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| View Larger Image | Fahrenheit 451 | Paperbackby Ray Bradbury (Author)
| List Price: | $6.99 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Ballantine Books | | Page Count: | 208 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 01, 2008 | | Sales Rank: | 1,147st |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780345342966
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
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.... |
Amazon.com Review
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 |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 1346 reviews)
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Read this for the first time as an adult and enjoyed it by Andrew T. West  4 Stars
November 09, 2009
Fahrenheit 451 sees the future of the world, and it hates what it sees. People have become apathetic and worthless. No one cares about morality or the search for truth. Everyone is a mindless drone.
As mentioned by other reviewers, the story is in many ways prophetic. It's fascinating how the author predicts modern technologies like projection TVs (the TV parlor), iPods (ear thimbles), and even Bluetooth headsets (Faber's "green bullet").
My favorite part of the story is Beatty's lecture in Montag's house, just before he leaves. Through Beatty's character, Bradbury warns of out-of-control government growth and the brainwashing and indoctrination of children. We'd be wise to heed this warning.
This book is a fairly easy read because it's short, but it provides plenty of food for thought.
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Excellent by D. Pham  5 Stars
October 07, 2009
This is one of the very best book to add to your collection. You can keep on reading this book over and over again. The setting which takes place in the future is a sure way for sci-fi fans. Also, the standards for 7th graders in the U.S. can meet their standards by reading this book.
An essay of this book can be found at:
[...]
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Farenheit 451 by N. Milenkovic (usa) 4 Stars
October 05, 2009
Guy Montag is a fireman, however in this book, firemen do not put out fires, instead they burn books. Set in a future time, it is illegal to read or own books. Farenheit 451 is the temperature it takes for a page in a book to catch fire.
One night, walking home from work, Montag meets his new neighbor, a 17 year old girl named Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse is a free thinking spirit, who surprises him with her genuine curiosity about life, she questions things instead of just accepting blind answers. She and Montag become friends and she talks to him about the past, when firefighters actually fought fires instead of burning books.
When Montag goes home that night, he finds his wife, Mildred, has overdosed on sleeping pills. He calls the medics and Mildred is saved. But Montag begins to begins to question his own way of life and his happiness.
One night while on call, Montag arrives at a womans house to burn her books. The woman refuses to leave, and instead dies that night in her burning home. Montag is greatly distressed over this and begins to have second thoughts about his way of life. While he was at the womans home, he grabbed a book to sneak out with him. It turns out Montag has been collecting and hiding books in his house for some time. He tells his wife this and shows her his collection, but she is so brainwashed that she doesn't care about the books and wants him to burn them too. So he decides to look up a retired English professor who he knows has books stashed in his house, a man named Faber. He hopes Faber can answer some of his questions.
I read Farenheit 451 without knowing anything about it, I just knew that Ray Bradbury wrote it and that it is considered a modern classic. So when I went to my local library and stumbled upon this book, I grabbed it off the shelf and figured i'd give it a go. I am so glad I did, it is a great read. I was hooked from page one. The storyline was really good, I found it to be creepy the way society was brainwashed and how they lived in an oppressed world without books. I liked Montag very much. It's almost like he was sleeping all that time, then finally woke up and snapped out of it.
Mildred creeped me out, especially the way she spoke, it was very disjointed, she makes offhand remarks, almost like she's drugged.
I think most off all, I enjoyed this one so much because I like books that are about books.
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In great Shape by Leslie Delaney (Lakeland, FL) 5 Stars
September 29, 2009
This book was in great shape for a used book. This was a great price for my son's school project.
Thank you
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For Banned Book Week 2009 by Amy C (New York) 5 Stars
September 26, 2009
Twenty years ago I had to read Fahrenheit 451 as part of my required reading in the ninth grade. At the time reading wasn't my "thing". But for some reason, the book never left me, even though I could never remember why. Nothing about the book stayed with me, just the title.
Now twenty years later, I have reread Fahrenheit 451 and know, without a doubt, why the book stayed with me.
Imagine a world where books are burned. A world where firemen no longer come to the rescue to put out fires but come to burn your house down if you are caught with books. They no longer wield water hoses, but flamethrowers. That is the world that Guy Montag lives in. He is a fireman, and for years he's rejoiced in the destruction that his flamethrower produces, burning the hated nonsensical books of the past. And you know what the ironic thing about that is, books are illegal, yet not because of our government, oh no, because the citizens of our country made it so! It was the peoples choice to turn their backs on books. Life is not happy when you can think and criticize, form opinions, argue points. It complicates things. So what do they do? They dispense with anything that will allow for that type of communication.
But then one night after work as Montag is walking home he encounters a young girl, Clarisse. She is a strange one. But why is she strange? She is strange because she actually talks and listens and looks and observes the things around her. And Montag is fascinated by that quality. He begins to question his job, his life. And then to further tempt his questioning curiosity about books and the reason they are so hated, a job comes in. Another burning is to be done. But this time the lady whose house is the next victim of the torch, sets herslef on fire along with her books. She cannot bare to be witness to the destruction and still live. But before the bonfire begins, Montag secretly snatches one of her books. Disturbed and unstable, Montag goes home and we learn that that is not the first book that Montag has lifted from a burn site. He has collected many books over the last year, secretly wanting to learn what the big deal is about reading and books. His life is not happy like it is supposed to be. Everyone is supposed to be happy without books. Without needing to think, to question, to wonder. He wonders what life was like before life became "simple". But in reality, the simplicity of life is not the outcome from life without books. With murders and suicides and violence and life at high speed, life is very much complicated. People have only brainwashed themselves into thinking that life is simple and happy, because they no longer think for themselves.
I read this book just in time for banned book week. I find it very interesting the reasons people choose to ban this book or that book. Religious content, political views, profanity, nudity, sexually explicit, homosexuality. And you know what I gather from those reasons, the people making the fuss are simply insecure individuals. Each one of those reasons are part of our everyday life. If you are secure in who you are, then you would not feel threatened by its content. But you know, this whole thing with banning books due to content actually promotes the non-thinking, non-opinionated aspects of the society in Fahenheit 451 from happening. When a book is banned or is labeled controversial, it makes people wonder. It piques curiosity to learn what is within those pages that someone finds offensive. Take The DaVinci Code for instance. 80 million copies sold in 6 years! 80 million! That is a staggering number, especially in the short amount of time it's been in print. Now if you took away the controversy, and no one made a fuss, how many copies do you think would have sold? I doubt that many! So I say fuss over books, it brings them to light to some one who may not have known about it otherwise. It promotes critical thinking, opinions, and who are we without our opinions and thoughts? I don't agree with banning books, just because the content is written down doesn't mean it's going to become part of society, because you know what, it already is! So who cares if it's written. People do do drugs. People do have sex. People do say bad words. People are homosexual. And yes, people do have different religious beliefs. Just because you ban a book, doesn't make those things go away. We are individuals. We are who we are. And no one should be able to take that away by saying we cannot write this or that.
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