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    Brave New World: A Novel
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    Brave New World: A Novel
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    Brave New World: A Novel
    Ebook256 pages4 hours

    Brave New World: A Novel

    By Aldous Huxley

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Set far in the future, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World depicts a world where “Controllers” have achieved what they believe to be the ideal society. Through scientific and genetic breakthroughs the human race has been brought to perfection: humans have pre-assigned roles in society, and everyone happily fulfills their purpose. Bernard Marx, however, is different. He is disgusted by the predestined behaviour of his peers and has a strong desire to break free from social pressures, leading him to set off on a journey to visit one of the few remaining Savage Reservations—places where the old, flawed, and imperfect life still continues.

    HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 1, 2014
    ISBN9781443428521
    Unavailable
    Brave New World: A Novel
    Author

    Aldous Huxley

    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.

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    Reviews for Brave New World

    4/5

    15,388 ratings332 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I'm enough of a cynic to believe that if our leaders had access to the kind of technology that would make Huxley's Brave New World a reality that they would use it in the case of the characters in the book I just didn't care enough about them to hope that they would be able to break free from this brave new world and experience sadness, pain, illness etc or as we call it life and not just the mindless simplistic happiness that is on offer.
    • 4/5
      Ultimate form of gentic engineering. Everyone is happy.
    • 4/5
      Story of a future dystopian world where all people are genetically engineered.
    • 4/5
      Eerie. Fun to teach.
    • 5/5
      Uses false dichotomy and outsider perspectives to challenge notions of what makes a good society and where balance ought to lie between social and individual rights
    • 4/5
      "O brave new world, that hath such people in it!"Brave New World is a classic dystopian novel set in a futuristic world where science and pleasure has replaced individualism and feudalism. It portrays a totalitarianism society achieved through test tube babies, and state ordered hypnotism, a caste system where a person's position in life has been pre-ordained even before they were even 'born'. In this world it's inhabitants are controlled not by military force but by drug-induced happiness, using a substance known as soma.At the core of this book is an horrific use of eugenics and explores the negatives of a society which on the face of it is successful but where freedom and personal responsibility has been sacrificed for peace and stability.In this novel I believe that Huxley wants the reader to look as the dangers of using technology to control society and to convey the idea that it cannot solve all the problems of the world alone. First published in 1932 this book seems even more relevant today where computers and gadgets are ever more prevalent in our lives, a society based around consumerism, where it is easier and often cheaper to buy new rather than to make and mend. When this novel was first published it was a against a backdrop of a growth in fascism, in particular in Germany, where minorities were gradually being persecuted and the state was promoting its own form of eugenics. Thus Huxley asks us to consider the dangers of an all-powerful state. Despite everyone appearing to being equal, there is deep inequality and unfairness bubbling away under the surface? As a society we must not allow the state to take more and more of our civil liberties by stealth but instead we as individuals must therefore also take some personal responsibility for our own actions and reactions. However, I have to say that it also lacked a little something; a nasty side. Unlike in Orwell's '1984' or even in a later novel like Attwood's 'A Handmaid's Tale' the state appears rather benign. When Bernard and his friend Helmholtz seems to challenge the state the police arrest them using soma vapour rather than batons, then their punishment is banishment to a distant island with other like minded individuals rather than anything more sinister. This lack of an undercurrent of malice somehow seemed a little detrimental to the whole. Overall, Brave New World is a pretty scary depiction of what could be humanity's future. It is at times a rather complex read but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it as I found it thought provoking.
    • 2/5
      I avoided reading this in high school and college but I'm reading it now for a high school class I'm subbing in. Interesting, but I don't care for it. Not a sci-fi fan.
    • 4/5
      Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.


      As I noted before, it is odd to finally read this famed novel and find oneself bombarded by quotes from (Walter) Benjamin on barbarism. As BNW unfolded I was trying to find the fault lines, guessing that the solitary minded character (Benjamin Marx or maybe the other bloke?) would be eventually given access to behind the curtain. Alas, it is fitting that agent be someone outside the pale, a stranger in a, well, you know.

      Was any reader ever actually surprised that John had access to the Bard's Complete Works? My wife turned on the Golden Globes as I made my way to bed to finish this. That ballroom of Alphas was a shining reminder of our own iceberg social model.

      I finished this last night and then swiftly tumbled into a well of slumber. By the grey beard of Ford (I know, I know) I was not greeted by Minerva's Owl. There was no prophecy on that charred road to Damascus and I didn't discover what Goldstein's designs for reverse engineering. Stumbling awake and staring at my first four shots of espresso, I have considered whether matters are sufficiently stable.
    • 4/5
      Learning that Grant Morrison is writing a screenplay of BNW, it was time for me to finally read the book. The world building is patchy and incomplete (by modern standards). The character focus is meandering. Some scenes are incongruous. But, it stands strong, despite faults that would tank a weaker story.

      IOW - it's such a powerhouse, that it shrugs off critique of plot and narrative.

      It stands as a Yin to the Yang of 1984 (Huxley having been Orwell's teacher and clear influence), and John (The Savage) is a thumbnail sketch for Michael Valentine in Stranger In A Strange Land. These facts alone make it a must-read. The ideas in BNW are ultimately stronger than the two books (tip of the iceberg) it so clearly influenced. It earns the "truly great" label with one arm tied behind its back, esp. when you consider it was written in the 1930's. Can't bring myself to go to 5 stars for some reason, though - - probably b/c Huxley spoiled me by influencing so many authors to run with the ball.
    • 3/5
      There’s little I can add at this point, so I’ll keep my review very brief. This was an easy read. I can see why it is a classic, and I was not bored while reading it, despite the influence it’s had on the dystopian subgenre. I really liked the prevalence of images drawn from music theory (I’m eyeing his Point counter point as my next read by Huxley).
    • 3/5
      I liked hearing about the way the world worked. I have noticed I like the actual utopian society best in most dis-topia books. I got a little bored when they went to the reservation. But it was a relatively OK book and I enjoyed it enough to remember most of it years later.
    • 3/5
      Interesting novel. It has a very strong start - perfectly painting a world so different from our own. As the beginning chapters went on, however, the book began to drag for me. It seemed void of purpose, to some extent. But by the half way mark that started to change around, at least for me. The story at this point began to turn into a "fish out of water" story. Except, unlike so many other stories of similar structure, you - the reader - are the fish out of water. For me, this was the most intriguing aspect of the novel and what brought me to continue reading it. Well worth the read, though Huxley's writing style may be tedious at times.
    • 4/5
      This time consumed as an audiobook. Audiobook is a little hard to digest as it doesn't lend itself well to the work, or I guess the work is not good as an audiobook. Also, you can hear the narrator (Michael York) swallowing at and stopping the recording in several spots. Listened to this immediately after Orwell's 1984--great for comparison. Lots of connections can be made to our present society in both.
    • 4/5
      I wonder what Aldous Huxley would think of his books being read on a hand-held electronic device? At the time he wrote this he could not conceive of the technology that would arrive in less than a 100 years after he had written it. And although his descriptions of advancement in technology are out-dated and clearly based off what was available or popular in the early 1930s (like helicopters), the concepts he talks about are not. There are so many layers in this book.

      I wonder why this book is not studied in schools rather than the likes of Lord of the Flies and The Handmaids Tale, which are not as well written or as philosophical about civilisation in their storylines - although Aldous Huxley's constant use of the word 'Pneumatic' might have something to do with it. A word that he seems to think covers a wide range of things, but is not really a word used in this day and age. This is one of the few down falls of this novel, along with its steampunk and old fashioned feel, which is common in Science-fiction from the turn of the century - it's dated. The same thing will happen in a 100 years with modern day sci-fi. The pictures authors paint of a modern future are tainted by the current state of technology and fashion.

      It could also be the underline message in this novel that is so disturbing. The idea that to keep a world of genetically engineered people believing they are happy, they have to be conditioned through subliminal audio dictations while sleeping as children, and once they reach adulthood to give them access to a drug that they can take when they need to obliterate any emotion other than the pretense of being happy. They are conditioned that it is not normal to spend time alone and to always go out and socialise. And that everyone has sex with everyone else whenever they like - it's impolite not to. There is no risk of pregnancy or disease or aging. Their salary is the drug, to keep them under control and civilised, and at no time feeling anything negative. It's the ultimate horror novel - and why I enjoyed reading it so much. The ending is the other extreme of what happens when someone not raised in such conditioning tries to live and function there, and to some extent the outcome of such false living. I could say suppression but really, are they, with access to anything their hearts desire? Although that debate is in itself what makes this novel so intriguing.

      I remember the film which doesn't really put across the depth of the novel, as movies of books often don't, and I think of movies like The Island which are influenced by this novel in the concepts of genetic engineering and cloning.

      I understand why others might not enjoy this novel, with its outdated language and style, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any science-fiction lovers.
    • 3/5
      I have mixed feelings about this book. I loved the first half or so, which was really setting the scene of this future society. I loved the decanting process, the obscenity of childbirth and motherhood, the groups of 72 and 84 genetically identical "twins," the weird ritualized promiscuity, the "Everyone says I'm awfully pneumatic." So many fantastic (in the fantasy sense rather than the super-great sense) and fascinating ideas wrapped up into a pretty cohesive vision of a future society.

      Of course the plot wouldn't have any real tension without the massive drama unfolding between the Uncivilized Savage and the Civilized Society. But I actually was disappointed in his rejection of everything -- self-flagellation aside, it all seemed too easy. Wouldn't it have made things far more interesting if he had, say, fallen in love with the girl, and had to struggle to reconcile himself to living in Society amongst things he hated, figuring out how to "fit" in a contrasting way to his previous efforts to fit into the savage culture? For him to just retreat and spend the rest of the book punishing himself was a disappointing turn of events. I also am not sure I really get his extreme aversion to sex and sexuality... even if he was raised in a mostly monogamous culture, there still must have been sex, and his Shakespearean self-education also seems unlikely to have pushed him to such extreme conservative views.

      Maybe I just didn't like the Savage character. I was much more interested by, and pleased with the treatment of, Bernard and his friend the would-be writer who managed to get sent off to an island somewhere to realize his dream.

      Also, what happened to the girl?
    • 3/5
      People in the future are manufactured and designed to be happy.2.5/4 (Okay).The story is unfocused and poorly structured (it doesn't even start until a quarter of the way through the book, the closest thing to a protagonist doesn't show up until close to halfway through, and the ending is awful). Which is a shame, because it's actually pretty good when its about the characters.
    • 3/5
      A difficult book to rate. First let me say that I now understand why my high school students all talked about not enjoying this book at all in their English classes. I feel like it would over the top of their heads with its philosophy. I also was surprised to see the amount that sex and open relationships were discussed considering this is required reading at many high schools. I am not saying it should be censored, but it is interesting that it is a book of choice for many high school classes.

      The book itself if a classic so there is not much more I can say. I felt the plot was simply a thin way to expound on various social ideas and philosophies. In some of the later chapters, there is simply a conversation discussing philosophy of the fictional world compared to the beliefs of what would have been the author's contemporary world.

      Interesting concepts to think about, but not a page-turner.
    • 3/5
      Uitgekiende toekomstvisie, knap bedacht. Het verhaal zelf heeft een eerder flauw verloop, met vooral vanaf hoofdstuk 9 minder spankracht en een onbegrijpelijke ommekeer bij de hoofdfiguur Bernard. Ook de pointe niet helemaal geslaagd
    • 2/5
      I get that it's a classic and all but it just did nothing for me. This I'm sure was the first, but it's approximately the third book I've read in the last few months with this dystopian society where they have figured out how to have everything perfect and nobody ever has to experience any uncomfortable feelings, or really any feelings at all. [The Giver by Lois Lowery and Scythe by Neil Shusterman] I will now credit this book for starting the whole process but by this point in my reading I'm just over it.
    • 5/5
      I am not sure which "must read" book list I found this on. I must say that it is an excellent read. I am amazed that it was written in 1931 because the parallels to modern society were fascinating. Consumerism, manipulation of the population, societal control, restricted education, attacks on liberty, science and art, etc....
    • 5/5
      BELIEVABLE SCIENCE FICTION
    • 4/5
      It's a few days since I finished listening to this book. I needed some time to process my feeling about it and I'm not sure I've given it enough time yet. It's a little surprising that I've never read this book before. I remember lots of my contemporaries taking it in literature classes and discussing the ideas but somehow I never picked it up myself. One of the best things about trying to read books from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list is that I discover books that are certainly part of the canon of Western literature.The book is set in a future time when civilization has been transformed to a peaceful and generally happy era. Most people are conceived in vitro and the fetuses are manipulated so that the resulting child will be slotted into a job that fits their intellectual state. Alphas are the highest functioning and have the most responsible jobs. (Huxley doesn't explicitly say that only males are alphas but that seems to be the case--remember this was written in 1931.) Most people are sexually promiscuous and do not form long-term relationships. A drug called soma is dispensed freely; it allows users to quell negative thoughts and enjoy life or even take a "holiday" when they are too stressed. There are no aftereffects to soma as there are for alcohol and drugs in our society. Bernard Marx, an alpha-plus who specializes in sleep learning, is something of an anomaly. He is unhappy with his life and career and he has a fixation for a female, Lenina Crowne. He asks Lenina to go with him to New Mexico on a holiday. New Mexico is a reservation that has been allowed to remain natural. While there Bernard and Lenina meet John, a young white man who was born to a woman from the civilized world who got left behind on a visit. Bernard gets permission to take John and his mother back to civilization. It is John who calls civilization Brave New World from the speech by Miranda in The Tempest as he cherishes an illicit copy of Shakespeare's plays. As John discovers his Brave New World has significant problems even though it is supposed to be Utopia.
    • 3/5
      An amusing utopian counterpoint to "Nineteen Eighty-Four" but it hasn't got the continued relevance. This is what the future looked like in 1932: it isn't what it looks like now.
    • 3/5
      I read this work given its status as a "must read" 20th century novel. The social commentary on utilitarianism gone too far is interesting- more so the many examples created in this futuristic dystopian world, e.g., mass produced drugs to keep all the population happy, brainwashing, synthetic reproduction of classes of persons specifically geared for their best and highest use. The contrast of the "modern world" with those from the "old world" now restricted to reservations was also appealing.However, I found the writing style choppy and disjointed and generally mediocre. In addition, the author's dialogue at the book's end between an "old world" and "new world' representative was a lazy way to compare and contrast the differing ideologies.
    • 1/5
      Giving up on this classic. Several chapters in and no main characters, no real plot, just a heap of exposition. At least 1984 had a clear protagonist and plot to follow. If I'm going to be bashed over the head with world building and social criticism I want it to be engaging.
    • 4/5
      Most excellent, indeed.
    • 3/5
      I want to give this 4 stars, because the concepts were great, and I'm impressed by many of the inventions/world views compared with life at the time of writing, and I thought the last half of the book came together very well. *However* the first half of the book was kind of convoluted, and slow, I kept putting this down to read other things, but I was determined to finish it. For such a large portion of the book to give me that slogging feeling, it loses a star, but it's still impressive, and I understand why it's a classic, especially since I see such parallels with life today.
    • 3/5
      "Brave New World" is a chilly dystopian story that is a bit similar to "1984". I guess the future is going into one direction: no more freedom, individuality, culture and ideas. Our future will be mundane, boring and repetitive basing on the 2 books. This story is an eye-opener indeed.
    • 5/5
      I read this back in high school but it turns out that I had forgotten almost everything about the plot so I am so glad that I revisited it with this audiobook edition.Michael York was wonderful as the narrator (though I now have the urge to watch Logan's Run!)
    • 3/5
      This is a very thought provoking book, especially right now with the political upheaval in the U.S.! The test tube babies and their predestination and predetermination of their caste order is super creepy, though not entirely implausible! And the sterilization of society, the sameness of it all, seems a little too realistic to be comfortable for me! No art, no science, no individualization - just take a drug and be happy! I know of one political party right now that would love this type of society! But I'm with the Savage - I like reality! Like I said, lots to think about in here, but it's not the best story ever. Too much philosophy and Shakespeare for me! But I'd say it's a must read, and a must think, if you are inclined to do so!