things or dramatically changed your career path. Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 (though Huxley's Brave New World is a better reflection of today's society). (Source)

Andra Zaharia These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. (Source)

Tristan Harris Recommends this book

Jordan B Peterson Brave New World by Aldous Huxley https://t.co/a6K8tI8FrF, a book from my great books list https://t.co/AxBNX3QpMb (Source)

P J O’Rourke Huxley posits the idea that the political system actually does perfect things for people and it turns out to be nearly as scary as the horror shows actually created in the 20th century in the attempt to create the new man, whether as Aryan super-German or Marxist and whatever Mussolini and Franco were up to. So Huxley was showing us that this is a rum goal however ‘well’ it turns out. (Source)

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• #14 in 10th Grade
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Book Review For Teens: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

This classic dystopian novel illuminates very clearly how the fears of eighty years ago still remain today. Only by looking to the future, and to the past, can readers come to understand what it truly means to be happy.

Previous review: Book Review: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

TEACHER REVIEW | by Matt Peterson

Published in 1932, Aldous Huxley’s futuristic, anti-industrial dystopia, Brave New World , offers a blithe picture of a bleak possibility. The novel is set in an era called After Ford (A.F.) and by 632 A.F., global civilization has solved over-population, geo-political violence, unemployment, class conflict, and social malaise—all within the pillars of Community, Identity, and Stability.

To us, perhaps, it sounds like the citizens of the World State have it all. Until we count the cost. For the people of “Our Ford,” the best way to “have it all” is not, actually, to have it all. Instead it’s to change the terms, to constrain and redefine the goal. Fordians live by a narrower bandwidth, free from the chasms of life, but also alien to its heights. They exchange happiness for pleasure and quality for quantity. As readers, we can’t shake the notion that Huxley’s future gains stability at the cost of what truly gives us life: purpose, love, and belonging.

At the start of each school year , to reclaim my educational footing (as much for myself as for my students), I take to the chalkboard and define what fiction is: “an imaginative response to a social reality.”

By implication, all serious fiction is prophecy. It is a call to the masses and to the human heart to reconcile what we are becoming with all that we should become. Huxley’s dystopia is not about the future. It’s no cautionary tale, but an indictment of the principles we live by. Huxley’s readers are shocked, not by how shallow his future is, but by how similar it is to their own.

No spoiler alert here: I don’t know the end of our story. We are, as Rainer Maria Rilke said, living our way into the answers. We read on to learn the fate of Lenina Crowne, Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, and John Savage. And we read to learn to author a fate different from theirs—a fate far richer, even if refined by the crucible of an uncertain world.

TEEN REVIEW | by Lexi Hubbel

Brave New World is a stunningly current novel that presents social critique through a dystopian world. The conversations prompted by this novel are no less relevant today than when the book was first published 83 years ago.

Huxley fabricates a world centered on the pillars of “Community, Identity, and Stability,” one that has chosen to “shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness.” This society achieves comfort and happiness through pre-birth conditioning of its members. You have a predestined role, and in that role you are happy, desiring nothing greater. When you slip away from happiness, you drink a soothing beverage called soma “to calm your anger, to reconcile your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering.” Rather than bothering with the complexities and instability caused by families and marital relationships, in this society “everyone belongs to everyone else.” You have no mother. You have no spouse, no god to rely on. Instead you rely on the system, the soma, the conditioning.

Then a man called “the Savage,” raised by his mother with beliefs founded in God, disrupts the system. He exposes this carefully planned world to life dictated by passion. For the Fordians, this is an entirely unfamiliar concept. The Savage is familiar with the highs and lows that accompany the intense feelings of passion. He brings about the instability this world works to control.

Brave New World prompts readers to reconsider their own values, and how through these values they find meaning—whether they choose the path of happiness, or truth, or perhaps a combination of the two.

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Brave New World By Aldous Huxley

Rating: terrific.

First Published: 1932 Pages: 311

Review © 2010 by Stephen Roof Genre:  Science Fiction, Utopian/Dystopian, Literature

Brave New World is one of the few science fiction classics that are also generally considered a classic of literature.  This novel, along with George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 are probably the most famous literature classics that also fall into the science fiction category.  All three are also in the subcategory of utopian/dystopian fiction.  Besides the fact that these 3 novels contain quality writing, they also all contain scary projections or warnings about where the future could lead.  Nineteen Eighty-Four is the most famous of these novels with the iconic image of “Big Brother” but for my money, Brave New World is the best.

Brave New World starts off with a tour of a new kind of factory that produces human babies through methods of mass production.  Natural birth has been completely eliminated in civilized countries.  Test tube reproduction has been optimized with the ability to divide the fertilized eggs to create up to 96 identical eggs from the original.  This allows whole factories to be staffed with identical workers.  In addition, different levels of intelligence are purposefully developed so that jobs can be matched to workers with an appropriate intelligence for the job.  I could go on but for more fascinating details, you should read the novel. 

The novel continues with further descriptions of a civilization that has finally succeeded in eliminating war.  It has also eliminated traditional religions which have been replaced with consumerism and instant gratification of all needs.  If any individual starts to experience discontentment or unhappiness, they can pop a few Soma pills, a drug that help make anyone feel good and forget about all troubles.  Huxley does a great job of creating a fully realized future described with a generous amount of satire as he finds ways to poke fun at just about every aspect of society. 

Within this fascinating future, we meet Bernard who is very unusual in that something happened during his test tube gestation which left him in with a substandard physique.  He also has personality issues from not being like everyone else that cause him unhappiness.  Somehow he manages to convince an attractive co-worker to go with him on a vacation to visit a “savage” reservation where American Indians continue to live traditionally apart from the civilized world.  When Bernard finds a young “half breed” named John among the Indians, he brings him back to England where John becomes a celebrity as a curiosity.  John experiences extreme culture shock and is horrified with many of the sacrifices civilization has made in order to create a stable society.  However, John, dubbed “Mr. Savage” by the press, finds it impossible to convince civilized people that his ideas have any merit.   

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Book Review

Brave new world.

• Aldous Huxley
• Dystopian , Futuristic , Science Fiction

Readability Age Range

• Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2006) is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers
• Modern Library 100 Best Novels list, The Guardian’s Best 100 Novels and others

Year Published

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

The year is 632 A.F., (which stands for After Ford). Henry Ford’s name is reverenced and used the way Christians once used the Lord’s name. Innovation and technology abound in this society, which abides by the motto “Community, Identity, Stability.”

The story opens with the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (DHC) explaining his work to young students. He shows them around the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where children are mass-produced. He explains the Bokanovsky Process, in which groups of up to 96 identical human beings can be created at once. It provides uniformity and stability, he explains, if groups of identical individuals can all work in the same factories doing the same tasks.

Children are grown and conditioned at the Centre to be Alphas or Betas and downward to include the least intelligent Epsilons. They receive messages when they sleep (called hypnopaedia) and conditioning, including shock therapy, while they’re awake. They’re trained to know exactly what to think, say, feel and believe based on their predestined position in society.

They’re also conditioned about how to think and feel about the other social classes. They’re repeatedly assured that everyone is happy now. They’re told history is bunk, including religion and other stories contained in forbidden books like the Bible or anything else published before 150 A.F.

No matter the social class, children are taught to be consumers for the good of society. They should always buy something new rather than try to repair something old. Some embryos are developed as freemartins. They are structurally normal but guaranteed sterile. Technology allows people to remain fairly young-looking until they reach about 60, when they die quickly and happily.

Viviparous reproduction (or the development of a child within its mother’s body) is scorned as an antiquated and repulsive practice. Leaders believe the kind of strong love and passion that once existed between mother and child or monogamous lovers caused unnecessary pain and isolation. In this society, sexual promiscuity is encouraged and even required.

As all children are taught hypnopathically, everyone belongs to everyone else. People also use a substance called soma regularly. It supposedly includes all of the advantages of Christianity and alcohol but none of the side effects.

Lenina Crowne is a young woman who follows the conventions of her time. The problem is that she’s been having sex with the same man lately. Her friend urges her to follow protocol and be more promiscuous. Lenina decides to accept an invitation from co-worker Bernard Marx to go on holiday in America.

Even though he’s an Alpha, Bernard is shorter and thinner than the typical highly intelligent male. Some speculate alcohol accidentally got mixed in with his chemicals during fertilization. Bernard always feels he’s not receiving the credit and attention he deserves. He feels isolated on many levels, and people look down on him for his desire to spend time alone.

He seems less susceptible to the conditioning messages and soma -induced relaxation than others. Bernard’s only real friend is Helmholtz Watson. Helmholtz is a massive, handsome specimen. But like Bernard, he suffers from mental excess. Both men are just a little too smart, which makes them keenly aware of the emptiness in the people and activities around them.

Bernard wants to take Lenina to an Indian reservation in New Mexico, but he has to get clearance from the Director. The Director lapses into a story of a time he took a woman named Linda to that same reservation. She got lost, and he was never able to find her again. He had to leave without her.

The reservation is a startling contrast from Bernard and Lenina’s insulated society. The so-called savages don’t have pleasant golf games, scented rooms or anti-aging technology. They honor Jesus and practice other ancient worship rituals. Most unsettling, women still give birth to babies.

Bernard is fascinated, but the overwhelmed Lenina drowns her feelings in soma until she runs out. They meet a young savage with light-colored skin named John. When Bernard hears that John’s mother was trapped here, he realizes John must be the Director’s son. Bernard and Lenina are shocked to meet Linda, an ugly and old woman.

On the reservation, Linda had continued to practice her conditioned promiscuity. She was scorned and even beaten by the Indians who believed in marriage and fidelity. Since soma wasn’t used on the reservation, Linda drowned her sorrow in alcohol. She tells Bernard and Lenina she doesn’t know how her contraception failed. Since there was no abortion clinic available, she had to go through the horrible process of childbearing.

Because of Bernard’s unorthodox behavior at the Centre, the Director has threatened to transfer him to an island. Bernard realizes Linda and John are his bargaining chips. He brings them back to London with him as part of a social experiment. When the Director tries to publically transfer him, Bernard brings the boy and his mother in to meet Daddy.

The abashed Director resigns immediately. Linda is too horrid for anyone to look at, so she’s hospitalized and given large doses of soma that will ultimately kill her. People are fascinated by the savage John, and Bernard quickly takes on the role of publicist. For the first time in his life, Bernard enjoys the respect of others.

He starts taking soma , sleeping with more women and enjoying all the happiness offered by his society. John, however, is shocked and appalled by the society he’s entered. Having grown up with a combination of Native American tradition and a love for Shakespeare, he can’t fathom people’s desire to numb all of their emotions.

John is enamored with Lenina, but he’s a romantic with a vastly different value system. They go on a date to see a feely, which is a 4-D, sexually-charged movie. Lenina is disappointed that John is appalled by the movie and that he won’t sleep with her.

Bernard plans a major event at which his savage is supposed to appear. John, who is growing more distraught, refuses to attend. Bernard is scorned by all, and his foray into fame immediately ends. Lenina tries again to seduce John, who wants to have a pure and romantic relationship.

He asks her to marry him, which she considers absurd. She begins to undress, and the aghast John pushes her off, calling her a whore. She hides in the bathroom while, in his anger, he quotes Shakespeare . Just then, John gets a call that his mother is dying. He rushes to Linda’s side.

John is shocked by the cheerfully decorated Hospital for the Dying. Linda barely knows John, though she remembers her old lover from the reservation. John panics and starts crying out God’s name as her face turns blue. Traumatized children, who are present because they’re supposed to be receiving positive conditioning about death, are quickly given chocolate eclairs.

John rushes from the ward to find the menial staff, two large Bokanovsky groups, lining up for the nightly soma distribution. John addresses the men and women, passionately urging them to choose freedom from soma . When they will not, he starts throwing the pills out the window. Their supervisor calls Bernard to tell him John is there and has gone mad. Bernard and Helmholtz arrive while police calm the anxious employees by playing relaxing messages and spraying soma gas.

The police take John, Bernard and Helmholtz to the office of Western Europe World Controller, Mustapha Mond. John is surprised to hear Mond likes Shakespeare, too. He’s allowed to read such an old book because he makes the rules. But, Mond explains, Shakespeare doesn’t work in the society he rules.

People must be encouraged to find beauty in new things, not old. In their blissful ignorance, the people in his society wouldn’t understand the pain and passion in Shakespeare. This is the price that must be paid for a stable society. Science, too, must be muzzled. That’s the reason he’s sending Bernard and Helmholtz to an island. He explains this is really a reward. It means they’ll get to be with smart, interesting people who don’t fit in with the bulk of society.

Mond should be on an island himself, but he chose to help the greater good by staying and creating false happiness for the masses. He acknowledges John’s points when the savage says true happiness means a person can feel things. John and the Controller then discuss God and His absence in this society.

The Controller says he believes God may very well exist, but that a culture of perfect, ignorant happiness like theirs can’t include Him. They don’t feel a need for Him. The Controller explains there is even a compulsory treatment that produces all the feelings of rage and passion so the people won’t have to express them outwardly. John says he chooses the right to feel pain.

John moves to an old lighthouse where he can be alone. He repeatedly prays, beats himself and drinks warm mustard-water in an effort to purge himself of societal evils and lustful feelings. Reporters stalk him. At one point, reporters chant that they want to see him whip himself. Lenina arrives on the scene. In his rage, John turns the whip on her. A giant orgy ensues. When John awakens from a soma haze to realize what he’s done, he is devastated and hangs himself.

Christian Beliefs

The savages on the reservation believe in God and Jesus, along with other gods and ancient rituals. John tries to purify himself by standing with arms outstretched like Jesus on the Cross and by practicing various forms of self-punishment. John and the Controller engage in a lengthy debate about God and His place in modern society.

The Controller is familiar with and quotes the writings of religious leaders such as Cardinal Newman. He believes there may be a God, but he says too much has changed in their modern society for people to find God appealing or necessary. People don’t suffer or grow old, so they have no occasion to seek Him.

Since God isn’t compatible with their utopian society, He manifests himself as an absence, as though He weren’t there at all. John contends that belief in God is natural in people. The Controller argues that belief in God comes because people are conditioned to believe in Him.

Other Belief Systems

In this new society, Christianity is no longer accepted. Most books are banned, including the Bible. Christianity is remembered as a philosophy that encouraged people not to consume. It also repressed women, forcing them to continue giving birth to babies.

When God and Jesus were eliminated from their societal consciousness, all crosses had their tops cut off and became “T”s in honor of Ford’s Model T. People genuflect in the shape of a “T” when Ford’s name is mentioned. A narrator recalls the concepts of immortality and heaven in ancient times, but notes that people still consumed a lot of drugs and alcohol. The current society offers a substance called soma as an answer to the old society’s drugs, alcohol and religion. The Controller calls soma Christianity without tears.

Members of the society attend Solidarity groups. They listen to music, sing Solidarity hymns, and make the sign of the “T.” They partake in the dedicated soma tablets and soma -laced strawberry ice cream drink. They sing praises to Ford, calling him the Greater Being and asking him into their presence. They strive to annihilate self as they become one with Ford and each other. Caught up in the music and the high from the soma , they begin to dance and sing their orgy song. As the music pulsates, members cry that they hear him coming. The service morphs into an orgy. The twice-monthly service offers peace, balance and release.

Authority Roles

The Controller believes he is serving the greater good by offering the society false happiness rather than God, pain and passion.

Profanity & Violence

A– , d— , h— appear. The Lord’s name is taken in vain. Ford’s name is used in any context “Lord” might be used in our society, both in reverence and in vain. John calls Lenina a strumpet and a whore . He misuses the name of God repeatedly, generally when he feels remorse for things he’s done or experienced in the brave new world.

Linda slaps John around when he’s a child, banging his head. She calls him a beast who has turned her into an animal because she gave birth like one. Later she feels remorse and kisses him over and over. John catches his mother sleeping with a man, the man’s hand on her breast. John tries to stab the man, who only laughs at him.

The violence John experiences on the reservation conditions him to act out violently when Lenina offers herself to him sexually. Another time, he whips Lenina when she tries to give herself to him. Crowds and media are on the scene, and a soma orgy ensues.

Sexual Content

Children are urged to engage in erotic play, just as adults are encouraged to have many sexual partners. The Director laughs with the students about a time when erotic play was suppressed and considered immoral.

Lenina sees a group of men in her office and recalls sleeping with most of them. Lenina has been sleeping with Henry Foster on a regular basis. Her friend chides her for not having more random sex and urges her to be more promiscuous. Women are required to have pregnancy substitutes, pills and injections that stimulate the effects of pregnancy.

Bernard dislikes that men talk about their sexual conquests and discuss women as though they were pieces of meat. As Lenina prepares for a trip with Bernard, she wears a belt bulging with the regulation supply of contraceptives. Hypnopaedia from age 12 to 17 along with drills three times a week have ensured that contraception use is automatic in young women.

People chew sex-hormone chewing gum. The society’s religious services, called Solidarity meetings, end in orgies. Linda regularly sleeps with several men at the reservation. Most people attend movies called “feelies.” These are erotic motion pictures that also include tactile sensations.

Lenina and John attend a feely in which a black man rapes a white woman. Lenina is relieved when Bernard starts fondling her breast on their trip. Bernard and John note that sex without relationship is infantile and unsatisfying. Lenina can’t comprehend this idea and throws herself at John by undressing in front of him.

Discussion Topics

Additional comments.

Note: The book always uses a capital H in “Him” when referring to Ford.)

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Future Shock Date: October 6, 1996, Late Edition - Final Byline: By John Chamberlain Lead: February 7, 1932: ' Brave New World ' by Aldous Huxley DIGNITY, beyond all else, has attended the creation of the classic Utopias, from that of Plato on down to Edward Bellamy's perfectly geared industrial machine. Conceived in kindliness of spirit, dedicated to the high future of the race and offered with becoming humility as contributions to the questionable science of human happiness, these classic Utopias have only too often seemed mere parodies of the Napoleonic State, the Taylor system of the laboratory where guinea pigs are bred to predestined fates. It has remained for Aldous Huxley to build the Utopia to end Utopias -- or such Utopias as go to mechanics for their inspiration, at any rate. He has satirized the imminent spiritual trustification of mankind, and has made rowdy and impertinent sport of the World State whose motto shall be Community, Identity, Stability. Text: This slogan, Mr. Huxley seems to be saying under the noise made by his knockabout farce, is thoroughly unbiological. Mankind moves forward by stumbling -- we almost said progressing -- from one unstable equilibrium to another unstable equilibrium; and if the human animal ever ceases to do this he will go to the ant (the sluggard!) and become a hived creature. Mr. Huxley doesn't like the prospect. So here we have him, as entertainingly atrabilious as ever he was in ''Antic Hay'' or ''Point Counter Point,'' mocking the Fords, the Hitlers, the Mussolinis, the Sir Alfred Monds, the Owen D. Youngs -- all who would go back on laissez-faire and on toward the servile state. His Utopia has much in common with those of the nineteenth century -- everything, in fact, but their informing and propulsive faith. It is as regimented as Etienne Cabet's Icaria, the communal Utopia seemingly made of breeding the bureaucracy of the first Napoleon with the ghostly positive of August Comte; and its ideas of dispensing panem et circenses to the populace are precisely those of Edward Bellamy's ''Looking Backward'' -- only Mr. Huxley, who has had the opportunity to visit moving-picture emporium and radio studio, knows the difference between possibility and actuality in popular entertainment. With the Highland Park and River Rouge plants, the Foster and Catchings ideology of consumption, the Five-Year Plan, the synthetic creation of vitamins, the spectacle of a chicken heart that lives on without benefit of surrounding chicken, the flight of Post and Gatty and the control of diabetics all behind him in point of time, Mr. Huxley has had an easy task to turn the nineteenth century hope into a counsel of despair. And like an older utopian, Mr. Huxley finds no room for the poet in his Model T. world. His poets are all Emotional Engineers. Behold, then, the gadget satirically enshrined. As Bellamy anticipated the radio in 1888, Mr. Huxley has foreseen the displacement of the talkie by the ''feelie,'' a type of moving picture that will give tactile as well as visual and aural delight. Spearmint has given way to Sex Hormone gum -- the favorite chew of one of Mr. Huxley's minor characters, Mr. Benito Hoover. Grammes of soma -- a non-hangover-producing substitute for rum -- are eaten daily by the populace; they drive away the blues. God had dissolved into Ford (sometimes called Freud), and the jingle goes ''Ford's in his flivver, all's well with the world.'' Ford's book, ''My Life and Work,'' has become the new Bible. The Wurlitzer has been supplemented by the scent organ, which plays all the tunes from cinnamon to camphor, with occasional whiffs of kidney pudding for discord. Babies, of course, are born -- or rather, decanted -- in the laboratory; and by a process known as the Bodanovsky one egg can be made to proliferate into ninety-six children, all of them identical in feature, form and brain power. The Bodanovsky groups are used to man the factories, work the mines, and so on; there can be no jealousy in a Bodanovsky group, for its ideal is like-mindedness. But if there is little jealousy in Mr. Huxley's world, there is still shame; a girl blushes to think of having children in the good old viviparous way. To obviate the possibility of childbirth, the girls -- or such of them as are not born sterile Freemartins -- are put through daily Malthusian Drill in their impressionable 'teens. Buttons have disappeared and children play games of ''Hunt the Zipper.'' We are introduced at the outset to the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning for Central London, who takes us through his plant and explains the creation of the various castes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, each caste ranging from minus to plus. Before a child is turned over to his station in life, he is thoroughly conditioned, by injection of hypnopaedic wisdom during sleep, to like precisely what he has to like. But slips there are, even in the most mechanical of all possible worlds, and owing to some oversight -- possibly the spilling of alcohol into the blood surrogate upon which he was fed in his prenatal days -- Bernard Marx, Mr. Huxley's hero, is dissatisfied. Bernard loves Lenina Crowne in a sort of old-fashioned romantic way. He longs for solitude a deux. So with her he takes the rocket for a vacation in the New Mexican savage reservation. By sheer coincidence, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning for Central London had spent a vacation once upon a time in this reservation; and had lost his girl, a Betaminus, in a sudden and confusing desert thunderstorm. Bernard, of course, runs upon the girl -- now an old woman -- and her son, John, the Savage, born viviparously. Quickly he gets into touch with Mustapha Mond, his Fordship, the Resident Controller for Western Europe. Shall be bring them back by rocket to London? His Fordship thinks furiously and decides in the positive; and for the sake of educating the populace, the Savage and his Mother are shot over to England. It is Mr. Huxley's habit to be deadly in earnest. One feels that he is pointing a high moral lesson in satirizing Utopia. Yet it is a little difficult to take alarm, for, as the hell-diver sees not the mud, and the angle worm knows not the intricacies of the Einstein theory, so the inhabitants of Mr. Huxley's world could hardly be conscious of the satirical overtones of the Huxleyan prose. And the bogy of mass production seems a little overwrought, since the need for it as religion, in a world that could rigidly control its birth rate and in which no one could make any money out of advertising and selling, would be scarcely intelligible even to His Fordship. Finally, if Mr. Huxley is unduly bothered about the impending static world, let him go back to his biology and meditate on the possibility that even in laboratory-created children mutations might be inevitable. A highly mechanized world, yes; but it might breed one Rousseau to shake it to the foundations and send men back to the hills and the goatskins. Meanwhile, while we are waiting for ''My Life and Work'' to replace the Bible, ''Brave New World'' may divert us; it offers a stop-gap.

Book Review: Brave New World

Brave New World is a classic dystopian novel, written in the early 1930s by Aldous Huxley. Set in a society in which humans are manufactured and programmed depending on their assigned social class, it addresses individualism, conformity, and the dangers of complete government control. Citizens in this dystopia frequently take a drug to subdue their emotions, living in a state of ignorance and 'bliss' as they go through the motions unquestioningly. In order to keep the system of manufacturing people running smoothly, certain things are considered taboo--such as literature, religion, and family--while what we typically consider unorthodox is commonplace in this society.

The story follow several central characters who don't completely fit in or believe there could be more to life than what they experience every day. Huxley takes readers to a 'Savage Camp' where John, the protagonist (whose ideals are completely different from everyone else's), is introduced, and the other characters experience an extreme contrast to their advanced and ordered society. Readers experience John's intense internal conflict as he attempts to find his place in the new world into which he is thrust; they also learn more about the ideology of the dystopia, and what goes on behind its 'perfect' facade.

I enjoyed most aspects of Brave New World, and would recommend it to dystopian readers who appreciate a deeper meaning. However, there were some parts of this novel that I found disturbing, as what's considered taboo is the opposite of how we view things in our world. Sometimes I had trouble connecting with the story emotionally, and I would've liked more specifics about how the dystopia came to be. But looking past the negatives, the themes Huxley brings up are very important, and even pertinent to society today. His characters have depth, the underlying themes make readers think, and overall it is an interesting concept of a future world with complete dictatorship. Brave New World is a classic that I believe everyone should read.

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• Genre Fiction

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Brave New World Hardcover – Deckle Edge, May 9, 2017

A gorgeous hardcover edition of Aldous Huxley's enduring masterwork, "one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century" ( Wall Street Journal ), that must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our "brave new world" 

Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature,  Brave New World  is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order—all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” ( The New Yorker ), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. 

Brave New World,  his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as a thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s,  Brave New World  likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites. 

• Print length 272 pages
• Language English
• Lexile measure 870L
• Dimensions 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Publisher Harper
• Publication date May 9, 2017
• ISBN-10 0062696122
• ISBN-13 978-0062696120
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

“[A] masterpiece. ... One of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century.” — Wall Street Journal

“As sparkling, as provocative, as brilliant...as the day it was published.” — Martin Green

“One of the 20th century’s greatest writers.” — Washington Post

“Chilling. . . . That he gave us the dark side of genetic engineering in 1932 is amazing.” — Providence Journal-Bulletin

“A genius . . . a writer who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine.” — The New Yorker

“Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English.” — Chicago Tribune

“Huxley uses his erudite knowledge of human relations to compare our actual world with his prophetic fantasy of 1931. It is a frightening experience, indeed, to discover how much of his satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time.” — New York Times Book Review

“A sometimes appallingly accurate view of today’s world.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“It’s time for everyone to read or reread Brave New World.” — Raleigh News & Observer

From the Back Cover

Now more than ever, “one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the twentieth century” ( Wall Street Journal ) must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our brave new world.

Aldous Huxley’s profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order whose motto is “Community, Identity, Stability”—all at the cost of our freedom, humanity, and perhaps our souls.

“A genius who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” ( New Yorker ), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World , his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning as we head into tomorrow and a thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a twenty-first-century world dominated by mass  entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

About the Author

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) is the author of the classic novels Brave New World , Island , Eyeless in Gaza , and The Genius and the Goddess , as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception . Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles, California.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper (May 9, 2017)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062696122
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062696120
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 17+ years, from customers
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 870L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.4 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• #163 in Dystopian Fiction (Books)
• #345 in Classic Literature & Fiction
• #891 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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About the authors, aldous huxley.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) is the author of the classic novels Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Devils of Loudun, The Doors of Perception, and The Perennial Philosophy. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles.

John Sutherland

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• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 64% 21% 9% 3% 2% 2%

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Customers find the storyline amazing, ingenious, and fast. They also describe the narrative as thought-provoking. However, some find the entertainment value not enjoyable and appalling. Opinions are mixed on the writing style, descriptiveness, and atmosphere. Some find it well-written, while others say it lacks narrative flow. Readers also have mixed feelings about the atmosphere, with some finding it perfectly scary and prophetic, while other find it equally disturbing.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the storyline amazing, enjoyable, and horrifyingly ingenious. They also say the characters, plot, and setting are interesting. Customers also mention that the book is one of the most difficult books they've ever read.

"...So be mindful of that.Classic work of literature, great read !" Read more

"...That is because it is an enjoyable story , first and foremost...." Read more

"...Novel concept, done well , prophetic in some ways, but losing a star to a poor story with too much suspension of belief for a dystopia that wishes to..." Read more

"...In the end, this novel was gripping and a serious page turner ...." Read more

Customers find the narrative thought-provoking, with great world building. They also say the topics and voices are clear and distinct. Readers also mention the book is well-thought-out, with clever science fiction inventions.

"... A lot of strong symbolization and even a possible symbol of a Christ figure in one of the characters.Beautiful!..." Read more

"...finished by a diligent reader in a weekend, and it contains a lot of thought-provoking ideas that will stick with you long after the final page." Read more

"In short, Brave New World earns 4 out of 5 stars from me. Novel concept , done well, prophetic in some ways, but losing a star to a poor story with..." Read more

"I loved this book! It was very interesting . Good quality book (no tears or rips and good printing)." Read more

Customers are mixed about the writing style. Some mention that the book is well written and understandable in modern language, while others say it lacks the narrative flow that transforms an interesting book into frustrating to read. They also find the discussion too lengthy and repeated too many times. Additionally, some readers find the pages rough, uneven, and low quality.

"...This story was kind of boring ...." Read more

"...It was very interesting. Good quality book (no tears or rips and good printing )." Read more

"The first few chapters were hard to get through , but necessary to set the stage of the state of the world...." Read more

"...This novel is so exceptionally well written that it held my interest despite the fact that it’s not something I’d choose to read outside of an..." Read more

Customers are mixed about the atmosphere of the book. Some find it scary, eerie, and interesting, while others find it disturbing, sad, strange, and disgusting.

"...Novel concept, done well, prophetic in some ways , but losing a star to a poor story with too much suspension of belief for a dystopia that wishes to..." Read more

"...The funny thing about this book is that the future doesn't seem completely terrible , unlike the latter two novels, although I might compare the..." Read more

"...’s difficult chapters to get through because it’s so perverse and disgusting . But, sadly it is extremely relevant if you look at the world around us...." Read more

"...has managed to weave a story that’s timeless and interesting and terrifying all at once. The protagonist of Brave New World is Bernard Marx,..." Read more

Customers are mixed about the descriptiveness. Some mention that the book has lots of details about the day to day things and how life is treated. They also say that the logic and conversations are very real. However, some customers feel that the characterizations are inconsistent, glaringly false, and lack prescience.

"...The characters have sufficient depth, the locales are peculiar and attention-grabbing , and the underlying message is enough to make you stop and..." Read more

"...science fiction book ever written, and at times the science side of things is complicated and tends to drag on...." Read more

"...Brave New World is a thrilling masterpiece that captures the true moral and ethical framework of the aspects of life within an advanced dystopian..." Read more

"...the ether of English Literature, and while it is a fascinating exploration of human values and society, it (in my opinion) also lacks the narrative..." Read more

Customers find the book lacking in entertainment value. They also say the content is lazy and lacking in redeeming qualities. Readers also say that the book falls way short and never really keeps them engaged.

"...In a few words, the answer is dull , childish, and shallow...." Read more

"...This is a one-time read for me. Not very captivating , but some interesting parts kept me to the end." Read more

"...compelling, but not nearly as well executed and certainly not as much fun to read . Classic or not, I can't give this one more that three stars." Read more

"...BNW is far from horrible--a few scenes are even charming --but I don't quite agree with most of the five-star reviewers here and don't think this..." Read more

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