Fahrenheit 451 | 
 enlarge | Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy Used: $1.80
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1253 reviews
Sales Rank: 177
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0345342968
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345342966
ASIN: 0345342968
Publication Date: August 12, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Lightly bent cover/pages;highlighting
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Amazon.com
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy." Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family," imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbor Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature. Bradbury--the author of more than 500 short stories, novels, plays, and poems, including The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man--is the winner of many awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Readers ages 13 to 93 will be swept up in the harrowing suspense of Fahrenheit 451, and no doubt will join the hordes of Bradbury fans worldwide. --Neil Roseman
Product Description
Nowadays firemen start fires. Fireman Guy Montag loves to rush to a fire and watch books burn up. Then he met a seventeen-year old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who told him of a future where people could think. And Guy Montag knew what he had to do....
Download Description
This is Bradbury's best-known novel. The science fiction tale concerns censorship and anti-intellectualism, carried on in an alternate society that conducts huge book burnings as part of the social agenda. It is a spooky and yet uplifting book.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1248 more reviews...
 Great book for teenagers July 25, 2008
I purchased this book for my teenaged son to do an English class book report. He was impressed by the way the author was able to imagine the future considering this was written in 1953. I do not recommend for under the high school level.
Important Book Still True In The World Today July 22, 2008
I read Bradbury's book on two different levels. The first being the themes of communism and censorship. The other level being the tone in which he wrote which reflected the primal instinct that we as individuals have to function in society and to stay alive. Also, how he writes (he is a genius, literally), one can decipher how the thought process works in a fight or flight situation. The book is fantastic. I found nothing boring about it and there was always action going on to where you looked forward to turning the page. A must read.
Powerful Book July 11, 2008
Having not have read it in high school, this year I felt compelled to read it because of a sudden interest in Ray Bradbury.I regret having waited so long to read.Bradbury introduces themes that are more relevant today than ever before.My recommendation is to buy or borrow and read this book ASAP.
fascinating great read June 30, 2008
I am sad to say I had not read this book till age 27. What was wrong with my high school? No Bell Jar, no 451?
*Anyway* fascinating read and crazy to think that books may be obsolete in the future, quite sad, since I'm an avid reader. The premise of the story is about a fireman who knows nothing else but his job and what life is like now, until he meets a young "strange" girl who discusses actual real life with him. After that, Montag starts to wonder things outside the realm of what he always knew and starts to question his job and the purpose of burning books. He ends up rebelling and fighting for the cause.
If you liked 1984, this book is similar is some aspects (to me at least). The sad bleak future that these authors dreamed up with the loss of individualism and the control of telescreens/televisions everywhere with lack of intellect.
The Third Great Dystopian Novel June 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" is one of his finest works. It was first published in October of 1953, and then serialized in the March - May issues of Playboy magazine. The novel originally began as a short story "Bright Phoenix", though that was not published until 1963, and from there it was lengthened into the novelette "The Fireman" which was published in February of 1951 in "Galaxy Magazine". It is a novel of a dystopian society, and stands along with George Orwell's "1984" and Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" as the best early examples of that type of work.
Though it is easy to find similarities between "Fahrenheit 451" and the other two books, there are some key differences between them. In the earlier two works, the State appears to be the controlling force. We see this in the education centers in "Brave New World" and every aspect of the society in "1984", but in this work the society seems to have evolved from this through a change in social norms. People are judged by the number of wall sized televisions they have; books and intellectuals are spurned and eventually considered harmful to society. One should be happy, so news of the war is all in the background, and even the attempted suicide, or someone's death are mentioned in only in passing quickly and then the focus is back on happier subjects. People spend more time being entertained by a program called "My Family" then they spend interacting with their actual family, and for some children are a nuisance, so they are either not had, or if one has them they are sent off and only seen for short periods.
One of the most effective parts of this short novel is the way he incorporates the feel of the society into his writing style. One of the key descriptions of the life which the hero, Fireman Guy Montag, is living is noise. He can't think, because of the noise of the televisions his wife has on, and it is apparent that he didn't even notice this until he met Clarisse McClellan, a free-spirited teenager who has moved in next door with her parents and her uncle. His conversations with her are different, they require thought, and there is time for him to think because they happen outside of the noise of life. This noise continues and gets worse when Clarisse disappears from his life, but she has helped bring forward his natural curiosity. The noise continues, and as Guy deals with his wife, her friends, his boss, the mechanical hound, the other firemen, the signs of war, an old professor acquaintance, etc. This noise is felt by the reader two, as Bradbury throws this mix together, though leaves it clear enough that the reader picks up on what is really going on.
This noise is there through the first two sections of the book, and into the third section where at last Guy is pushed over the edge and commits the most desperate of acts, and by doing so he frees his mind. From then on, Guy is able to focus on the situation at hand, his being hunted, his escape, and his desire to save the thoughts and words of the books he has been destroying for so many years. He is able to discuss and think about the war and about Clarisse, his wife Mildred, and his actions; even though those are mostly sad and disturbing thoughts. The reader also feels the noise pressure is lifted, though he is certainly in danger.
This is a tremendous book, though very short as far as novels go. It is not simply a rewrite of "Brave New World" or "1984". Those works were produced first, and those authors are often given more literary merit while Bradbury is too often thought of as a writer of speculative fiction. Those works teach us to be wary of the government becoming too powerful, while this work teaches us to be wary of our own laziness and the anti-intellectual movement of our society through entertainment such as television. This work also teaches us to be tolerant of those who are not like everyone else. This work was selected to receive the Retro Hugo in 2004 for novels written in the year 1953.
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