Brave New World

by H.A. Cartledge (Adapted By), Aldous Huxley

The astonishing novel "Brave New World," originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley's legendary vision of a world of tomorrow utterly transformed. In Huxley's darkly satiric yet chillingly prescient imagining of a "utopian" future, humans are genetically designed 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 and as a thought-provoking yet satisfying entertainment.

Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Classics, Read For School, School, Fiction

113 pages, Paperback

Published August 28, 2007

Reviews

[Crocro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The description of the New World, which is supposed to intrigue us and blow our minds is very superficial, in the way that it just points out obvious differences to the world we know. ‘’ Oh look, a woman is supposed to sleep with loads of men to be socially accepted ! That isn’t the way we know it, huh ?’’

Aside from the storyline (which I found alright but not particularly captivating) there are some details/subjects that could have been treated with more depth. Religion for one, since it is paradoxal to say the New World abandoned Christianity ‘’because everyone is happy now’’ (reference to Karl Marx I suppose ‘’ Religion is the opium of the people’’ implying religion wouldn’t be needed if people were happy) to create a new religion with a god called Ford, who is prayed to and adored just the same.

Then the characters’ names, that often refer to important historical figures. The ones I first noticed were the ones that had to do with communism: Marx, Engels and this girl called ‘’ Lenina’’. But why? The New World is far from being a communist society since there are very distinct and segregated classes with different levels of intelligence and wealth. Maybe Huxley wanted to criticize communism, and many people argue he just wanted to portray an utopic society. But in this case I think he could have been a bit more explicit about what makes the ideals of communism and the New World so utopic, because his hints don’t really lead us anywhere and don’t teach us anything. After researching the other character’s names I found out they pretty much all referred to an important someone, but I couldn’t really figure out what their name had to do with the role they played in the story.

I feel this way about many topics in the book that were treated superficially and I think it’s a pity it leaves so much unexplained and personally left me unsatisfied.
Now it was still well-written and interesting to read but the renown of this work gives you certain expectations, that in my case were left unfulfilled.

[Inga · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Happiness is never as exciting as unhappiness or the struggles of great passions. Happiness is never grand."

Sehr interessante Welt, spannend geschrieben, keine der Figuren ist wirklich sympathisch.
Bin kein großer Fan, wie Frauen hier beschrieben und behandelt werden.
Das Ende ist ein einziges Chaos, das gesamte Buch erinnert mich vom Stil her an ein Theaterstück.

[Franco Gerónimo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siempre pienso lo mismo... Un libro de ficción debería ser más entretenido y atrapante que un libro de no ficción (ya que esté último, no se hizo para entretener si no para informar) y la gran mayoría no pasa esa prueba (para mí). Este fue uno de ellos, la verdad que lo terminé porque es un clásico y forma parte de "los libros que hay que leer", pero a diferencia de 1984, en ningún momento me atrapó. Se nota el paso del tiempo, los libros actuales de ficción suelen ser mucho más atrapantes. Tiene algunos momentos interesantes, pero solo eso.

[Abhishek Panigrahi · Rating 4 out of 5]

the stark difference between the so-called 'civilized world' and the barbarian uncivilized world makes the reader question the true meaning of happiness...

[Minifig · Rating 4 out of 5]

No se trata del texto original de Huxley, sino de una adaptación reducida y simplificada destinada a estudiantes de inglés. Las ideas de Huxley están ahí, por lo que como obra de ciencia ficción es excelente y, obviamente, es fácil de leer, pero me habría gustado leer la obra literaria original (que era lo que esperaba cuando compré el libro).

Mi reseña del texto original (que leí traducido): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

[『toby』 · Rating 1 out of 5]

fucking awful, I'd say

[lamija🪷📖 · Rating 1 out of 5]

in my whole existence i have never read something so bad and useless, thank you

[chaand · Rating 4 out of 5]

rip george orwell u would've killed urself again

[Deo Gryffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I picked this book from the library's shelf I dreaded the idea of reading an abriged version of a book, especially when it's a graded reader, but the description was too catchy to wait. Plus I wanted to see if I would have problems reading it. When I read more dystopian books, I will surely come back to this and read the unabriged version. All things considered it is an incredible read. It hits on a lot of problems, that although not goverment-enforced, are extremely widespread and most importantly it left one question hanging- is this future really a dystopia or an utopia. Which to be fair sounds absurd on the surface, but the moment all the facts were laid out I couldn't help but build a case for this new world. All things considered I can not believe this is a book written 80 years ago as it hits on SO MUCH relevant issues. And it all came in a relatively entertaing and sometimes humorous package.

[Ina hhh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the only book I’ve read from Huxley so I don’t wanna misjudge him but… It seemed as a draft manual of the reality we’re going towards to, written in a hurry. I was expecting more, even though as a storyline is very interesting, the topics are casually or superficially developed. Some characters, like Helmholtz or Mustapha Mond deserved a bit more dedication.
And because of the above I tend to think that he is a writer to whom some futuristic ideas were given and he made a book in a hurry. I think these kind of books don’t come from the writers geniality or their futuristic vision of the world but that these books are experiments of how the public percepts certain things And how to they react.

[spooky Σοφί · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because there was a part in the middle where I got kinda bored. Anyway it has so many good points!:

-It definately open to a lot of well known modern cliches such as the rebellion, the organization, etc. Yet it was THE ONLY U-topia that scared me because of the preservation of embryos. Prompts for that.
-Is nobody going to talk about the surname Marx? Could that be a reference for marxism?
- Speaking of references! Besides I´m not a huge Shakespeare stand, the references for A Midsummer Night`s Dream were DELIGHTFULL.
- I enjoy the critic over conductism (the way they force fear over kids) especially since I saw it in A clockwork orange´s movie (yet I know it came after this)

[Adam Fendrych · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clean, crisp image of a super-capitalist society where all citizens have their given place and class and are kept on drugs to happily enjoy their leisures and consume the products of the economy.

Precise, efficient writing. Astonishing considering when it was written.

[Romeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grundsätzlich ein gutes Buch, jedoch merkt man, dass es eine gekürzte Version ist, wodurch Teile der Geschichte nicht so ganz rund wirken.

[Nik · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[nanoo_gnzalez · Rating 3 out of 5]

• 3/5 (6/10) ⭐
• Fecha finalizado: 29/10/24

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a shame I read the adaptation. It talks about being different, the crash of this new world with the old one. The world created by the author is perfect in every single way, but it seems as if humanity has been erased. No feelings more than happiness and satisfaction. Here we can see the worlds colliding with the characters: Lenina is the average person in the society; Bernard is part of the society but knows that something exist and was erased (feelings); and John is the old world, our world.
The complex feelings we can get to feel are taken as absurd in this world. The most sacred thing for us, our mother, is seen as something disgusting, while the father is seen as a joke. Yes, people are happy, but it is only a painting, a mask on their faces. Part of being human is experiencing all. In order to know what happiness is, we need to know what suffering is. To know what warmth is, we need to know first what is cold. And John understands that. But he is so disappointed by the painting his mother make, that he feels he is unworthy for the person he loved: Lenina. At the same time, he is angry with her because she doesn't understand what love really is. She wants sex, because it is all she's been taught. But John, that has read Shakespeare's deep love story, Romeo and Juliet, knows exactly what love is, even though he doesn't really understand it. And the book ends with a cruel rule, like in the theory of evolution: if you don't adapt, you die.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, though this is a Abridged Version. I don't know yet what it misses, but it's good anyway.

The book is about a prozac society in the future where people are bred by a version of cloning and are conditioned from birth by sleep learning to be the perfect cog in society that they need to be.
The lowest workers are Epsilons, and they love to be Epsilons and all that it includes, the leaders and thinkers are Alphas, and they thing they are the best, the Betas, one step below love being Betas, etc. You get the drift.
I like this book as I think it would be a good society as long as there aren't any outside threat, as everything works and everyone is as happy as they think they can be.
Of course, in this kind of society you wont have free will as is so popular today, but, what would you need it for?

[Namiko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very shocking ending. I cannot decided which world is happier, the civilized one or the uncivilized one: The civilized one is a world in which people are young and beautiful with nice dress, enjoying having sex and drug without being alone, but they are controlled by the government; The uncivilized one a world in which people have skills to live and have great nature but they could be very violent. I think it could be very dangerous to have devotion too much.


information:
Aldous Huxley 1894-1963
Brave New World 1932
English writer
There are quotes from Shakespeare's plays, "Tempest," "Othello," "Macbeth."
Henry Ford is their god.

I should compare this story with "1984"(written in 1948) by George Orwell.

What I don't understand:
the salty water which John drank.

[Leo Horovitz]

I bought this on a flea market recently and decided to read it today. I sat down on a cafe and opened it, only to read that I'd gotten hold of a "bridged" edition, with a shortened story and simplified language! As I didn't have anything else with me to read, I read it anyway and was disappointed by the story and characters. I now have to read the original version (guess I'll visit the library tomorrow) and hope it will be significantly better than this was...

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich habe das Buch vor einigen Jahren schon mal gelesen, damals aber noch nicht wirklich verstanden. Als ich es nun wieder gelesen habe war ich schon ein bisschen erschrocken darüber, wie sich die Menschheit entwickeln könnte, denn gar so utopisch finde ich es gar nicht. Ich finde es sehr gut geeignet um sich mal wieder auf die wichtigen Dinge im Leben zu besinnen.

[CRI]

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is one of the great works of science fiction. It is the year After Ford 632 in the New World. People are born and live by scientific methods. There is worldwide happiness and order. Then John comes from the Savage Reservation to the New World and with him he brings strong emotions - love, hate, anger, fear. Suddenly, danger threatens the New World.

[Mi VaHu]

This book brings me a couple of thoughts: adapt or die, or when in Rome do as Romans do. It´s really hard to go againts the flow when you´re alone. It´s a fact that if you have radical ideas and become a rebel, there will only be bad consequences for you. :(

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG. Probably one of the best books I have ever read.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end dissapointed me but it's an excellent book!