So much has been said about a classic novel like Fahrenheit 451, I'm sure I can't do it justice with this review. Ray Bradbury wrote it in 1953 and as we get closer in time to the future society he predicted, the resemblances are alarming. It is what great dystopian fiction should be, entertaining and thought provoking. Bradbury takes as his title Fahrenheit 451 ~ the temperature at which book paper ignites.
Long ago - or is it just a myth - people lived in houses that could catch fire, and the firemen would come and put them out. Guy Montag works as a fireman, who today searches out people who collect or read books so they can be disposed of by bonfire or flamethrower. Sometimes that is the owners fate as well. Books have been outlawed as they conflict with a happy society. Why would anyone want to disturb themselves with the false lives told of in these books? They aren't real and must be destroyed for the good of everyone.
Don't like Little Black Sambo? Burn it. Uncle Tom's Cabin? Burn it.
Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. People want to be happy, isn't that right?
A main occupation of residents is to watch real-time reality soap operas on their wall screen TV's. Montag has three wall screens and his wife would like a fourth. Getting together to talk is also frowned upon. He meets one day Clarisse, a young girl who lives next door. She likes to meet and talk about things, what is wrong with her? Dissenting ideas make everyone uncomfortable.
While burning books, Montag discovers the urge to steal and read portions of a book. He begins to collect several and hide them. As Montag investigates other people who read books, his own secret is revealed and he becomes targeted as a book owner. His own firemen raise the alarm and pursue him. Montag must seek out the underground of people who revere books and keep their stories alive.
I have seen the movie Fahrenheit 451 by Francois Truffaut several times. Timeless and perfect, it's a classic in its own right starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie. The film follows the same blueprint of the book, which is nice, while the novel adds the spectre of nuclear war and glimpses at a disspassionate and violent society.
It really is a modern classic ~ alongside George Orwell's 1984 but not attached to it ~ for it would appeal to anyone who loves reading, is interested in looking at society now or in the future, likes fire trucks and alarm bells, or enjoys the lick of a flame as it consumes a match.
Highly Recommended.
1953 / Paperback / 147 pages
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