Fahrenheit 451 (Coles Notes) - Softcover

Bradbury, Ray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 077403288X ISBN 13: 9780774032889

Publisher: Coles Pub Group Ltd, 1988

Synopsis

Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

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.

About this title

Review

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 neighbour 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 Chroniclesand The Illustrated Man--is the winner of many awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Readers aged 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

Review

Het verhaal van 'brandweerman' Guy Montag (taakomschrijving: boeken verbranden) die in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in verzet komt tegen een maatschappij waarin kennis en afwijkende ideeën worden onderdrukt blijft een indringende metafoor. (Het Parool)

Een hartstochtelijk pleidooi voor het bewaren en lezen van goede boeken, voor goed onderwijs, voor zelf nadenken en jezelf ontwikkelen en voor contact met de natuur en de buitenwereld. (Hebban)

'Fahrenheit 451' is even leesbaar en essentieel als Orwells meesterwerk '1984'. (...) Lees het met gebalde vuisten. Het is een tijdloze classic die vandaag nog steeds relevant is en tot denken aanzet. Dergelijke boeken lezen is een heerlijke daad van verzet. (Karel-Willem Delrue Cutting Edge 2017-08-01)

Fahrenheit 451 is uitstekende sciencefiction, én het is kunst. (Alexandra de Vos De Dagelijkse Standaard 2017-08-18)

Edition details

• Publisher: Coles Pub Group Ltd
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 077403288X
• ISBN 13: 9780774032889
• Binding: Paperback