English language
Published June 26, 2013
Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and 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 …
Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and 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.
This sixtieth-anniversary edition commemorates Ray Bradbury's masterpiece with a new introduction by Neil Gaiman; personal essays on the genesis of the novel by the author; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Nelson Algren. Harold Bloom, Margaret Atwood, and others: rare manuscript pages and sketches from "Ray Bradbury's personal archive and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature. (front flap)
as distopias costumam ser associadas com um governo totalitário controlando uma massa de pessoas.
o que me interessa mais nesse livro é a construção de uma opressão por parte do próprio povo: o desinteresse por buscar conhecimento, que surge das mídias de massa, torna-os ignorantes.
o final da história é particularmente emocionante.
É uma distopia clássica, li há muito tempo mas lembro de não ter achado tão envolvente quanto as primas mais famosas (1984 e Admirável Mundo Novo). Recomendo o conto "Bright Phoenix" que inspirou o livro (é curtinho e achei melhor que o livro).
It must be close on 25 years ago that I first heard about this book, and now finally I can tick it off the list. Surprisingly also, this is the first time I've read anything by Bradbury, even though I have a number of his works on my shelves.
The book is such a classic, that I'd be surprised if people don't know the general premise, and of course in that sense there wasn't too much wow factor or plot twists that one uncovers here. With that said, it is wonderfully written. The clarity of the landscape the characters see themselves in is simple and clear to the reader. Depressing, vapid and shallow as one continues through the story as it becomes more and more fatalist.
Such a simple phrase, such a beautiful phrase, as Montag meets the group by the fire at the end:
"... and Time was there." …
It must be close on 25 years ago that I first heard about this book, and now finally I can tick it off the list. Surprisingly also, this is the first time I've read anything by Bradbury, even though I have a number of his works on my shelves.
The book is such a classic, that I'd be surprised if people don't know the general premise, and of course in that sense there wasn't too much wow factor or plot twists that one uncovers here. With that said, it is wonderfully written. The clarity of the landscape the characters see themselves in is simple and clear to the reader. Depressing, vapid and shallow as one continues through the story as it becomes more and more fatalist.
Such a simple phrase, such a beautiful phrase, as Montag meets the group by the fire at the end:
"... and Time was there." Truly gave me chills.
