Fahrenheit 451
1953
- mechanical hound
- girl next door
- long now manual for civilization
- terrorismo estatal
- censura
- novela
- totalitarismo
- science fiction
- political fiction
- satire
The story
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. Often regarded as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The book's tagline explains the title as "'the temperature at which book paper catches fire, and burns": the autoignition temperature of paper. The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings. The novel has been the subject of interpretations focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas for change. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury said that he wrote Fahrenheit 451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about the threat of book burning in the United States. In later years, he described the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature. In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal. It later won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in 1984 and a "Retro" Hugo Award, one of a limited number of Best Novel Retro Hugos ever given, in 2004. Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version. --- Also contained in: - [451° по Фаренгейту: Рассказы](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17811384W/Fahrenheit_451_stories) - [451° по Фаренгейту: повести и рассказы](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL27741633W) - [Works](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL28185143W)
What it’s like
Sun-bleached dread and a hush of burning paper: the novel's world is a near-future suburb of chrome kitchens, wall-sized parlor screens flickering with empty noise, and fire engines that glow like jewels against a dark sky. Bradbury's prose is lush and rhythmic, full of sensory bursts (the sizzle of fat in a frying pan, the sting of cold air, the sweet smell of smoke) that alternate with clipped, restless dialogue among characters who rarely pause to think. The mood sits somewhere between unease and wistful warmth, the feeling of a late summer afternoon with something quietly wrong beneath it. The pace is brisk and propulsive, with short chapters that tighten toward a chase and then loosen into long, reflective stretches in the wilderness. Violence is present but restrained: a few tense confrontations and a fiery house-burning scene, described vividly yet never lingered over for gore. Its emotional arc follows a comfortable man slowly waking up and reaching for a fuller life, with his tentative bonds to a restless young neighbor and a set of bookish outcasts gradually reshaping his sense of self. It suits a rainy Sunday read, a long train ride, or a late-night unease that still wants to feel hopeful. It is for readers who love dystopia with lyrical sentences, and for anyone who wants a gentle-yet-charged story about the value of memory.
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