Brave New World
Aldous Huxley's 1932 dystopian novel of engineered castes, conditioning and soma.
At a glance
Key ideas
Engineered castes, Soma, Stability first …
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Aldous Huxley, Amusing Ourselves to Death and Brave New World Revisited
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- The novel is set in the World State's London in AF 632, where people are made in hatcheries and conditioned into castes.
- Citizens are kept content with sleep-learning, consumption and the drug soma.
- Bernard Marx brings John the Savage back from a reservation in New Mexico, and his clash with this society drives the story.
- It is often read beside Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as its counterpart.
Why it matters
- It is the classic warning that a society can be controlled through pleasure and distraction rather than force.
Key facts
- Author
- Aldous Huxley1
- Written
- May to August 1931, at Sanary-sur-Mer, France1
- Published
- 1932; his fifth novel and first dystopia1
- Title
- From Miranda's speech in Shakespeare's The Tempest1
- Recognition
- No. 5 on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels in English of the 20th century1
- Banned
- Frequently challenged; on the American Library Association's lists of most banned and challenged books1
Key ideas
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Engineered castes1
Embryos are treated to fit predetermined roles, from Alphas down.
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Soma1
A happiness drug that keeps citizens peaceful.
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Stability first1
Huxley wrote it as the Depression made stability seem the "primal and ultimate need".
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Pleasure, not pain1
In Orwell's 1984 people are controlled by pain; in Brave New World by pleasure.
Connections
Links
Sources
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