Reviews

Le meilleur des mondes by Aldous Huxley

_camporter's review against another edition

adventurous reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

mcwilko13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

namrata_jain's review against another edition

5.0

Probably a bad idea to read this book right after 1984.
It was a great read, but it's eerie how they were so close in their predictions of the future. We are such helpless consumers.. so dependent on the system, so vulnerable to ads and marketing, so unorthodox in our orthodoxy while bring so orthodox in our unorthodoxy. It's really weird how we bring ourselves stronger to a belief by being to "open-minded" about it, by treating it specially.
Well, he's a scary yet good writer, apparently really prolific. Looking forward to reading more books from this author sometime.

ktlynlogan's review against another edition

5.0

when you read the class book and it’s actually really good:

mathildesbooks's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

emomaggie's review against another edition

dark reflective sad

4.0

"You got rid of them. Yes, that's just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous for-tune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them ... But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy."

Haven’t resonated with a book in a long time. The best science fiction accurately predicts the future and this was written nearly 100 years ago. 

"But I like the inconveniences." 
"We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably." 
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin." 
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy." 
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."

leahmit's review against another edition

challenging dark

3.5

pmarf46's review against another edition

4.0

I think you can recognise this book as a very important and foundational text for a lot of modern dystopian fiction, whilst also acknowledging that its plot is a bit thin and its characters somewhat ill-defined. The world-building is what makes *Brave New World* pop; unfortunately, it peaks in its first 30 pages when providing us with the grim, clinical detail of the genetic engineering factory. The plot, however, fritters between different points of view and arcs, never fully feeling earned or justified. We spend a comparably short amount of time with the novel's true protagonist, John, compared to the less interesting and ill-defined Bernard.

greentealeavesss's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

jt_perrim's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Brave New World's critique of comfort and happiness are incredibly relevant and worth engaging with. However, it's characters, prose, and pacing leave much to be desired. All-in-all the book provides rich intellectual challenge, but grants little emotional connection.