Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Bradbury, Ray
Published by: Harper Voyager
Year: 2008
First published: Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd, 1954
Date reviewed: 01.18
ISBN: 978 0 00 654606 1

This is one of those must-read books which I somehow never got round to until now. It’s one of Bradbury’s early works, written in 1953 under the shadow of The Bomb and the beginnings of the Cold War; it has some features in common with Orwell’s ‘1984’ from a few years earlier. The novel was built on several of Bradbury’s earlier short stories, and expanded from a short novella at the original publisher’s request. This shows in the writing: I haven’t read any later Bradbury but I’d expect less padding and a tighter style.

That said, it’s a great story. Most people will know it – if not through the dozens of republished editions of the book then from the film (1966), the TV movie (2018), the radio play, the stage production or even the computer game. Its enduring popularity is a tribute to the strength of the ideas behind the dysfunctional world Bradbury created.