Book Review: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

ISBN:  0971075697

Published:  January 2003 (first published 1932)

Publisher:  Everbind Anthologies (different edition pictured)

Read from May 26th to June 10th, 2011

Synopsis from Goodreads (of another edition):

"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma, to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a "Feelie," a movie that stimulates the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and everyone is provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses his relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than the confines of their existence allow. Huxley foreshadowed many of the practices and gadgets we take for granted today--let's hope the sterility and absence of individuality he predicted aren't yet to come.

Review:

Brave New World was one of the novels assigned to my AP English class for summer reading.

The first word that comes to mind when I think about this book is "strange."  I actually read the forward (unlike others I talked to) before reading this actual book, and it interested me that this book was actually how Huxley feared the world would be in the future.  I can see some similarities between our society and the society of Brave New World, and I'm very happy that our society isn't exactly like the one in the novel (and hopefully it never will be).

I loved this book.  It was a fascinating story, and I loved reading about the society.  It was almost scary to me that Huxley (in 1932) thought the future may look like this.  I definitely hope that the world is never like the society that's described in this book, and I don't think it ever will be.  Although, I can see how we've moved closer to that society in some ways since Huxley's time.

I greatly recommend this book to everyone.  It's a very interesting novel, and I'm glad it was assigned for summer reading.