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| Brave New World (75th Anniversary Edition) | 
| Author: Aldous Huxley
Creator: Michael York
Publisher: BBC Audiobooks America
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.77
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New (25) from $17.77
Avg. Customer Rating:  724 reviews
Sales Rank: 33989
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 7
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.9 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 1602833362
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9781602833364
ASIN: 1602833362
Publication Date: January 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new audibook delivered direct from our US warehouse in 3-6 days (Expedited) or 10-14 days (Standard). Expedited shipping recommended for speedy delivery. Over 1 million satisfied customers.
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| Customer Reviews:
 not for weak swimmers June 30, 2008
The beginning is like swimming up current; the reader has to kind of force his/her way into the story, which is made hard by the boring torrents of Huxley's writing style and I often found myself wishing I'd be lodged under a rock to drown in the river that is this book, to just die there and be free from the thoughts that spill into these pages. But, I make it a point to always finish a book, and surprisingly, at times I found myself captivated in the story. The first few chapters make this book hard to get into, but, on the bright side, it picks up a little and there are some beautifully written descriptions that erase my regret for ever picking up this book. However, if you are impatient or easily bored, you won't make it far. If you want a story that'll captivate you from the first page, don't even bother with this book. Try "The Alchemist."
Satire at its best June 14, 2008
Huxley takes science fiction and satire to a new level with his novel, Brave New World. Brave New World provides an anti-utopian perspective taken place in the future in which technology, totalitarianism, and control rule. The story begins in a factory in which embryos are being genetically made. In this scene the Director show how people are conditioned and placed into classes and also forced to be subjected to meaningless sex. Unfortunate for them!!!!!. As the book continues Bernard Marx, Carl Marx, is later introduced as an unfit member of his social caste and till John is introduced he is our main character. He is later joined with Helmholtz, who is his best friend. Both have distinct discontent of the World State. Bernard's character begins to unfold in his love stricken attitude towards Lenina, which offers a sense of disfunctionality in a society in which love is not to be shown and we finally get a sense of emotion. While his love and lust for Lenina continues her character begins to spread as they travel to the savage world, New Mexico. In the Savage World they meet John, the main character. John reveals an incriminating secrete that forces the Director to resign. Furthermore, john leaves the wild to come to civilization with Bernard and Lenina. John begins to fall for Lenina and displays true affection towards her, but she only wants to have sex with him. In his stay in the city he becomes a show and tell by Bernard. Bernard becomes very famous and popular through his relationship with John. John and Bernard fall out and feud. While in civilization he has many altercations with angry mobs over soma, a drug that everyone takes when feeling depressed or overwhelmed. Unable to handle all the horrid actions of a World State, John runs away to a secluded island. He begins to reconcile with his actions in the world until citizens finally recognize him and force him to recount his stay in the World State. Overcome with disgust he commits suicide. Thorugh all the accounts of the main characters, Huxley proves that totalitarianism is an unsuccessful form of government by using satire, technology, and drugs.
 Almost a Perfect World June 12, 2008
This book was truly amazing at certain points i was so touched by what i was reading that i was forced to read out loud just to hear these words spoken, Huxley takes commend of the english langage as no other author and creates an almost perfect world if only the savages were included. If this is what the future holds i welcome it with open arms a sad truth.
 Very Short Dystopian Novel June 11, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
To my knowledge, I went through 19 years of education without ever reading what is viewed by many as a literary classic. Stuck out of town without reading material, I picked up my high school son's volume and read it in about 3 hours.
Now, I know that it is considered a classic and it would be easy to just give it five stars and rave about the timelessness of Huxley's vision, but to be honest, if I'd picked it up at the bookstore unaware of its reputation, I'd give it three stars, so I did. Perhaps that says more about me than about the work, but I'm not going to pretend to like a bottle of wine just because it sells for $100+. Same theory.
The book is by no means bad. It is very short. It is moderately entertaining, though despite its brevity, it actually drags at times (such as when The Savage contemplates Shakespeare for a couple of pages). There is irony in the fact that the most literate character in the book is "The Savage". The conversation between Mons and The Savage was the high point of the book in my opinion.
Certainly, published in the 1930s, the book was timely in the face of the burgeoning eugenics movement and the assembly line techniques being perfected by Henry Ford (who was a eugenics supporter unless I'm mistaken). However, I've got to disagree with many that label Huxley as somehow prescient, and claim that many of his dystopian visions are somehow close to fruition. It has been 75 years, and while we have enjoyed many technological advances, I don't see us moving any closer to the type of society painted in the novel. Certainly, the kind of authoritarian regimes that make such a society possible have utterly failed.
Perhaps it is the presence of works such as Brave New World and 1984 that serve to warn against a slide in that direction, but whatever the reason, I have every confidence that the freedom loving people of the world will refuse to be pushed into the kind of servitude set out in the novel.
Experienceing Scifi for the nerd in you May 21, 2008
Brave New World is an excellent choice for anyone who likes to geek out on their English major status. The references to Shakespeare are well used in the text and make it one of those little gems that keeps you looking for more. On the scifi nerd front, the futurismic world of happiness at the cost of intellect is one of those ideas that gets repeated often enough, but that is only because so many people love to pilfer from Huxley. I really enjoyed Brave New World, even if there were a few philosophical points on which I disagree with Huxley (particularly the false dichotomy he expects the reader to blindly accept). As a dystopian writer Huxley is rightly placed with the greats like Orwell and Zamyatin.
Oh yeah, and Leonard Nimoy was great in this movie, they should make it into a book.
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