Summary | Author | Reviews | Discussion Questions


Farenheit 415
Ray Bradbury, 1953
179 pp.

In Brief
First published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 is a classic novel set in the future when books forbidden by a totalitarian regime are burned. The hero, a book burner, suddenly discovers that books are flesh and blood ideas that cry out silently when put to the torch.

Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires.... The system was simple. Everyone understood it. Books were for burning...along with the houses in which they were hidden. Guy Montag enjoyed his job. He had been a fireman for ten years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames...never questioned anything until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then he met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think...and Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do! (From the publisher.)

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About the Author

• Other names —Leonard Douglas, William Elliott, Douglas
   Spaulding, Leonard Spaulding

• Birth—August 22, 1920

• Where—Waukegan, Illinois USA

• Education—schools in Waukegan, IL, and Los Angeles

• Awards—O. Henry Memorial Awards, 1947 and 1948;
   Benjamin Franklin Award, 1954; Master Nebula Award,
   1988; World Fantasy Award, 1977; National Book Founda-
   tion Medal, 2000.

• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California


Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than 500 published works — short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse -- exemplify the American imagination at its most creative.

Once read, his words are never forgotten. His best-known and most beloved books -- The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451, and Something Wicked This Way Comes -- are masterworks that readers carry with them over a lifetime. His timeless, constant appeal to audiences young and old has proven him to be one of the truly classic authors of the 20th Century -- and the 21st.

Ray Bradbury's work has been included in several Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, and the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In recognition of his stature in the world of literature and the impact he has had on so many for so many years, Bradbury was awarded the National Book Foundation's 2000 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the National Medal of Arts in 2004.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along.

Extra
In a 2003 interview with Barnes and Noble editors, Bradbury shared the following:

"I spent three years standing on a street corner, selling newspapers, making ten dollars a week. I did that job every day for three hours and the rest of the time I wrote because I was in love with writing. The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love."

"I have been inspired by libraries and the magic they contain and the people that they represent."

"I hate all politics. I don't like either political party. One should not belong to them -- one should be an individual, standing in the middle. Anyone that belongs to a party stops thinking."

Even More
When asked what book most influenced his life or career as a writer—here is what he said:

(This is really good—see his last choices.)

The John Carter, Warlord of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which entered my life when I was ten and caused me to go out on the lawns of summer, put up my hands, and ask for Mars to take me home. Within a short time I began to write and have continued that process ever since, all because of Mr. Burroughs.

What are your favorite books, and what makes them special to you?

• The collected essays of George Bernard Shaw, which contain all of the intelligence of humanity during the last hundred years and perhaps more.
• The collected poetry of Alexander Pope, who is perhaps the greatest poet outside of Shakespeare.
• The collected plays of Shakespeare, which influenced me during my life.
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Quite obviously its impact on my life has lasted for more than fifty years.
• The books of Loren Eisley, who is our greatest poet/essayist of the last forty years.
• The short stories of Eudora Welty, the short stories of Edith Wharton, the short stories of Willa Cather, and the short stories of Jessamyn West. All of these women influenced me because they taught me the special, tender, feminine side of humanity.

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Critics Say. . .
Both these novels [the review includes David Karp's mostly forgotten work One] are political-psychological fantasies about the future. Both are quite frightening in their implications. Both are declarations of faith in the ability of a few men to resist the pressure of an unimaginable powerful state and keep alive a tradition of human worth and individual dignity. Both are brilliantly effective protests against the degraded ideal of mindless happiness and slavish social conformity that their authors consider the most sinister threat to modern men. Both novels contain some amusing science-fiction gadgetry. Both are tense, dramatic, thoughtful and disturbing.
Orville Prescott - New York Times, 10/21/1953



Fahrenheit 451 is set in a grim alternate-future setting ruled by a tyrannical government in which firemen as we understand them no longer exist: Here, firemen don't douse fires, they ignite them. And they do this specifically in homes that house the most evil of evils: books.
    Books are illegal in Bradbury's world, but books are not what his fictional -- yet extremely plausible -- government fears: They fear the knowledge one pulls from books. Through the government's incessant preaching, the inhabitants of this place have come to loathe books and fear those who keep and attempt to read them. They see such people as eccentric, dangerous, and threatening to the tranquility of their state.
   But one day a fireman named Montag meets a young girl who demonstrates to him the beauty of books, of knowledge, of conceiving and sharing ideas; she wakes him up, changing his life forever. When Montag's previously held ideology comes crashing down around him, he is forced to reconsider the meaning of his existence and the part he plays. After Montag discovers that "all isn't well with the world," he sets out to make things right.
    A brilliant and frightening novel, Fahrenheit 451 is the classic narrative about censorship; utterly chilling in its implications, Ray Bradbury's masterwork captivates thousands of new readers each year.
Andrew LeCount - Barnes and Noble


Readers Say...
(Occasionally, when few critical reviews are available, we include a helpful review by Barnes & Noble customers.)

Fahrenheit 451 is a simply good book. Yes, it's quite distressing and unpleasant to read - because what Bradbury describes is much closer to truth than we'd like it to be. And that is precisely what makes the reality of the book so alike our own - it's more pleasant not to think about such things, and therefore one can merely say the book doesn't suit one's taste and go get entertained in front of the TV like his brainwashed wife, Mildred. The disturbing thing about the book is that, unlike many other books that deal with the distant future, 'Fahrenheit 451' hasn't been proved wrong by others. Actually, what is shocking to realize is that we've come quite close to the society Bradbury writes about. Perhaps books haven't been banned yet, but it is indeed the entertainment industry that controls people's minds, the political correctness has reached ridiculous levels. The book also has other qualities besides making one think (which is, judging by some other reviews, one of its biggest downsides). Of not letting people shares their point of views and opnions on things. As a fireman in the future, Guy Montag starts fires with books - rather than putting them out. The idea of it is that books can make some people feel bad and unhappy as a result we should get rid of them. He meets a girl named Clarrise and his eyes suddenly open to realize that there is a true meaning behind books, unaware of his actions before. When she asks if he was happy, he says yes. Avoiding that he wasn’t. He later spends hides the books at his house, with a disapproval from his wife, Mildred and her only life is with her fake 'family' within the walls of her parlor. This is a wonderful book for everyone to read and young adults would enjoy just as much. I thought the woman dying with her books, because she knew she could'nt live without them was great. Imagning a world without books is terrifying, books are what keeps us believing and intelligent.
Megan - a Reviewer, 11/26/07

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Book Club Discussion Questions

1. Why would society make "being a pedestrian" a crime? (Clarisse tells Montag that her uncle was once arrested for this.)

2. One suicide and one near-suicide occur in this book. One woman, who shuns books but loves TV and driving fast in her car, anesthetizes herself,; "We get these cases nine or ten a night," says the medical technician. Another woman, who cherishes her books, sets herself on fire with them; "These fanatics always try suicide," says the fire captain. Why would two people who seem to be so different from each other try to take their own lives? Why does suicide happen so frequently in Montag's society?"

3. Captain Beatty quotes history, scripture, poetry, philosophy. He is obviously a well-read man. Why hasn't he been punished? And why does he view the books he's read with such contempt?

4. Beatty tells Montag that firemen are "custodians of peace of mind" and that they stand against "those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought." How well are the firemen accomplishing these objectives? Are conflicting ideas the only source of unhappiness in their society? What other sources might there be? Can conflicting ideas exist even without books that have been destroyed and outlawed?

5. Why do you think the firemen's rulebook credited Benjamin Franklin-- writer, publisher, political leader, inventor, ambassador--as being the first fireman?

6. Why does Beatty program the Hound to track Montag even before Montag stole the book? Do you believe Beatty had seen him steal books before? Or is it that Beatty had detected a change in Montag's attitude or behavior? Cite incidents in the book that support your answer.

7. Montag turns to books to rescue him; instead they help demolish his life- -he loses his wife, job and home; he kills a man and is forced to be a nomad. Does he gain any benefits from books? If so, what are they?

8. Do you believe, as Montag did, that Beatty wanted to die? If so, why do you think so?

9. Since the government is so opposed to readers, thinkers, walkers, and slow drivers, why does it allow the procession of men along the railroad tracks to exist?

10. Once Montag becomes a violent revolutionary, why does the government purposely capture an innocent man in his place instead of tracking down the real Montag? Might the government believe that Montag is no longer a threat?

11. Granger, spokesperson for the group on the railroad tracks, tells Montag, "Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end...When the war's over, perhaps we can be of some use in the world." Based on what you've read of the world these men live in, do you believe that the books they carry inside themselves will make a difference? Might this difference be positive or negative? Point out episodes in Fahrenheit to support your response.

12. What does Granger mean when he says, "We're going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long time to look at them?" Why would "mirrors" be important in this new society? (Note: In Part 1, Clarisse is said to be "like a mirror.")

13. Although Ray Bradbury's work is often referred to as science fiction, Fahrenheit has plenty to say about the world as it is, and not as it could be. As you review the book, list examples of the themes mentioned below, as well as others you notice. Discuss how you feel about the stands the author or characters take in Fahrenheit.