Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s 1953 dystopia imagines a future in which books and reading have been outlawed, and ‘firemen’ have been tasked with locating and censoring (burning) all remaining reading material. This bitterly satirical novel was written during the ‘Red Scare’, in response to the political repression of the McCarthy era. It is widely used as a set-text in high school English departments.
It’s a shame that Fahrenheit 451 is his most-read book (schoolteachers love its tale of rescuing books from the flames) as it is far from Bradbury’s best work.
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