Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury HarperCollins, 172pp, £7.99
ISBN 0006546064
The re-release of Ray Bradbury's futuristic novel comes as part of the Voyager Classics series of influential science-fiction titles. First published in 1954, Bradbury's bleak tale of a world in which people are not born equal, but made equal, is admirable for its prescience, if not for its originality.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is not to put out fires, but to start them - to burn books. As in all good post-literary apocalyptic stories, our protagonist sees the error of his ways and tries to rebel against the system and his nagging spouse, Mildred. In the context of today's relentless media saturation, the relevance of books remains a pertinent debate. However, the novel fails to translate to a contemporary readership in its focus on the "great" writers. This approach is rooted in postmodernism and arguments that were relevant 50 years ago. Bradbury's use of language and the hurried plot don't stand up favourably against Orwell and Huxley, with whom he is inevitably compared.
Fahrenheit 451 is a novel of its time, and the question must be whether it will find a new audience. These days, science fiction consists of big-budget Hollywood movies. Perhaps Bradbury was right - books haven't got a chance.
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