Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 14 more book reviews


It's been a half century since I first read Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury's vision of a future where citizens become more enchanted with TV walls than books seems somewhat prophetic. But his fictional government takes a drastic step and bans all books. Most civilians couldn't care less, their interest in the printed word long ago snuffed out by their weakness for large, mounted semi-interactive televisions with inane programming. Homes become fireproof, and in Bradbury's future world, the fireman's job is burning books and the houses that contain them, sometimes with the book owners inside. Bradbury has said that book paper first burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, hence the title.

In the 50th anniversary edition I just read, there is an interview with Bradbury, who died in 2012. He complains that many times this book was planned to be re-published after censoring for language, political correctness, etc. He claims that if we are not careful, we could head down that same path to literature void of all meaning.

Fahrenheit 451 is sixty-six years old now, but its message is still loud and clear. It is an easy read and worth a second look.