Aldous Huxley: Brave New World

[Guest Anonymous]

Reading Aldous Huxley

[Timstar]

Thanks, that is a good review. No doubt a classic that should be read along with Orwell's 1984.

[ian]

This is one of a number of books on my "failed to finish" list (I think I got less than a quarter of the way through), but you've given such a great review here, Anonymous, that I am convinced to give it another try soon.

 

Thanks!

[Andie P]

What a great review, really enjoyed reading it. However, doesn't sound like my type of book....bit to complicated for my tiny mind!

 

Andie P x

[poppy]

Reading Aldous Huxley�s Brave New World was inspired by realising that I hadn�t read any of a recent list stating the top twenty geek novels. Given that my impressions of geek literature being hardcore science fiction and adventures in elfworld it was pleasant to discover that this novel, over seventy years after its publication, is still fresh. I would tend to think, however, that its endurance is due to its satirical tone rather than any sort of geeky idolisation as, despite its futuristic setting, it deals more with its characters rather than the world around them.

 

 

Thought some might be interested to actually see what the Top Twenty Geek Novels were (hope this isn't going too off topic)

 

http://www.listsofbe...-20-geek-novels

 

I've only read Brave New World and 1984 but have read other books than mentioned by Neil Gaiman, John Wyndham and Terry Pratchett.

 

I studied Brave New World at school, and that was a long time ago now, so maybe it's time for a re-read.

Edited May 11, 2012 by poppy

[vodkafan]

Thanks for that Poppy. I checked and found I had read 7 out of the twenty. So I suppose that makes me just over one-third geek.

[Yoghurt]

I recently read this and was slightly disappointed. I was hoping for something on par with 1984 (which is quite possibly my favourite book) but it failed to quite grab my imagination in quite the same way. Which was a real shame.

[woolf woolf]

I'm reading this one, and I think I've read three quarters of it. I had to put a little effort in the beginning, but now I'm reading it with ease and flow. His Fordship Aldous Huxley certainly presents here a strong and self-sufficient society, but I'm divided between thinking how good it would be if ours evolved to be like this and how sad a loveless world would be. I guess some of them would be like Bernard Marx, resilient to all kinds of indoctrination, but decided to play along, become soma addicts or just face the world and be crushed by it. I guess plenty of people dislike this book just for the ideas it conveys. I'm expecting the book to make itself the exercise of proving why this world would be wrong, via John; one of my favourite parts in this book is how this outsider with strong monogamous feelings and shakespearean quotations experiences the culture shock. I really like the characters' multilingual names, like Lenina Crowne or Helmholtz Watson, and curiously enough at least some famous people's names would be like this, if they wouldn't decide to englishify both their first and last names (I'm not against it).

[Brian.]

This was the book that reignited reading fiction for me and I completely understand what you mean about it needing a little effort in the beginning.

[woolf woolf]

Finished the last quarter now, some events happened. It's an interesting book.

[bobblybear]

I couldn't get on with it when I first tried reading it, many years ago. It's lurking around somewhere waiting for a a re-read. Perhaps I will give it another go this year.

[chesilbeach]

We read this in English at school, I think in the third year, so I would have been around fourteen. Genuinely can't remember a single thing about it. I was reminded of it recently though, as it was discussed on Radio 4's Open Book a couple of months ago: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04vk033