Fahrenheit 451

Name: Fahrenheit 451
Rating: 4.213759422302246 (407 reviews)

Ray Bradbury

Feb 2013 · HarperCollins UK

4.2

407 reviews

eBook

240

Pages

Eligible

Ratings and reviews aren’t verified Learn more

About this eBook

The hauntingly prophetic classic novel.

Over 1 million copies sold in the UK.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books.

The classic novel of a post-literate future, Fahrenheit 451 stands alongside Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World as a prophetic account of Western civilization’s enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity.

Bradbury’s powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which, forty years on from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.

Ratings and reviews

4.2

407 reviews

Tim Rowe

8 March 2014

The idea of a government keeping a population placid by using "bread and circuses" goes back at least as far as ancient Rome, of course, and Bradbury was writing in McCarthyite USA, so the subject of the book was there for the taking. But Bradbury's execution of it shows why he's on science-fiction's A-list, from the sumptious prose one could drown in, through the slightly off-kilter (and more realistic for it) dialogue, to the way the story drives relentlessly forwards with no diversions or sidetracks, reflecting the dystopian society where pausing for reflection is seen with suspicion. Of course, Bradbury always does all that, but here it all comes together perfectly.

2 people found this review helpful

lee B

13 September 2022

Simply the best book I have ever read, far more prescient then 1984. it's like a metaphor galore, the most descriptive beautiful sentences, you will truly disappear into the world of Sci-Fi engorged by every page. Fun fact, the shells for the ears discribed in the book was the original inspiration for Sony to make the Sony Walkman

Harry D

13 August 2016

Neither the storyline nor the characters are particularly engaging, and this book presents a series of events which seem inevitable and convenient, rather than influenced by the main character in any way. There is a failure to create any empathy for the characters in the story. The only reason this could be considered a page turner is that the hype surrounding it leads you to keep reading in anticipation of getting better. It is clear to see why so many publishers turned it down originally.

10 people found this review helpful

About the author

One of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers of all time, Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1920. He moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1934. Since his first story appeared in Weird Tales when he was twenty years old, he published some 500 short stories, novels, plays, scripts and poems. Among his many famous works are Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles. Ray Bradbury died in 2012 at the age of 91.

Rate this eBook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets

Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.

Laptops and computers

You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.

eReaders and other devices

To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Centre instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.

Report illegal content