Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, … literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.
Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.
When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.more
If I were to choose a book that should be required for all to read, it would be this book. Actually, I think this one is already required reading in many schools. It’s a classic, and it was my very first Bradbury novel.
May we never burn our books, may we never replace them with the ever advancing tech. May our books last until the end of time.
This book will really make you think. It will help you realize the course society is taking and where we are headed. It will teach you a lot of things, if you can make it through the beginning. I promise it is amazing, it is just really dense at the beginning.
This was required reading for an English class in Junior High, back about 1965 or so. I am amazed at how up to date it is for our time 50+ years later. The thought control and banning of books seem even less far fetched than it did at the time I first read it. Some of the technology, such as TVs that interact with the viewers sound a lot like virtual reality as we see it today. A cautionary tale of what might lie in store for us in the not too distant future. This book bears a strong similarity to George Orwell’s 1984, a book I read in High School. In both books, we see “big brother” watching us in various ways.
Many of us had this book as required reading in school. I suggest you read it again as an adult. Why? Because this book is as relevant today as when it was written. How far will human kind go to be “happy”? How much will they give up? The book is filled with Bradbury’s signature style of prose. Unique descriptions and beautiful language.
This amazing classic gets better with every re-reading. Bradbury was a wise man to see the way the future was going even upon the writing of “Fahrenheit 451”. It’s a wonderful read and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves reading.
Another reallly long, but solid list from BookRiot with way too many books I must bookmark.
The Top 100 Must-Read Books about Books: http://bookriot.com/2016/05/25/100-must-read-books-books/
i did not enjoy it
Very well written. Thought provoking. Highly recommended reading.
I think books like “Fahrenheit 451,” “Animal Farm,” “1984,” and “The Handmaids Tale” should be on everyone’s to-read list. Each one of them deals with human suffering which totalitarian regimes impose on society and an individual’s struggle to overcome such suffering that inevitably comes as a result of such stifling lack of freedom. In “Fahrenheit,” a utopian, futuristic world where firemen burn books and entire houses instead of putting them out, it’s such fireman like Guy Montag, who becomes an unlikely hero after saving one single book that he was meant to burn. The book is not overly long but extremely profound in its message. In the age where books are the new enemies of the state, where society is virtually held under control by means of state-imposed entertainment, can one act of rebellion turn into something bigger?
The book is frightening for certain symptoms of society’s moral and intellectual decay are easily recognizable in Montag’s wife who doesn’t technically live but merely exists, constantly glued to her TV or earphones; in Montag’s chief Beatty, an authority that purposefully confuses the straying mind in order to bring it back under control; in a society itself that chose to replace their own lives by those that they see on TV just in order not to think, in order to be the obedient herd and not the thinking individuals, for everyone knows that a thinking individual will always see through a tyrant’s charade and will start a revolt, and no totalitarian government would want that. Beatty was right, books are dangerous, and for that very reason, we shall read them. Do read this one; it’s definitely an immortal classic, I promise.
(Disclaimer: This is not the edition I read. I read The 50th Anniversary Paperback)
Originally published as a mass market edition in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is a true treasure of American literature. I last read it when I was young. It was a pleasure, in these tumultuous times, to read it again. Fahrenheit 451 is ageless, speaking to us today. The threat of oppression, suppression and censorship dangles like Damocles Sword over every generation.
“How many of you are there?”
“Thousands on the roads, the abandoned rail-tracks, tonight, bums on the outside, libraries inside.”
Guy Montag was a fireman but not as we know fireman. The virtue of putting out fires and saving lives has long been forgotten on this world. Firemen create fires. Spraying kerosene from brass nozzles, lighting the matches, indifferent to suffering of those labeled criminals whose homes they torch. Those who possess books must be prosecuted.
The world moves fast, too fast, and no one has time to read a billboard unless it stretches miles long. There is a coming war but few take time to notice, few care.
Guy Montag is surprised and enamored one evening by a strolling seventeen year old girl he meets in the streets who babbles on about moonlight, rose gardens, sunrises and dew on the morning grass. Such expressions of happiness and joy, such speech about books and free thought is considered mad and dangerous in these times, especially when speaking with a fireman. She continues to be herself anyway, oblivious to the trouble it could bring to her.
Her parting question to him, unsettles him most. “Are you happy?”
Of course he’s happy, or so he tries to convince himself. He’s a married man with a good career and a nice home.
Guy Montag goes home that night and we learn it is really not the place he wants to be. His wife, Mildred, is rather lifeless, ‘her face like a snow-covered island.’ She is caught up in entertainment, in a world of tv screens the size of their walls, seashells in her ears, piping in music and talk, stories played out by others.
Guy Montage decides he can and must endure this ‘good life’ but speaking to others and really hearing what they say, having his conscience open, he realizes how dark the world is, people bored with life, doing dangerous things that result in death, shootings and suicide. All these advancements in their society and still so many unhappy.
‘Is there happiness to be found in books?’
At the firehouse, Guy Montag asks too many questions of his chief and the other firemen. They suspect he is not pleased with his duties, but this is not an uncommon stumbling-stone for Firemen. Firemen often go through a phase when they are curious about books and the things they are doing but they do wise up sooner or later.
The bell rings and the Firemen rush off to a three-story home in an ancient part of the city. The suspect is an elderly woman with books in her attic.
The Firemen enter and rips the books down, throwing them everywhere to the dismay of the elderly woman. She watches sadly as they spray their kerosene everywhere.
Guy Montage tries to urge the woman to leave her home but she has a match of her own. The Firemen leave the kerosene soaked house and the woman steps out on the porch, eyeing her accusers. And then she strikes the match.
Guy Montag has a crisis of conscience. Here he begins his quest, his crusade. He secretly confiscates some books but can’t make heads or tails of them. He then seeks out a man who he believes can help him better understand. He knows this will prove dangerous but doesn’t care at this point.
Soon it is he that is on the run, his life in tatters, his home burnt, his life turned upside down.
If you’ve never read this book, I highly recommend it. It is troubling and chilling and an honest look into what happens when one questions the way things are and then acts on it. It is a deeper look into the humanity and inhumanity of mankind. 5 stars!
The thought of a World where books are burned is very scary.
Yet that is the World of Fahrenheit 451.
The protagonist is Guy Montag, who is a fire fighter. Unfortunately he is not the kind of fire fighter who puts fires out. Instead, he starts them. He burns books and the residences of people who own books.
Television Rules in this World of Fahrenheit 451. That is a very scary thought. Already I feel that most of us watch TV for far too many hours each day.
Personally I don’t think this book has a happy ending. What it does have is HOPE and hope springs eternal.
What I did like about this book is that Guy went from being a Fire fighter – a burner of books – to someone who cared about books and he worked hard to preserve what books were left and to preserve their ‘memory’ until a new World would come.
A remarkable book. Written before its time. The part where the women are watching television and it is the world to them was a portent of things to come. Brilliant mind. Brillant author. Brillant book. Remarkable view into the future when it was published. It’s amazing that the book’s idea came from a simple newspaper article in which the author read that the degree books caught fire was the inspiration for this book.
In this futuristic society, houses are fireproof and books have now been outlawed by the government. Firefighters are now dispatched to burn books and collections of books when they are uncovered. This excellent book by Ray Bradbury, follows firefighter Guy Montag, as he develops a close bond with a young girl, Clarisse, who is a book lover and reader. The unlikely friendship causes Montag to begin questioning his job and the laws that prohibit the reading and ownership of books. The story caries you effortlessly to a fantastic, yet unexpected ending. It’s one that can be read again and again and again.
Fahrenheit 451, the temperature that book paper burns. It is post-apocalyptic times when firemen now start the fires, not put them out. They burn all books, the homes they are found in and even the owners. It is a world where people spend their time watching TV and believe what the government tells them. This is not so far from today’s society, which makes this book worth reading and contemplating. Guy Montag is the central character, he is a fireman who is sent out to burn books. He happens to meet Clarisse while out on an evening walk. Their discussion makes Montag question what he does and his life in general, making him spiral out of control. Or is he spiraling in control of his destiny?
This book is a classic but still resonates today. The idea that books and our right to free speech could be taken is not so far-fetched, but hopefully not anywhere on the spectrum of possibility. This book is about independence versus control and about the courage to stand up for what is right, despite the odds.
Even more valid today; it is a bit scary that the world seems to have headed this way…
This is a game changing book in the same mindset as 1984. This was the book that first got me interested in writing when I read it at school. It was also way ahead of its time, featuring technology that we are now only just starting see in our own lives. But not only that, it was also prophetic, showing us a world where watching TV, and interacting with it, will become the norm. Characters, like Montag’s wife, sit at home glued to massive wall screens (seem familiar?) This book was Bradbury’s warning to the world- stop reading and only watch television, and the powers at be will take this chance to enslave you.
But it wasn’t any of this political themes that inspired me, at least not until much later, it was cold, harsh, world Bradbury paints, an almost grey one where the only other colours are the red and orange of flame. The opening lines have stayed with me and always will.
Love this. A fantastic book. It reminded me of 1984 because it was set in a dystopian America. I loved the characters and I shall be adding it to my favourite book list.
All quotes are taken from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
~Quick Statistics~
Overall: 3/5 Stars
Plot: 4/5 Stars
Setting: 2/5 Stars
Characters: 3/5 Stars
Writing: 1/5 Stars
Memorability: 1/5 Stars
“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
~Quick Review~
For a relatively popular classic, I was rather disappointed with this novel. Though the concept was interesting and I quickly read this book, I did so because I wanted to get it over with. I was mildly amused throughout, but in my opinion, I don’t regard this novel as a ‘masterpiece’.
“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
~Other Information~
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Page Count: 194 pages
Release Date: October 19, 1953
~Book Description (via Goodreads)~
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
~Characters~
Guy Montag, a firefighter in an age where books are considered a crime against society, is the boring character that this novel follows. I think that the novel would have been far better had its main character been more interesting and lively. It seemed as if Ray Bradbury had the outline of a character but didn’t go further to make his character actually realistic and human. But perhaps, that is the point of the novel. With the lack of novels in Guy’s boring life, maybe he is dull as a result. Nevertheless, the way that Montag progressed from viewing books as something awful to wanting to gain knowledge through them was a much needed piece of character development.
“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door…Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
~Writing and Setting~
The writing style was very vague and left me to try to envision this dystopian and futuristic world that Bradbury designed. I didn’t enjoy this very much, I’m not very imaginative, and it is typically hard for me to visualize even when the surroundings of a character are described.
Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a future where books are essentially outlawed and your house can be burned down for owning them. You can also go to jail for having them in your possession. Needless to say, I’d be screwed.
~Plot~
The plot was by far my favorite part of the novel. Though excruciatingly slow paced, the novel had such an interesting concept that I continued to read. The idea that one might be jailed in the future for reading, something that is encouraged in our society today, was absolutely preposterous yet riveting. I cannot imagine how different my life would be had I not read throughout it. This blog wouldn’t even exist!
~Overall Review~
While it was not a novel that I consider fantastic, it definitely had aspects that are fairly genius. It was just not my cup of tea.
“It doesn’t matter what you do…so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.”
Amazing dystopian fiction! It should be read by everyone along with 1984. In some ways it is even easier to imagine the world in Fahrenheit 451 coming to reality. The government does not burn books by force but are cheered on by the sheep-like masses. Now more than ever, pleasure comes from the fast-paced connected world rather than simple conventional means like books and nature, as Clarisse would have enjoyed.
Alright, I know, I know. You’ve read it. But I reread it, and so should you. It’s astonishing. The prose is magnificent, the plot captivating, and Bradbury foresaw so much more than I remembered–from earbuds to cancel culture.