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Description
"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma, to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a "Feelie," a movie that stimulates the senses of sight,... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Summary
Brave New World takes place in London where the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre is located. This center is able to create many clones out of a single embryo. They then chang e the embryos to make them fit into a specific caste or class of people. The top caste was the... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Cast of Characters
Memorable Quotes
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“The mockery made him feel an outsider; and feeling an outsider he behaved like one, which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility aroused by his physical defects. Which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone. A chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals, made him stand, where his inferiors were concerned, self-consciously on his dignity.”
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“The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted. Consider the matter dispassionately, Mr. Foster, and you will see that no offense is so heinous as unorthodoxy of behavior. Murder kills only the individual-and, after all, what is an individual?”
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“Every one works for every one else. We can’t do without any one. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons. Every one works for every one else.”
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“And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is.”
First Sentence
A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories.
Table of Contents
Glossary
Authors & Contributors
- Aldous Huxley (Author)
Awards
- Waterstones Books of the Century (1997, #15)
- BBC's Big Read (2003: Best-Loved Novel, #87)
- The Observer's 100 Greatest Novels of All Time (2003)
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