Brave New World

Huxley, Aldous

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0586044345 ISBN 13: 9780586044346

Casa editrice: Flamingo, 1977

A towering classic of dystopian satire, BRAVE NEW WORLD""is a brilliant and terrifying vision of a soulless society--and of one man who discovers the human costs of mindless conformity. Hundreds of years in the future, the World Controllers have created an ideal civilization. Its members, shaped by genetic engineering and behavioral conditioning, are productive and content in roles they have been assigned at conception. Government-sanctioned drugs and recreational sex ensure that everyone is a happy, unquestioning consumer; messy emotions have been anesthetized and private attachments are considered obscene. Only Bernard Marx is discontented, developing an unnatural desire for solitude and a distaste for compulsory promiscuity. When he brings back a young man from one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old unenlightened ways still continue, he unleashes a dramatic clash of cultures that will force him to consider whether freedom, dignity, and individuality are worth suffering for. Aldous Huxley's ingenious fantasy of a future of mechanical efficiency and engineered harmony has been enormously influential for generations, and is as provocative, powerful, and riveting as when it was first published in 1932. (Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

L'autore:

Aldous Huxley was born in 1894 near Godalming, Surrey. He began writing poetry and short stories in his early twenties, but it was his first novel, ‘Crome Yellow’ (1921), which established his literary reputation. This was swiftly followed by ‘Antic Hay (1923), ‘Those Barren Leaves’ (1925) and ‘Point Counter Point ‘(1928) – bright, brilliant satires in which Huxley wittily passed judgement on the shortcomings of contemporary society.

Dalla quarta di copertina:

Far in the future, the World Controllers have finally created the ideal society. In laboratories worldwide, genetic science has brought the human race to perfection. From the Alpha-Plus mandarin class to the Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons, designed to perform menial tasks, man is bred and educated to be blissfully content with his pre-destined role.

But, in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, Bernard Marx is unhappy. Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, feeling only distaste for the endless pleasures of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...

Extraordinarily prophetic, 'Brave New World' is one of the most influential books of our century.

"A brilliant tour de force, 'Brave New World' may be read as a grave warning of the pitfalls that await uncontrolled scientific advance. Full of barbed wit and malice-spiced frankness, 'Brave New World' is one of the most urgent appeals for a reconciliation of science with religion that our age has known"
OBSERVER

"Equally a denunciation of capitalism and communism, so far as they discourage man form thinking freely, 'Brave New World' is one of the most important books to have been published since the war"
DAILY TELEGRAPH

"Such ingenious wit, derisive logic and swiftness of expression, Huxley's resources of sardonic invention have been more brilliantly displayed"
THE TIMES