Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title as "the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns": the autoignition temperature of paper. The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
People have used this novel to focus on the historical role of book burning. Bradbury himself was inspired by the Nazi book burnings and by ideological repression in the Soviet Union. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time, during the Second Red Scare, …
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title as "the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns": the autoignition temperature of paper. The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
People have used this novel to focus on the historical role of book burning. Bradbury himself was inspired by the Nazi book burnings and by ideological repression in the Soviet Union. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time, during the Second Red Scare, about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he described the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature, and, in a 1994 interview, stated that the book was more relevant during this time than in any other because of political correctness which he described as "the real enemy these days", and as "thought control and freedom of speech control".In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal. It later won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in 1984 and a "Retro" Hugo Award in 2004. Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version.Adaptations of the novel include François Truffaut's 1966 film, Ramin Bahrani's 2018 film, and two BBC Radio dramatizations.
Bradbury published a stage play version in 1979 and helped develop a 1984 interactive fiction computer game of the same name, as well as a collection of his short stories titled A Pleasure to Burn.
I had read this book a long time ago and remembered it as a difficult read - my english was not quite on the same level as it is today.
When re-reading it now i was blown away. An amazing story paired with wonderful storytelling. After reading "boring" contemporary novels this was delightfully refreshing
Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.
5 stars
There are so many quotes that I have taken away from this book and that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I think one of the main (or, most impactful) ones is 'if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore' - such a beautiful way of saying die doing what's right. It reminds me of the quote from Stéphane Charbonnier who stated, 'I'd rather die standing than live on my knees' (he was later killed by Islamic terrorists who did not agree with the viewpoints he published). I know that many people reading this review might argue that I should have read this book earlier in my life (and they're likely right) but I want to attempt to rebut this by saying that I think, if I were to read Fahrenheit 451 at any younger age, I might not have been …
There are so many quotes that I have taken away from this book and that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I think one of the main (or, most impactful) ones is 'if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore' - such a beautiful way of saying die doing what's right. It reminds me of the quote from Stéphane Charbonnier who stated, 'I'd rather die standing than live on my knees' (he was later killed by Islamic terrorists who did not agree with the viewpoints he published). I know that many people reading this review might argue that I should have read this book earlier in my life (and they're likely right) but I want to attempt to rebut this by saying that I think, if I were to read Fahrenheit 451 at any younger age, I might not have been able to take away as much as I did reading it this time. I'm currently 19 years old, though Fahrenheit was actually one of the first books I ever purchased. It had a beautiful animated cover and came along with Brave New World (which had 3D glasses tucked behind the first page so that you could view the cover image from a different perspective); whilst I would have been able to read both books in my youth, I'm somewhat glad I didn't as I worry I might have ruined them, spoilt them for myself. F451 made me feel so electric with every single word, page, and character. With every single location, event, and detail. It took a little time getting used to the writing style but once I was into it, I was completely in. Sidenote, the detail of the vent in Montag's house was wonderfully done and felt so suspenseful.