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....

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204 in Books
• Published on: 1987-08-12
• Released on: 1987-08-12
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 208 pages

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

From AudioFile
Bradbury's novel details the eternal war between censorship and freedom of thought and continues to be relevant today more than ever. In Bradbury's future, books are illegal and happily so--citizens are too busy watching their wall-sized televisions and listening to their in-ear "seashell" radios to care about the loss of good literature. Guy Montag begins the novel as a fireman who enforces the temperature of the title--that at which books burn--but then transforms and tries to show his society the mistake of censorship. It's a treat to hear Bradbury read his own work, almost as if a wise elder were sharing a cautionary tale. Sometimes the slower pace seems awkward for a novel of such action, but overall the reading does justice to the timeless classic. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
The New York Times Frightening in its implications... Mr. Bradbury's account of this insane world, which bears many alarming resemblances to our own, is fascinating.

Customer Reviews

Great book for teenagers

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
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
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.