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Set in London of AD 2540, the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that combine profoundly to change society. Huxley answered this book with a reassessment in an essay, Brave New World Revisited, and with Island, his final novel. In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World fifth on Its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
In 2003, Robert Mecum writing for The Observer listed Brave New World number 53 in “the top 100 greatest novels of all time”, and the novel was listed at number 87 on the Bib’s survey The Big Read. Title Brave New World’s title derives from Marinara’s speech In William Shakespearean The Tempest, Act V, Scene l: This line itself is ironic; Miranda was raised for most of her life on an isolated island, and the only people she ever knew were her father and his servants, an enslaved savage, and spirits, notably Ariel.
When she sees other people for the first time, she Is overcome with excitement, and utters, among other praise, the famous line above. However, what she Is actually observing Is not men acting In a refined or civilized manner, but rather representatives of the worst of humanity, who betrayed or tried to betray their brothers or leaders to get ahead. Huxley employs the same Irony when the “savage” John refers to what he sees as a “brave new world”.
Translations of the title often allude to similar expressions used In domestic works of literature in an attempt to capture the same irony: the French edition of the work is entitled El Miller des modes, an allusion to an expression used by the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and satirized In Candied, O lifetime’s by Voltaire . Background Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931 while he was living in England. By this time, Huxley had already established himself as a writer and social satirist.
He was a contributor to Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, and had published a collection of his poetry and four successful satirical novels: Crème Yellow, Antic Hay, Those Barren Leaves, and Point Counter Point . Brave New World was Huxley fifth novel and first dissipation work. Huxley said that Brave New World was inspired by the utopian novels of H. G. Wells, including A Modern Utopia and Men Like Gods . Wells’ hopeful Sino of the future’s possibilities gave Huxley the Idea to begin writing a parody of the novel, which became Brave New World. He wrote in a letter to Mrs..
Arthur Goldsmith, an American acquaintance, that he had “been having a little fun pulling the leg of H. G. Wells,” but then he “got caught up in the excitement of own ideas. ” unlike the most popular optimist utopian novels of the time, Huxley sought to provide a frightening vision of the future. Huxley referred to Brave New world as a “negative utopia”, somewhat influenced by Wells’ own The Sleeper Awakes and the works of D. H. Lawrence. George Orwell believed that Brave New World must have been partly derived from the novel We by Heavenly Sympathy.
However, In a 1962 letter, Huxley says that he wrote Brave New World long before he had heard of We. According to We translator Nathan Randall, Orwell believed that Huxley was lying. Huxley visited the newly opened and technologically advanced Brenner and Mood plant, part of detailed account of the processes he saw. The introduction to the most recent print of Brave New World states that Huxley was inspired to write the classic novel by this Bellingham visit. Although the novel is set in the future it deals with contemporary issues of the early 20th century. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the world.
Mass production had made cars, telephones, and radios relatively cheap and widely available throughout the developed world. The political, cultural, economic and social upheavals of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the First World War were resonating throughout the world as a whole and the individual lives of most people. Accordingly, many of the novel’s characters are named after widely recognized, influential and in many cases contemporary people. Huxley used the setting and harassers from his science fiction novel to express widely held opinions, particularly the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced world of the future.
An early trip to the United States gave Brave New World much of its character. Not only was Huxley outraged by the culture of youth, commercial cheeriness, sexual promiscuity and the inward-looking nature of many Americans, he had also found the book My Life and Work by Henry Ford on the boat to America, the principles of which he saw applied in everything he encountered after leaving San Francisco. There was a fear of Americanization in Europe. Thus seeing America firsthand, and from reading the ideas and plans of one of its foremost citizens, Huxley was spurred to write Brave New World with America in mind.
The “fillies” are his response to the “talkie” motion pictures, and the sex-hormone chewing gum is a parody of the ubiquitous chewing gum, which was something of a symbol of America at that time. Plot The novel opens in London in A. F. 632 . The vast majority of the population is unified under the World State, an eternally peaceful, stable global society where the population is permanently limited to no more than two billion people, meaning goods ND resources are plentiful and everyone is happy.
Natural reproduction has been done away with and children are created, “decanted”, and raised in “hatcheries and conditioning centers”. From birth, people are genetically designed to fit into one of five castes, which are further split into “Plus” and “Minus” members and designed to fulfill predetermined positions within the social and economic strata of the World State. Futures chosen to become members of the highest castes, “Alpha” and “Beta”, are allowed to develop naturally and are given stimulants while maturing to term in “decanting bottles.
Futures chosen to become members of the lower castes of “Gamma”, “Delta” or “Epsilon” are subjected to in situ chemical interference to cause arrested development in intelligence and physical growth. Each Alpha or Beta is the product of one unique fertilized egg developing into one unique fetus. Members of lower castes are not unique but are instead created using “Bookmaking’s Process” which enables a single egg to spawn up to 96 children and one ovary to produce thousands of children.
To further increase the birthrate of Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, “Pedant’s Technique” causes all the eggs in the ovary to mature multitudinously, allowing the hatchery to get full use of the ovary in two years’ time. The majority of people in the World State come from these castes. The production of such specialized children bolsters the efficiency and harmony of society, since these people are deliberately limited in their cognitive and physical abilities. It also rendering them easier to control.
All children are educated via the hypodermic process, which provides each child with caste-appropriate subconscious messages to mould the child’s lifelong self-image and social outlook to that chosen by the leaders ND their predetermined plans for producing future adult generations, as well as stopping the lower caste citizens from wanting to be more than they were grown to be. To maintain the World State’s Command Economy for the indefinite future, all citizens are conditioned from birth to value consumption with such platitudes as “ending is better than mending,” “more stitches less riches”, I. E. Buy a new item instead of fixing the old one, because constant consumption and near-universal employment to meet society’s material demands is the bedrock of economic and social stability for the World State. Beyond providing social engagement and distraction in the material realm of work or play, the need for transcendence, solitude and spiritual communion is addressed with the ubiquitous availability and universally endorsed consumption of the drug soma. Soma is an allusion to a ritualistic drink of the same name consumed by ancient Indo-Aryans. In the book, soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free “holidays”.
It was developed by the World State to provide these inner-directed personal experiences within a socially managed context of State-run “religious” organizations; social clubs. The hypnotically inculcated affinity for the State-produced drug, as a self- medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminates the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State; the book describes it as having “all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol, none of their defects. ” Recreational sex is an integral part of society.
According to the World State, sex is a social activity, rather than a means of reproduction and, as part of the conditioning process, is encouraged from early childhood. The few women who an reproduce are conditioned to use birth control, even wearing a “Malthusian belt,” a cartridge belt holding “the regulation supply of contraceptives” worn as a fashion accessory. The maxim “everyone belongs to everyone else” is repeated often, and the idea of a “family” is considered pornographic. Sexual competition and emotional, romantic relationships are rendered obsolete because they are no longer needed.
Marriage, natural birth, parenthood, and pregnancy are considered too obscene to be mentioned in casual conversation. Thus, society has developed a totally different idea of relationships, lifestyle and reproductive comprehension. Spending time alone is considered an outrageous waste of time and money, and wanting to be an individual is horrifying. Conditioning trains people to consume and never to enjoy being alone, so by spending an afternoon not playing “Obstacle Golf,” or not in bed with a friend, one is forfeiting acceptance.
In the World State, people typically die at age 60 having maintained good health and youthfulness their whole life. Death is not feared; anyone reflecting upon it is reassured by the knowledge that everyone is happy, and that society goes on. Since no one has family, they have no strong ties to mourn. The conditioning system eliminates the need for professional competitiveness. People are bred to do their Jobs and to enjoy them so they never desire another. There is no competition within castes, since each caste member receives the same workload, the same food, housing, and soma rationing as every other member of that caste.
There reinforces each individual’s place in the caste system. To grow closer with members of the same class, citizens participate in mock religious services called Solidarity Services, in which twelve people consume large quantities of soma and sing hymns. The ritual progresses through group hypnosis and climaxes in an orgy. In geographic areas nonconductor to easy living and consumption, securely contained groups of “savages” are left to their own devices. These are similar to the reservations of land established for the Native American population during the colonization of North America.
These “savages” are beholden of strange customs, including self-mutilation and religion, a mere curio in the outside world. In its first chapters, the novel describes life in the World State as wonderful and introduces Lenin Crowner and Bernard Marx. Lenin, a hatchery worker, is socially accepted and comfortable with her place in society, while Bernard, a psychologist, is an outcast. Although an Alpha Plus, Bernard is shorter in stature than the average of his caste?a quality shared by the lower castes, which gives him an inferiority complex.
His work with sleep-teaching has led him to realism that what others believe to be their own deeply held beliefs are merely phrases repeated to children while they are asleep. Still, he recognizes the necessity of such programming as the reason why his society meets the emotional deeds of its citizens. Courting disaster, he is vocal about being different, once stating he dislikes soma because he’d “rather be himself. ” Barnyard’s differences fuel rumors that he was accidentally administered alcohol while incubated, a method used to keep members of lower classes short.
Barnyard’s only friend is Hellholes Watson, an Alpha Plus lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering . The friendship is based on their similar experiences as misfits, but unlike Bernard, Watson sense of loneliness stems from being too gifted, intelligent, handsome, and physically strong. Hellholes is drawn to Bernard as a confidant: he can talk to Bernard about his desire to write poetry. The Reservation and the Savage Bernard is on holiday at a Savage Reservation with Lenin, located in New Mexico. They are treated to what at first appears to be a quaint native ceremony.
The village folk, whose culture resembles the contemporary Indian groups of the region, descendants of the Nazis, including the Pueblo peoples of Coma, Laguna, and Gun, and the Raman Navajo, begin by singing, but the ritual quickly becomes a passion play where a village boy is whipped to unconsciousness. Soon after, the people encounters Linda, a woman who has been living in Mammals since she came on a trip and became separated from her group, among whom was a man to whom she refers as “Ottoman” but who is revealed to be Barnyard’s boss, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, Thomas.
She became pregnant despite adhering to her “Malthusian Drill” and there were no facilities for an abortion. Her shame at pregnancy was so great that she decided not to return to her old life, but to stay with the “savages”. Linda gave birth to a son, John who is now 18. Conversations with Linda and John reveal that their life has been hard. For 18 years, they have been treated as outsiders: the native men treated Linda like a sex object while the native women regularly beat and ostracizes her because of her promiscuity, and John was mistreated and excluded for his mother’s actions and the color of his skin.
John was angered by Land’s lovers, and even attacked one in a Jealous rage as a child. John’s a scientific manual from his mother’s Job, which he called a “beastly, beastly book,” and a collection of Shakespearean works . Shakespeare gives John articulation to his feelings, though, and he is especially interested in Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. At the same time, John has been denied the religious rituals of the village, although he has watched them and even has had some religious experiences on his own in the desert.
Old, weathered and tired, Linda wants to return to her familiar world in London, as she misses living in the city and taking soma. John wants to see the “brave new world” his mother has told him so much about. Bernard wants to take them back to block Thomas from his plan to reassign Bernard to Iceland as punishment for his asocial beliefs. Bernard arranges permission for Linda and John to leave the reservation. John also seems to have an attraction to Lenin, as while Bernard is away, getting the permission to move the savages, he finds her suitcase and ruffles through all of her clothes, taking in the smells.
He then sees her “sleeping” in a soma-induced comatose state and stares at her, thinking all he has to do to see her properly is undo one zip. He later tells himself off for being like this towards Lenin, and seems to be extremely shy around her. The Savage visits the World State Upon his return to London, Bernard is confronted by Thomas, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, who, in front of an audience of higher-caste Centre errors, denounces Bernard for his asocial behavior. Bernard defends himself by presenting the Director with his long-lost lover, Linda, and unknown son, John.
John falls to his knees and calls Thomas his father, which causes an uproar of laughter. The humiliated Director resigns in shame. Spared from reassignment, Bernard makes John the toast of London. Pursued by the highest members of society, able to bed any woman he fancies, Bernard revels in attention he once scorned. The victory, however, is short-lived. Linda, decrepit and friendless, goes on a permanent soma holiday while John, appalled by what he perceives to be an empty society, refuses to attend Barnyard’s parties. Society drops Bernard as swiftly as it had taken him.
Bernard turns to the person he’d believed to be his one true friend, only to see Hellholes fall into a quick, easy camaraderie with John. Bernard is left an outcast yet again as he watches the only two men with whom he ever connected find more of interest in each other than they ever did in him. Encouraged by Fanny, Lenin visits John and tries to seduce him. She disrobes causing John to attack her for being an “impudent strumpet”. Lenin locks herself in his bathroom. While Lenin is in the bathroom, terrified and dressing, John receives a telephone call from the hospital informing him that his mother is extremely unwell.
He leaves, allowing Lenin a chance to escape. John rushes over to see Linda and sits at her bedside, trying to get her out of her soma holiday so that he can talk to her. He is heartbroken when his mother succumbs to soma and dies. He is extremely annoyed by the young boys that enter the ward to be conditioned about death and annoy John to the point where he starts to use violence to send them away. John’s grief bewilders and revolts the hospital workers, and their lack of reaction to Land’s death prompts John to try to force humanity from the workers by throwing their soma rations out a window.
The ensuing riot brings the police, who quell the riot by filling the room with vaporized while Bernard stands to the side, torn between risking involvement by helping or escaping the scene. Following the riot, Bernard, Hellholes and John are brought to speak with Mustache Mood, the Resident World Controller for Western Europe. Inspired by John’s questions, Mood gives details about the history of the events that deed to the present society and his reasoning for why things are better with a caste society and programs of social control.
Bernard and Hellholes are told they are to be exiled to islands. Bernard pleads for a second chance and accuses John and Hellholes for their predicament. Reduced to groveling, he is removed by guards. Mood proceeds to explain that exile is actually something of a reward, a chance to interact with other freethinking individuals. He reveals that he too once faced island banishment for conducting brilliant but controversial scientific research; instead of exile, he accepted a position on the Controllers’ Council in exchange for abandoning his experiments.
Hellholes embraces the Falkland Islands as his destination, believing that their bad weather will inspire his writing, and leaves to check on Bernard. Alone, Mood and John engage in philosophical arguments concerning God and the morals behind the existing society. They end with John rejecting the illusionary happiness of Mood’s world and accepting his “unhappy” way of life despite its “inconveniences”. The next afternoon, Bernard and Hellholes meet John before their exile. Bernard, now resigned to his fate but also reconciled with Hellholes, apologies to John for his behavior.
John tells his friends that he asked Mood to exile him with them but was denied. Instead he is told that the “experiment” of him living in civilization will continue. John vows not to be a part of such an experiment and to leave the next day. John moves to a hilltop “air-lighthouse” southwest of London, near the village of Pathname, where he intends to adopt an ascetic lifestyle in order to purify himself of civilization and amend for his mistreatment of his mother. To his horror, he finds himself one day enjoying the process of making a bow. To atone, John brutally whips himself in the open.
This self- flagellation is witnessed by bystanders, causing reporters, whom John attacks or chases away, to visit three days later looking for a story. That afternoon, in a lull between reporters, John catches himself fantasizing about Lenin, again causing him to flog himself. This time the act is captured by a spying photographer who turns it into a film shown all over Western Europe. The day after the film’s release, hundreds of sightseers hoping to witness the curious behavior themselves arrive at John’s lighthouse via helicopters; as the growing crowd chants “We?want?the whip! , Henry and Lenin disembark from one of them. The sight of the woman whom he both adores and loathes is too much: as she attempts to speak to him, John attacks her with his whip. The crowd goes wild with excitement, and – as a product of their conditioning – they turn on each other in a frenzy of beating and chanting that heightens into a mass orgy of soma and sex. Late the next morning, John wakes alone and suddenly recalls that he too participated in the debauchery. Onlookers and journalists arrive that evening but find John’s lifeless body hanged in the lighthouse.
Characters John – the illicit son of the Director and Linda, born and reared on the Savage Reservation after Linda was unwittingly left behind by her errant lover. John is an birth, family life and religion – and the ostensibly civilized World State, based on principles of stability and shallow happiness. He has read nothing but The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, which he quotes extensively, and, for the most part, aptly, though his allusion to “Brave New World” takes on a darker and bitterly ironic resonance as the novel unfolds.
John is intensely moral according to a code that he has been taught by Shakespeare and life in Mammals but is also naive: his views are as imported into his own consciousness as are the hypnotic messages of World State citizens, and he is incapable of grasping that the men of Mammals whose admonishments taught him to regard his mother as a where were the same men who continually sought her out despite their supposedly sacred pledges of monogamy. Because he is unwanted in Mammals, he accepts the invitation to travel back to London and is initially astonished by the comforts of the World State.
However, he remains committed to values that exist only in his poetry, first spurning Lenin for failing to vive up to his Shakespearean ideal and then the entire utopian society, asserting that its technological wonders and consumerism are poor substitutes for individual freedom, human dignity and personal integrity. He then ostracizes himself from society and attempts to purify himself of “sin”, but is finally unable to do so and hangs himself in despair. Bernard Marx – an Alpha-Plus sleep-learning specialist at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre.
Bernard is a misfit. He is unusually short for an Alpha; an alleged accident with alcohol in Barnyard’s blood- arrogate before his decanting has left him slightly stunted. Barnyard’s independence of mind stems more from his inferiority-complex and depressive nature than any depth of philosophical conviction. Unlike his fellow utopians, Bernard is often angry, resentful, and Jealous. At times, he is also cowardly and hypocritical. His conditioning is clearly incomplete. He doesn’t enjoy communal sports, solidarity services, or promiscuous sex. He doesn’t even get much Joy out of soma.
Bernard is in love with Lenin but he doesn’t like her sleeping with other men even though “everyone belongs to everyone else”. Barnyard’s triumphant return to utopian civilization with John the Savage from the Reservation precipitates the downfall of the Director, who had been planning to exile him. Barnyard’s triumph is short-lived. Success goes to his head. Despite his tearful pleas, he is ultimately banished to an island for his non- conformist behavior. Hellholes Watson – handsome and successful Alpha-Plus lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering and a friend of Bernard.
He feels unfulfilled writing endless propaganda doggerel and is restive to the stifling conformism and philistinism of the World State. Hellholes is ultimately exiled to the Falkland Islands – a cold asylum for disaffected Alpha-Plus non-conformists – after reading a heretical poem to his students on the virtues of solitude and for helping John destroy some Delta’s rations of soma after Land’s death. Unlike Bernard, he takes his exile in stride and comes to view it as an opportunity for inspiration in his writing. Lenin Crowner – a young, beautiful, blue-eyed Beta who is a nurse at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre.
Lenin is promiscuous and popular but somewhat quirky in their society: she normally dates only one person at a time. She is basically happy and well-conditioned but will use soma to suppress unwelcome emotions. Lenin has a date with Bernard, to whom she feels civilization, she tries and fails to seduce John the Savage. John loves and desires Lenin but he is repelled by her forwardness and the prospect of pre-marital sex, rejecting her as an “impudent strumpet”. Lenin visits John at the lighthouse but he attacks her, unwittingly inciting onlookers to do the same.
Her exact fate is left unspecified. Mustache Mood – Resident World Controller of Western Europe, “His Forwards” Mustang Mood presides over one of the ten zones of the World State, the lobar government set up after the cataclysmic Nine Years’ War and great Economic Collapse. Sophisticated and good-natured, Mood is an urbane and hyperventilating advocate of the World State and its ethos of “Community, Identity, Stability,” being uniquely aware among the characters of the novel of the precise nature of the society he oversees and what it has given up to accomplish its gains.
Mood argues that art, literature, and scientific freedom must be sacrificed to secure the ultimate utilitarian goal of maximizing societal happiness and defends the genetic caste system, behavioral conditioning, and the lack of personal freedom in the World State; these, he says, are a price worth paying for achieving social stability, the highest social virtue because it leads to lasting happiness. Fanny Crowner – Lenin Crown’s friend .
Fanny’s role is mainly to voice the conventional values of her caste and society, particularly the importance of promiscuity: she warns Lenin that she should have more men in her life because it looks bad to concentrate on one man for too long, then warns her away from a new lover whom she considers undeserving, yet is ultimately supportive of Lamina’s attraction to the savage John. Henry Foster – One of Lamina’s many lovers, he is a perfectly conventional Alpha male, casually discussing Lamina’s body with his coworkers. His success with Lenin, and his casual attitude about it, infuriates the Jealous Bernard.
Henry ultimately proves himself every bit the ideal World State citizen, finding no courage to defend Lenin from John’s assaults despite having maintained an uncommonly longstanding sexual relationship with her. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning aka Thomas “Ottoman” – The Director administrates the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where e is a threatening figure who intends to exile Bernard to Iceland. His plans take an unexpected turn, however, when Bernard returns from the Reservation with Linda and John, a child they both realize is actually his.
This fact, scandalous and obscene in the World State not because it was extramarital but because it was procreative, leads the Director to resign his post in shame. Linda – John’s mother, decanted as a Beta-Minus in the World State and subsequently lost during a storm while visiting the New Mexico Savage Reservation with the Director many years before the events of the novel. Despite following her usual precautions, Linda became pregnant with the Director’s son during their time together and was therefore unable to return to the World State by the time that she found her way to Mammals.
Having been conditioned to the promiscuous social norms of the World State, Linda finds herself at once popular with every man in the pueblo and also reviled for the same reason, seen as a where by the wives of the men who visit her and by the men themselves . Linda is desperate to return to the World State and to soma, wanting nothing more from her remaining life than comfort until death. The Arch-community-Sinister – The Arch-community-Sinister is the secular equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury chief administrator for the New Mexico Savage Reservation. Darwin Bonaparte – a “big game photographer” who films John flogging himself.
His name alludes to Charles Darwin and Napoleon Bonaparte. Others Freemasons: These women have been deliberately made sterile by exposure to hormones during fetal development. In the book, government policy requires freemasons to form 70% of the female population. Of Mammals Pop©, a native of Mammals. Although he reinforces the behavior that causes hatred or Linda in Mammals by sleeping with her and bringing her mescal, he still holds the traditional beliefs of his tribe. John also attempts to kill him, in his early years. He gave Linda a copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
Mitosis, an elder tribe shaman who also teaches John survival skills such as rudimentary ceramics and bow-making. Background figures These are non-fictional and factual characters who lived before the events in this book, but are of note in the novel: Henry Ford, who has become a messianic figure to The World State. “Our Ford” is used in place of “Our Lord”, as a credit to popularizing the use of the assembly line. Huxley description of Ford as a central figure in the emergence of the Brave New World might also be a reference to the utopian industrial city of Foreordain commissioned by Ford in 1927.
Sigmund Freud, “Our Freud” is sometimes said in place of “Our Ford” due to the link between Fraud’s psychoanalysis and the conditioning of humans, and Fraud’s popularization of the idea that sexual activity is essential to human happiness and need not be limited to procreation. It is also strongly implied that citizens of the World State believe Freud and Ford to be the same person. H. G. Wells, “DRP. Wells”, British writer and utopian socialist, whose book Men Like Gods was an incentive for Brave New World. “All’s well that ends Wells” wrote Huxley in his letters, criticizing Wells for anthropological assumptions Huxley found unrealistic.
Ivan Patriotic Pavlov, whose conditioning techniques are used to train infants. William Shakespeare, whose banned works are quoted throughout the novel by John, “the Savage”. The plays quoted include Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Troll’s and Caressed, Measure for Measure and Othello. Mustache Mood also knows them because he, as a World Controller, has access to a selection of books from throughout history, including the Bible. Thomas Robert Malthusian, whose name is used to describe the contraceptive techniques practiced by women of the World State.
Reuben Arbitration, the character in whom the effects of sleep-learning, hypnosis, are first noted. John Henry Newman, Mustache Mood discussed Cardinal Newman with the Savage after reading a quote from his book Sources of names and references The limited number of names that the World State assigned to its bottle-grown citizens can be traced to political and cultural figures who contributed to the bureaucratic, economic, and technological systems of Huxley age, and presumably hose systems in Brave New World: Bernard Marx, from George Bernard Shaw and Karl Marx.
Henry Foster, from Henry Ford American industrialist, see above. Lenin Crowner, from Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader during the Russian Revolution. Fanny Crowner, from Fanny Kaplan, famous for an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Lenin. Son of Henry Ford. Poly Trotsky, from Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary leader. Bonito Hoover, from Bonito Mussolini, dictator of Italy; and Herbert Hoover, then-president of the United States. Hellholes Watson, from the German physician and physicist Hermann on Hellholes and the American behaviorism John B.
Watson. Darwin Bonaparte, from Napoleon l, the leader of the First French Empire, and Charles Darwin, author of The Origin of Species. Herbert Bikini, from Herbert Spencer, the English philosopher and Classical liberal, and Mikhail Bikini, a Russian philosopher and anarchist. Mustache Mood, from Mustang Kamala Thatјark, founder of Turkey after World War l, who pulled his country into modernization and official secularism; and Sir Alfred Mood, an industrialist and founder of the Imperial Chemical Industries conglomerate.
Primp Mellon, from Miguel Primp De Riviera, prime minister and actor of Spain, and Andrew Mellon, an American banker and Secretary of the Treasury . Sarandon Engel’s, from Frederica Engel’s, co-author of The Communist Manifesto along with Karl Marx: and Sarandon Naiad, an Indian politician. Morgan Rothschild, from J. P. Morgan, US banking tycoon, and the Rothschild family, famous for its European banking operations. Fife Barracuda, from the British political activist and atheist Charles Barracuda.
Joanna Diesel, from Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer who invented the diesel engine. Clara Deterring, from Henry Deterring, one of the founders of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company. Tom Aguish, from the Japanese Buddhist monk Aka Aguish, the first recorded Japanese traveler to Tibet and Nepal. Jean-Jacques Habitual, from the French political philosopher Jean- Jacques Rousseau and Habitual Khan, who served as Emir of Afghanistan in the early 20th century. Miss Skate, the Atone headmistress, from nineteenth-century headmaster John Skate.
Arch-community Sinister of Canterbury, a parody of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Church’s decision in August 1930 to approve limited use of contraception. Pop©, from Pop©, the Native American rebel who was one of the instigators of the conflict now known as the Pueblo Revolt. John the Savage, after the term “noble savage” originally used in the verse drama The Conquest of Granddad by John Dryden, and later erroneously associated with Rousseau. Furthermore, from the prophet John the Baptist.
Critical reception Upon publication, Rebecca West praised Brave New World as “The most accomplished novel Huxley has yet written”, Joseph Needled lauded it as “Mr.. Huxley remarkable book”, and Bertrand Russell also praised it, stating, “Mr.. Aloud Huxley has shown his usual masterly skill in Brave New World” However, Brave New World also received negative responses from other contemporary critics, although his ark was later embraced. In an article in the 4 May 1935 issue of the Illustrated London News, G. K.
Chesterton explained that Huxley was revolting against the “Age of Utopias”. Much of the discourse on man’s future before 1914 was based on the thesis that humanity would solve all economic and social issues. In the decade following the war the discourse shifted to an examination of the causes of the catastrophe. The works of H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw on the promises of socialism and a World State were then viewed as the ideas of naive optimists. After the Age of Utopias came what we may call the American Age, lasting as long as the