Fahrenheit 451 | 
| Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1242 reviews
Sales Rank: 427
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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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 1237 more reviews...
 still relevant today May 13, 2008
I chose to read Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" for a High School Book Report. I thought that fact so many of the ideas portrayed in the book by Bradbury are still very relevant today was fascinating. The book was published in the 1950's and Bradbury's ideas about the influence of other types of media and their effect on society are evident today. Society as a whole has had its general thought process effected (to some extent at least) by the media with ideas portrayed in ad campaigns or television shows which make decisions for you instead of developing some of these ideas on your own.
Another theme that the book does an excellent job of representing is the effect of censorship on society. The protagonist of the story, Guy Montag, begins the book oblivious of his own ignorance towards the world around him, not changing until a thoughtful teenage girl (Clarisse) causes him to question why everything is the way it is. These questions lead Montag down a path to enlightenment in which Montag discovers the reality of an unaware society. "Fahrenheit 451" does a superb job of displaying the harmful effects that censorship can cause. The effect of censorship displayed in the book is a society of robotic citizens that find ignorance more attractive than actually exploring life.
Another reason I enjoyed reading this book was the fact it was very thoughtful and left a lot of different ideas open for interpretation. The book did seem a little bit dry at times but it was not a bad transition because it allowed for time to interpret a few of the many ideas presented in the novel. I thought that "Fahrenheit 451" was an excellent read and I would happily recommend it to anybody who enjoys something more meaningful and thoughtful than an average novel.
If all sci-fi was like this I'd still be a virgin. May 12, 2008
This is one of the two most relevent works of sci-fi/speculative fiction ever made (the other being 1984, which represents hegemonic power very well). Farenheit 451 sounds kind of absurd in the beginning, but as you get into it more, it's an incisive critique of American culture, where trends in media saturation are taken to a horrifying extreme.
It'll only take a day or two to read if you have the time, so you might just want to rent it from your local lending library, but it is only $7.
The most important thing about this book is how much more relevant it seems today than when it was written. Today, newspapers and print media are going away (thanks, kindle), while Television is becoming more and more a mainstay of communication. Advertizements prevade all aspects of life these days, creating new and cheapened meaning to our culture, something that Bradbury predicts.
Buy it, borrow it, steal it -- whatever, so long as you read it, it's at least worth the discussion it provokes.
Truth or Not? April 29, 2008
This is another author, like George Orwell who has the ability to see the a possible future and present it in a way that appears to be a time in the life of an individual character, as well as surrounding characters who are experiencing the same world. Whether this is a made up story or not remains to be seen, because as the author states in Coda, ""The point is obvious, there is more than one way to burn a book." But it is told in a manner that is all so more believeable in todays current world of technology than perhaps it could have been percieved when it was first concieved. Bradbury like Orwell are writers that having discovered them, I feel fortunate to know that there are many things they have still written I have not yet read, but I certainly intend to!
Something to truly look forward to!
Guy Montag respresents an individual who with help from a mysterious "Girl", awakens from the slumber he has found himself in. It seems to me that even now, this fantastic creation if truly appreciated for the message it delivers, can continue to awaken others who are not seeing the entire picture.
Told in a manner that is clearly intellectually sound, the implications are truly frightening.
Five stars isn't enough to rate this, nor would ten or any other amount if it existed here be.
I will certainly be absorbing more of his writes.
And if you haven't read this, although frightening I don't believe I could recommend that you do so more highly. Especially in light of the world we currently live in!
Your Chance to Hear The Last Panther Speak
The end has never been so poetic April 9, 2008
It's always been a recurring theme: the end of the world brought on by our own doings. And obviously, when such an issue is handled by one of the last and greatest surviving writers of the past century, Mr. Bradbury strikes the note perfectly using his his wondrous ambiguity and delightful imagery and infinitely unique writing prose.
The first true step taken in a lifelong career of literature.
Fahrenheit 451 April 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a firefighter whose job it is to set fires. In this futuristic, dystopian universe houses are fireproof and firefighters burn books. Books have been banned because they make people think uncomfortable facts, however most people are too caught up with their wall-to-wall TVs and fast cars for the thought of reading to even cross their minds. Montag loves to burn and thinks he is happy with his life until he meets a girl who thinks about the world in her own way and a professor who remembers when books were treasured rather than banned. The story follows Montag as he slowly comes to realize how he really feels about the world he lives in.
Fahrenheit 451 explores deep ideas about human nature, censorship, and the balance between knowledge and comfort. The most disturbing thing about this book is how close Bradbury was to our life today. Almost 50 years ago, he imagined things similar to cell phone earpieces, big screen TVs, and super highways. Other things are exactly like today: constant advertising, mindless entertainment, an endless war that most people forget about, and political correctness restricting peoples' speech. In the world of Fahrenheit 451, books have been banned because they make people think uncomfortable thoughts.
This compelling book is a quick, but by no means light, read. Bold, artistic language and a fast-paced storyline makes Farhenheit 451 seem less like a vehicle for a sermon, and more like a window through which one can view a different but eerily similar world. His word choice and use of imagery creates a surreal feeling throughout the book, forcing the reader to
As good as Bradbury is at description and ideas, I felt that many of the characters were fairly one-sided and seemed to only exist to spew out speeches about differing points of view. I found it hard to relate to them, and didn't sympathize with them at all. However, part of Bradbury's point is that in this world human relationships aren't valued. Perhaps the character under-development was done on purpose to force the reader more into the mindset of the time.
Overall, this book was thought-provoking and beautifully written. Its overarching message of individuality vs. comfort is just applicable to today's world as it was 50 years ago when the book was written. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to think more critically about the world in which we live in.
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