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Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

3.99 · Rating details · 1,429,454 ratings · 30,079 reviews

Aldous Huxley's tour de force, Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as w

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Kindle Edition, 384 pages

Published July 22nd 2014 by Harper Perennial (first published 1932)

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Nov 17, 2010 Stephen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, world-in-the-shitter, audiobook, science-fiction

I need to parse my rating of this book into the good (or great), the bad and the very fugly because I thought aspects of it were inspired genius and parts of it were dreggy, boring and living near the border of awful. In the end, the wowness and importance of the novel's ideas as well as the segments that I thoroughly enjoyed carried the book to a strong 3.5 star rating.

THE REALLY GOOD/EXCELLENT - I loved the first third of the book in which the basic outline of the "Brave New World" and it ...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Kemper rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, famous-books, playing-god, sci-fi, future-is-now, dystopia

Warning! The following review contains humor. If you read it and actually think that I'm being critical of Huxley, try reading it again. (Here's a hint. Look for the irony of the italicized parts when compared to the previous statements.) If you post a comment that asserts that I'm wrong/ stupid/ crazy for this and/or try to lecture me on all the points you think I missed then I'm going to assume that you read it literally, missed the joke, didn't read the other comments where I've already answe Warning! The following review contains humor. If you read it and actually think that I'm being critical of Huxley, try reading it again. (Here's a hint. Look for the irony of the italicized parts when compared to the previous statements.) If you post a comment that asserts that I'm wrong/ stupid/ crazy for this and/or try to lecture me on all the points you think I missed then I'm going to assume that you read it literally, missed the joke, didn't read the other comments where I've already answered this about a dozen times, and I will delete your post.

I have to apologize for this review. The concept of this book was so outlandish that I think it made my mind wander, and you may find some odd random thoughts scattered in it.

Anyhow, this book was so silly and unrealistic. Like any of this could happen. In the far future the babies are genetically engineered and designed for certain stations in life with a large workforce bred to be happy with menial jobs that don’t stress them physically or mentally. I really should look into getting that data entry position I saw in the job postings. It’d be a lot less stressful than what I‘m doing now.

In addition to all the genetic modifications, the children are raised by the state, and words like ’father’ and ’mother’ are considered obscenities. Subliminal messaging through infancy and childhood also condition people to repeat idiotic platitudes as if they are genuine wisdom. I’ve been in a bad mood today. I need to turn that frown upside down. And since the world economy depends on constant consumption by the highest classes, they’re encouraged to be wasteful The collars on a couple of my shirts are a little frayed. I should go buy some new ones and throw the old ones out. and to engage in activities that demand spending and resource use. Should I get a new set of golf clubs? I lost my old ones when we moved, but I hadn’t played in a long time. But would I play more if I got new clubs? There‘s that really nice looking course right down the street. I don‘t know how they keep the grass that green in this heat. The population even gets to zip around in their own private helicopters rather than cars. Man, when are they going to come out with jet packs for everyone. It’s 2011 and I’m still driving around in a car like a chump. I want my jet pack!

Casual sex is actively encouraged. Wow. These condom commercials on TV have gotten really racy. The population is also programmed to be constantly partaking of some form of entertainment and to never just sit quietly and think I’m bored. Writing is boring. or to be alone Let’s check Facebook and see what all my friends are doing.

One of the sillier ideas is that the foundation of this society is Henry Ford’s assembly lines and that Ford has become the most revered figure in history. Like a businessman could ever become that popular. Is Steve Jobs making any announcements this week? I get itchy when there‘s no new Apple products.

While everyone seeks to be constantly entertained, all of the entertainment panders to the lowest common denominator. Hey, Jersey Shore is on! and the emphasis is on presenting it with gimmicks to engage the audience like ’the feelies’, movies that the audience can also smell and feel the sensation from. I wonder if they’ll re-release Avatar at the movies so I can see it in 3D again like James Cameron intended? At one point, a character complains about the feelies, “But they’re told by an idiot….works of art out of practically nothing but pure sensation.” I should go see that new Michael Bay Transformers movie.

Perhaps the most far fetched idea in this is that the population has been trained to sedate themselves with a drug called soma that relives any potential anxieties and keeps people from thinking about anything upsetting. I want a beer.

I guess this Huxley guy might have gotten lucky and predicted a few things, but he was way off base about where society was going.
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Feb 07, 2010 Madeline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: the-list, science-fiction

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1932. That's almost eighty years ago, but the book reads like it could have been written yesterday. (especially interesting to me was how Huxley was able to predict the future of both genetic engineering and the action blockbuster. Damn.)

I think I liked this one better than 1984, the book traditionally considered to be this one's counterpart. Not really sure why this is, but it's probably because this one has a clearer outsider character (the Savage) who ca ...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Emily May rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, classics, 2012

Wow, the anger over this rating! My first post for this book was a quote and a gif of Dean from Supernatural rolling his eyes and passing out. And people were pissed. How dare I?

Lol. I'm honestly just so tired of all the dumb comments demanding that I (all caps) "ELABORATE". It's been going on for SIX YEARS now. So I will: This is still one of the most boring emotionless books I have ever read. It seemed like a natural choice after I loved Orwell and Atwood but, my god, Huxley is a dry, dull wri ...more

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Oct 02, 2018 Sean Barrs rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Fans of 1984, the Handmaid's Tale and Fahrenheit 451

Shelves: 5-star-reads, sci-fi, reviewed-for-fantasy-book-review

“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.”

These are words uttered in the face of tyranny and complete oppression, though they are very rare words to be spoken or even thought of in this world because every human passion and sense of creativity is repressed and eradicated through a long and complex process of conditioning.

And that’s what makes this novel so powerful; it’s not unbelievable. Like Orwell’s 1984 ...more

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Feb 29, 2008 Erin added it · review of another edition

Shelves: ew-high-school-english

remember that last semester of english class, senior year, where every class seemed painfully long and excrutiatingly pointless? when everybody sat around secretly thinking of cute and witty things to put in other people's yearbooks? when the teachers realized we were already braindead from filling out three dozen student loan applications and college housing forms? that's when honors english started getting a little lazy.

not that i minded. everybody got a book list. then everybody got split up remember that last semester of english class, senior year, where every class seemed painfully long and excrutiatingly pointless? when everybody sat around secretly thinking of cute and witty things to put in other people's yearbooks? when the teachers realized we were already braindead from filling out three dozen student loan applications and college housing forms? that's when honors english started getting a little lazy.

not that i minded. everybody got a book list. then everybody got split up into groups. you were responsible for reading all the books on your own, but one in particular was chosen for your group to present at the end of the semester. you know--- as a refresher for the rest of the class. because of course EVERYONE was gonna read EVERY book.

i can't remember what i did instead of reading "brave new world", but it was probably fun and involved copious amounts of sweet tea and a gigantic paper mache cow. fortunately it didn't matter because the only group to take their presentation seriously was the "brave new world" group, and the way they presented stuck with me long enough to compel me to read the book later.

maybe it was the weird music they had playing during their presentation, maybe it was the fact that super hot chris mayns had to sit in my group (the alphas) but i was seriously attracted to the world this group created in our classroom. we drew cards randomly to determine our class, then sat accordingly and wore cute little colored wristbands. everybody got pez (soma!) and *gasp* a birth control belt. throughout the presentation people were moved next to someone and lost a packet on their belt (listen, this is scandalous for a bible belt high school, ok? by the way, i did NOT get to sit next to chris, which is probably good because i would have been mortified and choked on a pez)

anyway, the presentation was fun, but i didn't get around to reading my (now ex) boyfriends copy until a year ago. and i started getting a small, evil thought exactly the same as i had in class so many years ago... maybe some people would actually like this system. maybe some people would actually BENEFIT from this system. people don't have to think? they aren't expected to do much, go to college, become something bigger than what they actually are? they're rewarded with good feeling drugs? they are proud to have accomplished what they have? and they... DON'T HAVE TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES!?

I know i'm going to get slammed for saying this later, especially because i never do actual reviews or completely delve into what i'm thinking (so shoot me) but haven't you ever been roaming the world wide inter-web and found a little troller you thought "well, this person is a poor use of a human brain?" yes, you have. admit it.

just think, a little test tube tweaking and that person wouldn't mind manning the cash register at piggly wiggly for the rest of his life, saving the rest of humanity from noxious online rants about the hotness of avril lavinge and the brilliance of starcraft (apparently its a video game thats KOOLER THAN U!!!!1#)

you're tempted, i can tell...

...more

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Oct 07, 2010 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, literature, classics, 20th-century, british, 1001-book, fiction

649. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Published in 1932, it propounds that economic chaos and unemployment will cause a radical reaction, in the form of an international scientific empire, that manufactures its citizens in the laboratory on a eugenic basis, without the need for human intercourse.

عنوانها: «دنیای قشنگ نو»؛ «دنیای شگفت انگیز نو»؛ نویسنده: آلدوس هاکسلی؛ (پیام ، نیلوفر) ادبیات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز سوم ماه آوریل سا 649. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Published in 1932, it propounds that economic chaos and unemployment will cause a radical reaction, in the form of an international scientific empire, that manufactures its citizens in the laboratory on a eugenic basis, without the need for human intercourse.

عنوانها: «دنیای قشنگ نو»؛ «دنیای شگفت انگیز نو»؛ نویسنده: آلدوس هاکسلی؛ (پیام ، نیلوفر) ادبیات؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز سوم ماه آوریل سال 2000میلادی

عنوان: دنیای قشنگ نو؛ نویسنده: آلدوس هاکسلی؛ مترجم: سعید حمیدیان؛ تهران، پیام، 1352؛ در 268ص؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، نشر واژه، 1368، در 267ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، نیلوفر، 1378، در 295ص؛ شابک: 9644480686؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی - سده ی 20م

عنوان: دنیای شگفت انگیز نو؛ نویسنده: آلدوس هاکسلی؛ مترجم: حشمت الله صباغی؛ حسن کاویار؛ تهران، کارگاه هنر، 1366؛ در 281ص؛

عنوان: دنیای شگفت انگیز نو؛ نویسنده: آلدوس هاکسلی؛ مترجم: رضا فاطمی؛ تهران، سمیر، 1390؛ در 312ص؛

رمانی علمی تخیلیِ ست، که در سال 1932میلادی، به قلم «آلدوس هاکسلی»، نویسنده انگلیسی، منتشر شده‌؛ داستانی خیالی در سال 2540میلادی، انسانها را کارخانه ها تولید میکنند، و اوضاع دنیا ثابت است، و مردمان خوشبخت هستند، از پیری خبری نیست.، ...، و در بخشهای پایانی، «هاکسلی» با قدرت دیالوگهاییکه از نمایشنامه های «شکسپیر»، بازنگاری کرده (حتی عنوان رمان را نیز از نمایشنامه «طوفان» اثر «ویلیام شکسپیر» برگرفته)، و ...؛ انگار هنوز داستان ادامه دارد.؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 24/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Lyn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This set the stage about what a dystopian story should be or not be.

“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.”

First published in 1932, this is timeless and is as relevant today as when it was first written. Sixteen years before Orwell's 1984 but eleven years after We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, this is a high water mark for the genre, many of its themes could be told today. Truth be said, this could be published today and wou ...more

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Jul 04, 2007 Clare rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

As a teenager I went through a period of reading a vast number of distopian novels - probably all the teenage angst. This is the one that has continued to haunt me however, long after the my youthful cynicism has died it's death. It's basically a book about the utopian ideal - everyone's happy, everyone has what they want and EVERYTHING is based on logical principles. However, there is something very rotten at the heart. It's about how what we want isn't always what we should get. It looks at ho ...more

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Apr 17, 2008 Johannes rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

This book presents a futuristic dystopia of an unusual kind. Unlike in Orwell's 1984, Huxley's dystopia is one in which everyone is happy. However, they are happy in only the most trivial sense: they lead lives of simple pleasures, but lives without science, art, philosophy or religion. In short, lives without deeper meaning. Although people are expected to work hard and efficiently during working hours, during off hours people live in an infantile way, never engaging their minds, and satisfying This book presents a futuristic dystopia of an unusual kind. Unlike in Orwell's 1984, Huxley's dystopia is one in which everyone is happy. However, they are happy in only the most trivial sense: they lead lives of simple pleasures, but lives without science, art, philosophy or religion. In short, lives without deeper meaning. Although people are expected to work hard and efficiently during working hours, during off hours people live in an infantile way, never engaging their minds, and satisfying themselves with sex and drugs.

The premise of the book I find quite interesting. However, the execution is lacking. The characters are not particularly endearing, and indeed they are quite flat. Worse, Huxley fails to explain why this future of controlled contentment is wrong. The reader will intuit that the this indeed a dystopia posing as a utopia, but Huxley's reliance on this feeling is a philosophical failure. It is the burden of the author to present us not with an account of something we know is bad, but to explain the source of the knowledge.

Huxley attempts something akin to an explanation in the second-to-last chapter, a discussion between "the Savage" who grew up outside civilization and Mustalpha Mond, a World Controller. However, the attempt falls short, as Mond has concise answers to all of the Savage's questions, and the Savage lacks the education and/or intellectual power to find reason behind his feelings.

During the conversation, Mond refers to philosopher Francis Bradley and credits him with the idea that philosophy is "the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct." Perhaps this inclusion is intended to convey that Huxley agrees and will make no attempt to manufacture a "bad reason" why the world he created is evil. However, I find this deeply unsatisfying. Why write a book to tell people what they already know? Moreover, a single reference to Bradley is not sufficient to convince me that this definition of philosophy is correct. If Huxley's novel relies heavily on this idea, he should have supported it with more than a solitary statement of Mond. Indeed, Mond promptly refutes the statement by denying instinct as separate from conditioning, and as the civilized population of the world seems to be controlled largely by conditioning, it would seem that in Huxley's world, Mond is correct!

In summary, Huxley crafts an interesting future world where people are blithely content without knowing passion or pain. Unfortunately, he fails both to craft an interesting story to set in this world and to write a strong philosophical argument why such a world would be harmful for mankind. He relies on the obvious faults of the world and the intuitive reaction of the reader, and thus provides no deeper insights.

As a social message, as a novel, and as a statement on the way in which mankind should behave, I find Brave New World inferior in almost every way to 1984. The one word of praise I will give to Huxley's novel is that his dystopia is more unusual and more intriguing than Orwell's. If only he had dome something more with it. ...more

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May 05, 2012 B0nnie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks

Brave New World is a vision of the future where science will (at last) be put full time into the service of our needs. Some of the ideas might seem a little controversial (because of our preconceived ideas) but we must be open minded...!

SEX. Biology teaches that sex is meant to be had. To put restrictions on sex is as silly as putting restrictions on which chair to sit. And like chairs, women are meant to be pneumatic. "Oh, she’s a splendid girl. Wonderfully pneumatic. I’m surprised yo ...more

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Sep 27, 2017 Elyse Walters rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Given that dystopian books are generally not my first choice ‘run-to-books-to-read’.... and I’m sure I didn’t understand the full depths of this book - which was written 21 years before I was born....even I can see Aldous Huxley had a brilliant mind.

I was trying to wrap my thinking around the conspiracies that it looked liked the author was trying to warn us were happening in the world —�trying to visualize the already futuristic setting —( was he thinking of 2017?)....and follow the story its Given that dystopian books are generally not my first choice ‘run-to-books-to-read’.... and I’m sure I didn’t understand the full depths of this book - which was written 21 years before I was born....even I can see Aldous Huxley had a brilliant mind.

I was trying to wrap my thinking around the conspiracies that it looked liked the author was trying to warn us were happening in the world —�trying to visualize the already futuristic setting —( was he thinking of 2017?)....and follow the story itself, trying to get inside the heads of the created characters.
See... I’m not very good at this. This type of reading is challenging for me. It hurts my brain!!!!

But.....here are a few things I think I got from this book:
.....thousands of little babies got born from one cell.....but not from a mothers womb....and these were the SORRY SUCKERS...( too bad for you Johnny - you’re pretty much a worthless bean- and you get to have all the shitty underpaid jobs in the world).
.....embryos were incubated in bottles in laboratories.
.....there were no traditional ‘Leave It To Beaver’ families in this society - there were no families at all - no sexual reproduction at all!
.....there is a REASON for all this. Embryos were divided by their social status. There were five castes: alpha, beta, (THE LUCKY SUCKERS).....and delta, gamma, and epsilon.....(the SORRY SUCKERS)......

Oh but wait the SORRY SUCKERS won’t feel sorry for themselves because this is utopia....where everybody is made to be happy - as all personal identity has vanished. DRUGS ARE COOL.... even encouraged! Everybody must get stoned.

So? How am I doing? Am I understanding this book somewhat?
...that what Aldous Huxley was saying is that the FUTURE LOOKS SCARY?/!....
It looked scary in 1931.... and it still looks scary in 2017.
One of Huxley’s predictions was spot on: Bombastic- pretentious -pompous RIDICULOUS senatorial entertainment! ( Huxley was more kind and didn’t use all those adjectives)....but he might have if he knew how right he’d really be!

Lots more in this slim-jim novel - we get enlightened on history - religion - consumerism- emotions ( not to worry - you won’t need to worry - it’s a no worry society).... we’ve become deadbeats!

PLEASE read other reviews- I have NO idea if I read this book right.
However ...seems like I shouldn’t worry about it all according to the brilliant man himself...Aldous Huxley! VERY WORTH READING! ( even for a girl who understands nothin)

Whew.... now I can start my day.... as all is well in the world. 🌏 ...more

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Jul 11, 2020 MischaS_ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Back in high school, one of the teachers brought a little sample from this book, and I found it totally captivating. Terrifying but at the same captivating.

So, I went back to it.

“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”

The beginning is totally the strongest part of this book, as it progresses, it goes a bit down. But at the same time, I think that the beginning is the hardest to get over. The world is being introduced to us in a rather raw way which definitely ...more

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Mar 02, 2012 Nataliya rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-reads

Brave New World is a classic written to make its readers uncomfortable. It accomplishes its point well. Still, it is only getting 3 stars from me, as I rate books based on my personal level of enjoyment rather than literary value.

The characters of this book were not meant to be likeable - I am fine with that concept. The first few chapters made me want to curl up in the corner and cry - that's how repulsive the design of this universe was (mission accomplished, Mr. Huxley). But as we plunge int ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

"You all remember," said the Controller, in his strong deep voice, "you all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford's: History is bunk. History, " he repeated slowly, "is bunk."

The rhetorical skills of the Controller remind me of the Epsilon Semi-Moron who runs one of the bravest new worlds in our current era in bunk.

As I had forgotten the major plot of this dystopian novel written just when fascism emerged in the 1930s, some fifteen years before the nuclear age, "You all remember," said the Controller, in his strong deep voice, "you all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford's: History is bunk. History, " he repeated slowly, "is bunk."

The rhetorical skills of the Controller remind me of the Epsilon Semi-Moron who runs one of the bravest new worlds in our current era in bunk.

As I had forgotten the major plot of this dystopian novel written just when fascism emerged in the 1930s, some fifteen years before the nuclear age, I spent a day rereading it with mixed emotions. Some things are almost prophetic in all their scary details, for example the efficiency of the childlike custom-made contributor to consumerist society:

"Adults intellectually and during working hours", he went on. "Infants where feeling and desire are concerned."

The reliable drug - soma - which makes sure that society's stability is not threatened, the focus on entertainment which requires people to spend money on gadgets that keep the economy working, the sexual control mechanisms (for promiscuity is just as limiting as marriage or chastity if you are not given any choice), the early childhood social conditioning in addition to biological selection processes - it all leaves a bitter taste as it rings too many bells.

The part of the plot I found difficult to swallow was the juxtaposition of the scientifically perfected "utopia" of drug-induced happiness with the dirty "natural" world of the savages, who follow absurdly ancient rituals. Their world, where "god" is still needed to balance their suffering and to help them accept ageing, hunger and pain, is like a black-and-white contrast foil. Their need for self-denial in God-fearing doesn't generally differ much from the self-indulgence of the consumption society where soma takes care of controlling emotions and actions. In either case, human beings are controlled, or conditioned, by a greater power, and they can fall back into a state of irresponsible acceptance of pleasure or pain, according to their choice (- which of course is pre-destined by early childhood drilling).

Call me a hopeless idealist, but there is a third alternative!

Human beings can be offered the freedom of choice if they learn to embrace diversity, knowledge and differences of individuals rather than the "utopian" goal of "sameness" of one kind or the other. If sameness is the ultimate goal, any paradise will turn into hell, an automatic regression into robotic behaviour will follow, regardless of the oppressive dictatorship that imposes it (consumerism and religious doctrine are quite the same in Brave New World).

Interestingly, Huxley himself commented on the problematic binary world he had created when he reflected on his novel in 1946. His third option, to decentralise power and encourage individual freedom, is still a work in progress in our historical (bunk) era, and his two dystopian visions have merged into one. The worship of His Fordship, the consumerist god of the capitalist world, has been combined with ancient religious rites serving as soma for some people, while others take the more direct approach of over-consumption of food and fun and drug intake against meaninglessness. It made me think of another novel showing two juxtaposed oppressive systems, Things Fall Apart. British colonial rule, with all its religious and social implications, stands against the ancient rites of the Nigerian past, which to me would constitute just as much of a dictatorship against my personal wishes. Two opposing, rigid systems leaving no individual freedom, two doctrines that condemn whatever is different from their own specific tradition. Zero tolerance for individual differences. No compromise or combination possible. It is either or. No third or fourth option.

"Oh Ford" can be used as casually as "Oh Lord" (of whichever confession), and has about as much impact. Margaret Atwood in her MaddAddam at least insisted that her new deity "Oh Fuck" should only be called upon in emergencies.

I finish reading Brave New World with the feeling that it is time to call on Atwood's god, for the bravest and newest of worlds is in danger. The devil is in the sameness, as is god. For they are the same thing, utopia and dystopia being completely identical, turning humans into Epsilon Semi-Morons, children or robots. Even Shakespeare can be destroyed by application in banal situations. If history is bunk, everything is always new and brave. But also meaningless.

Oh Fuck! ...more

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Dec 20, 2016 Dan Schwent rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016, 2016-books

In a dystopian society of genetically engineered consumers pacified by drugs and conditioning, Bernard Marx cannot seem to fit in. When he visits a Savage reservation, his eyes are opened and he brings one of the savages back to England with him...

As I continue my bleak science fiction parade toward the new year, I wonder why I've never read Brave New World before.

In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley takes on consumerism, the media, genetic engineering, recreational drugs, religion, herd mentality, In a dystopian society of genetically engineered consumers pacified by drugs and conditioning, Bernard Marx cannot seem to fit in. When he visits a Savage reservation, his eyes are opened and he brings one of the savages back to England with him...

As I continue my bleak science fiction parade toward the new year, I wonder why I've never read Brave New World before.

In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley takes on consumerism, the media, genetic engineering, recreational drugs, religion, herd mentality, individualism, and lots of other socially relevant topics, weaving them into a science fiction setting that our world resembles more every day.

The setting and society are the stars of the show in Brave New World. The people live in a caste system based on genetics, conditioned from birth and pacified by drugs, living to consume goods and take soma to forget their troubles. Free love is encouraged but free thinking is not. Bernard Max can't seem to get with the program and winds up nearly causing a revolution.

The characters are pretty secondary to the setting but it wasn't hard to feel sorry for Bernard, the square peg in a world of round holes. Even when he gets a measure of fame, he still can't manage to shake the feeling that something's wrong. John the Savage provides a nice contrast, an outsider looking in on a world everyone else sees as normal but he sees as hellish.

Huxley may not have thought so at the time but he may have been a futurist. Our culture seems to be moving in the direction of Brave New World all the time. The rampant consumerism, lowest common denominator entertainment, and herd mentality all seem a little too familiar. Is the internet our soma? Things to ponder...

There are some classics that are as hard to read as an insurance policy written in Klingon and then there are ones like this. Brave New World is very readable and not at all dense. The ideas are very easy to absorb, especially in this day and age. In these uncertain times, Brave New World is as timely as ever. Four and a half stars.
...more

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Aug 05, 2018 Fergus rated it liked it · review of another edition

Brave New World says as much about Aldous Huxley as it does about our modern world.

Maybe more.

When he wrote it, Huxley was in the process of losing his inner child. Darling of the Jet Set, he was the literary version of their current idol, Cole Porter.

And in the end, the sophisticated public’s jaundiced taste for quick, fun and outré reads made him disposable - to us all.

And worst of all, to his own deep, dreaming subconscious!

Shy, lanky, shortsighted polymath Huxley was born to a family of Em ...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, post-apocalyptic, horror

”I feel I could do something much more important. Yes, and more intense, more violent. But what? What is there more important to say? And how can one be violent about the sort of things one’s expected to write about? Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly--they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”

Aldous Huxley was prompted to write this book in the early 1930s because he feared the direction society was heading. The worship of material goods, the embracement of capit ...more

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Jan 06, 2014 Adina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-sf, short, favorites, w-mwl-alternative, classics, dystopia, british, 1001

I finally managed to finish the dystopian classics triangle - 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Brave new World. For me the winner is Brave New World. Although I find the world imagined is less realistic than the other two it is equally tragic.

I finally got that somewhat lost feeling of total happiness when reading a book, that tingle in the pleasure receptors when you find a great book. Even though I recently read many books that I loved I seem to have lost that feeling of satisfaction when being face ...more

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Jun 23, 2015 F rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, uk, 2015

2nd time reading this
Enjoyed it much more the 2nd time

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Oct 30, 2016 Federico DN rated it liked it · review of another edition

In a distant utopian future, society reaches its maximum ideal. Advanced technology, limitless overabundance, poverty disappearance, end of violence. Well-being at the reach of a pill. Everyone is happy. Everyone gets what they want, when and how they want it. Everybody belongs to everyone. "Community, Identity, Stability", the society's motto.

Genetically altered from birth, each person learns to live under certain conditionings. And they are perfectly happy, within those parameters and capacit In a distant utopian future, society reaches its maximum ideal. Advanced technology, limitless overabundance, poverty disappearance, end of violence. Well-being at the reach of a pill. Everyone is happy. Everyone gets what they want, when and how they want it. Everybody belongs to everyone. "Community, Identity, Stability", the society's motto.

Genetically altered from birth, each person learns to live under certain conditionings. And they are perfectly happy, within those parameters and capacities. But when a variable goes wrong, stability becomes hard to achieve. In this perfect world, Bernard Max tries to find a place in a society he does not feel he belongs, Lenina Crowne tries to overcome feelings she should not have, and John Savage struggles with his desire... to understand.

Interesting from time to time, but sometimes, not so much. Mixed feelings. Overall an enjoyable read. An all-time classic, and a pillar of dystopian fiction.

Still remaining, two movies based on the book (1980 and 1998).

Until next time,

-----------------------------------------------

En un futuro utópico distante, la sociedad alcanza su máximo ideal. Tecnología avanzada, sobreabundancia ilimitada, desaparición de la pobreza, fin de la violencia. Bienestar al alcance de una píldora. Todos son felices. Todos tienen lo que quieren, cuando quieren, cuanto quieren. Todos pertenecen a todos. "Comunidad, Identidad, Estabilidad" es el lema de la sociedad.

Alterados genéticamente desde nacimiento, cada persona aprende a vivir bajo ciertos condicionamientos. Y son perfectamente felices, dentro de esos parámetros y capacidades. Pero cuando una variable sale mal, la estabilidad se vuelve difícil de alcanzar. En este mundo perfecto, Bernard Marx trata de encontrar su lugar en un mundo al cual siente no pertenecer, Lenina Crowne por sobrellevar sentimientos que no debería tener, y John Savage lucha por su deseo de... entender.

Interesante de a ratos, a veces no tanto. Sentimientos cruzados. Dentro de todo una lectura pasable. Clásico de clásicos y un pilar de la distopía.

Quedan pendientes ver las dos películas basadas en el libro (1980 y 1998).

Hasta la próxima, ...more

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Jan 10, 2016 Markus rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2016, team-rocket, dystopia, social-criticism

Sometimes a book just isn’t what you want it to be.

There is little doubt that Brave New World is a genre classic, heavily contributing to defining the dystopian genre. There is just as little doubt that Aldous Huxley was an important influence on some of the writers I respect the most, among them George Orwell and Steven Runciman, both of whom were Huxley’s students at the University of Cambridge.

Unfortunately, I found nothing to appreciate about it.

Maybe my general distaste for dystopia hit me ...more

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Nov 15, 2017 Leo . rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

😈Who are the Puppet Masters? What are they up to?

Is this paradigm changing? For me and for you😇

Are we dancing to a different song?

On this Earth, do we really belong?

Will we inherit, this beautiful garden of Life, and Love and Compassion?

Are these Puppet Masters, going out of fashion?

Is the game up? The lifting of this Veil

Are we awakening, from an old, fading, weakening Spell? 🐯👍

Am I a Templar? Am I an Assassin? A Lord? A Sir? A Priest? A Monk? A Usurper? A Slaver? A Satanist? A Mystic? A Druid? ...more

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Mar 30, 2018 Kaylin (The Re-Read Queen) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, didn-t-finish, classics, unpopular-opinions

DNF @ 50%

I know, I know. I'm a peabrain pleb and this is truly a classic and how dare I?

I understand what it's trying to do. I understand the over-enthusiasm for science and the depersonalization. I understand how showing a thriving world devoid of relationships and emotions feels counterintuitive and wrong. ('That's the point!' I understand that's the part that's supposed to 'make you think!') I understand how the conditioning and predestination of this "utopia" sacrifices individuality for com ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 İntellecta rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

about 120 pages, the story becomes very boring, since it is mostly the feelings of the protagonists. However, this attempt to identify me emotionally with the characters did not touch, since it is quite bizarre.
So I felt more like having a classical drama in a modern world in front of me.

Fazit:
quite weak translation into German,
grammar partly catastrophic, so sentences lose their meaning.

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Feb 25, 2017 Joey Woolfardis rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ahreet, 2017, bookshelf, masculine, egads-bogen, own, ce20

O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
Miranda, The Temptest, William Shakespeare

Read as part of The Infinite Variety Reading Challenge, based on the BBC's Big Read Poll of 2003.

My reading of this book has been an adventure in itself, not just in a metaphorical sense but in an incredibly boring physical adventure. I began it in September, but then I was marvellously interrupted by the 2016 Rio Olympics and that ...more

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Feb 18, 2008 Dale Pearl rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: bbc-top-100-all-time-read, terrible, dystopian

This book is on many a top 100 reading list. Aldous Huxley has the reputation of being an intellectual giant. His heritage places him in the land of England, the place where all of the great literary giants come. A Brave New World unfortunately does not live up to the credits,pedigree or even the cult following that chases after it.

Summary: In a nutshell this book is a mess. I am assuming that the majority of individuals that rate this book high on a novel list or 5 star it on here on amazon do ...more

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Dec 15, 2017 ☘Misericordia☘ ~ The Serendipity Aegis ~ ⚡ϟ⚡ϟ⚡⛈ ✺❂❤❣ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

CAREFUL OF SPOILERS!
This is a 'viviparous mother' of all dystopian worlds! Yes, 'viviparous', 'mother' or 'father' are indecent jokes in the time of 'Our Ford'.
This world is majorly fucked up, just like its 1984 edition. Perhaps even more so! This one is also a cold one. Here, exogenesis, 'Bokanovsky's Process' and 'Podsnap's Technique' have taken over human progenity. Babies are no longer born, instead they are 'decanted'.
Here, you get to undergo an operation to remove your gametes 'voluntar ...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, utopias-and-dystopias, novel, british-isles

In the beginning there was Henry Ford.

The Ford factory system designed vehicles that were fit for specific purposes, and this book starts off as a satire on applying that model to humanity. The problem then with traditional socialisation through the family and traditional education through schools is that it is haphazard. Hit and miss. As such it produces an unstable society with irregular, inconvenient needs, booms and busts, Wall Street Crashes and unemployment.

The initially unserious answer t ...more

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Jun 29, 2008 Valerie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Valerie by: Dad

Shelves: cypresslibrary

This book is frightening. I'll take it to my classroom and subject the innocents to it.

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Getting Back to t...: June Classic- Week 3 -Brave New World Ch. 13-18	8	5	Jul 15, 2020 09:57AM
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About Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

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Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Through his novels and es ...more