A man who grew up in a primitive society educating himself by reading Shakespeare is allowed to join the futuristic society where his parents are from. However, he cannot adapt to their repressive ways.
In a future society based on pleasure without moral worries, love is prohibited but casual sex, now called 'engaging', is strongly encouraged. Everyone is kept happy with a legal drug, soma. People are hatched and cloned on conveyor belts to meet the requirements of five different social classes, from ruling Alphas to robot-like Epsilons. Bernard Marx is a different Alpha male with an inclination to thinking. He and a girl called Lenina Disney go visit a reservation of 'savages' where they meet a handsome young man John and bring him back to 'civilization'. John turns out to be the son of the director of the cloning authority, which causes a scandal and makes John a celebrity freak. John falls in love with Lenina but his desire is ruined by his antiquated sexual morale derived from reading Shakespeare. John hates the over-social but anti-emotional civilization, asks to be sent to live in isolation, and gets a job as a lighthouse guard. But even there he can't forget Lenina or escape his celebrity status.—Markku Kuoppamäki
BNW is one of many "future world" (aka dystopian0 novels written about a future where mankind is shackled and yet believes itself to be free and conditioned therefore to be perpetually "happy" - in this case using a readily available drug known as "soma"... (Orwell's 1984 had the same with gin). In BNW all births are test-tube and "pre-conditioned" and "pre-ordained" also to a specific class - and never the twain shall meet. But what if one man questions all of this and wants to know what it was like in the time before (amusingly enough) Henry T Ford became a quasi-god in this new society. "Ford" is now used in place of "God". All religion is confined only to the "Savage" encampments - all Jesus related crosses have had the top cut off to create a "T". So! Everyone's got work, and "everyone belongs to everyone else" so free sex is in abundance. Any man can ask any woman for sex (and vice-verca) and although she/he can say "no", it's just "not done" to decline... Free sex abounds, and "soma" is in ready supply so if you need to take a break from it all, you can go on a "soma holiday".
It's not alone in the "what if" genre of future world fiction. Fahrenheit 451, 1984 et al pose the questions: "I live in a seemingly perfectly well-ordered world, but something's missing". In BNW our anti-hero sees too much of the "Savage Enclosures" and wonders if, just IF, the old ways were better than the cold and calculated ways of Our Ford...
In summary then: this book is a masterclass of beautiful writing... Huxley's descriptions are awash with teaming metaphors and eloquence and a latent humour you have to sometimes second-guess. He's a master wordsmith, so keep a dictionary handy when reading this powerful piece of work.
Brett
