Fahrenheit 451 | 
| Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1268 reviews
Sales Rank: 642
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0345342968
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780345342966
Publication Date: August 12, 1987
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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
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....
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1263 more reviews...
 Fahrenheit 451: A Novel October 13, 2008
Excellent Service! Book came promptly, even faster than I ever expected! I never thought this one would be available in hardcover.
Many thanks.
a very good book October 9, 2008
This book was a journey through the future of what our world turned in to. Guy Montag was a firefighter, but instead of putting out fires, they started them. In their world books were illegal and anyone who had them in their home would be removed and their house would be burned. Montag has burned many houses, but this one burning really struck him and he took a good look at reality. He never noticed the importance of books and goes through many, many adventures you'll just have to read for yourself.
I personally don't like science fiction, but this book really grabbed my attention. At the beginning it was a little difficult to understand what was going on and it was hard getting into the story, but as you read on everything starts to fall into place and make sense. The thing about this book that I found the most interesting was I read it and almost felt as if things in that book were true. It seemed like our world would end up like that in their century, this book was very believable and made me want to read more. Everyone should read "Fahrenheit 451" at least once in their life because it is very well written and a truly wonderful book.
Timely, thought-provoking, and still hopeful October 4, 2008
In Ray Bradbury's classic, Farenheit 451, he describes a terrifying but all-too-real world of sensory overload and thought-depravity. Guy Montag is a fireman, but this fire brigade doesn't put out fires (for houses are fire proofed with plastic coatings), but instead starts them, burning houses (and often people) where books are found. And people, for the most part, don't question the way of things; in fact, most people simply contributed to them, reading less and less, being less and less interested in dissenting views and complex views of reality. Instead people opt for graphic novels filled with sex, and talking "parlors," living rooms with televisions on three (and sometimes four) walls that surround the viewer in a virtual reality that becomes family, friends, entertainment, and knowledge. There is no taking walks, no late evening chats on the front porch; in short, little or no thought. But Guy slowly emerges from the haze of this contrived reality, as he first encounters a strange girl who doesn't seem to be charmed by the way things are, and then comes to see his own duties as a fireman as brutal and senseless. Didn't firemen used to actually put out fires? he wonders.
Montag, now repulsed by his occupation, starts looking for a way out. And on the way, he begins slipping books into his coat as he is burning houses, one here, one there, until he's got his own little library. But soon his captain, Beatty, is on to him, and the mechanical hound, the instrument of doom and seeker of people and books, finds him out. Montag is left with the choice, burn his own house or admit guilt. He starts his house ablaze, but then turns the flame thrower on Beatty and on the mechanical hound and makes a break for it. He is now a man on the run, but a free man for the first time. He finds himself among a group of run-aways along a deserted railroad track, and discovers they are former professors and preachers, and each one holds inside him a chapter or a book. One is Thoreau, one is Marcus Aurelius, one is Plato's Repulic, and so on. Montag is the book of Ecclesiastes. And as their civilization seems to be spiraling toward an end in a huge and destructive war, the wisdom of that great book, that everything has a time and a season, seems a pointer to the possibility of a new reality, a fresh start.
Bradbury's Farenheit 451 is a prophetic novel that bears freightening resemblance to our world today. Our culture resembles the reality he paints in its obsession with virtual reality (think "reality TV" and our obsession with this fictive family or friend network, as just one examle), media saturation, and shallowness. Our politics are driven by sound bites and media experts more than they are driven by policy positions and reasoned debates. Marketing is more important than product quality. And this is just the beginning. Reading Bradbury's classic is like a wake-up call to appreciate the wisdom of the ages, the beauty of friendships, the value of family, and the wonder that is a quiet walk in the woods. It is truly a treasure trove of reality, all tinged with the hope redemption.
Ominous reading October 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I remember seeing the movie based on this book with Oskar Werner and Julie Christie when I was a teenager and discussing it with my teachers. As you read the book many similarities can be seen today, such as large billboards, people not talking to each other, a society dependent on drugs and entertainment and reality TV shows and of course the rushing around in a rat race.
Whats amazing is that Ray Bradbury wrote this book in 1953 some 50 plus years ago and unlike the book 1984 written by George Orwell this book is ignored by the media and pessimists of todays society and our future.
For those you like science fiction with a large dose of reality please read this book before you die from drinking the Kool-Aid.
A must experience October 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A must read for people of all ages, Fahrenheit 451 is an enthralling novel written by Ray Bradbury. It is set in a futuristic society where books are illegal and the totalitarian government controls almost every aspect of people's lives. The story centers around Guy Montag, a fireman who doesnt put fires out, but starts them. Guy enjoys his job but a seventeen-year-old girl's recanting of the past and Guy's conscience gets the better of him and send him on a perilious journey filled with tough decisions and challenges that will forever change his life, and his world. Fahrenheit 451 is a fascinating look at a society gone wrong. It is frightening how in many ways Bradbury's world parallel's our own. Fahrenheit 451 is definately an eye opening book that everyone should experience
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