Short summary

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World events begin in 632 AF (‘after Ford’), in a highly developed, utopian World State. Humans are artificially produced in bottles and are divided into five classes, or ‘castes’. After decanting in the laboratory, they go through a specific conditioning according to their caste, in order to be prepared for their lives as best as possible.

All citizens of the state should be happy. This is ensured, among others, by the freely accessible drug ‘soma’ and by sex, as a recreational sport. Bernard Marx, an Alpha-Plus who does not look like a typical Alpha, stands out from the crowd. He works with Henry Foster and Lenina Crowne at the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. Marx invites Lenina to visit a savage reservation in New Mexico where wild, uncivilized people live.

Before...