Brave New World : Key info
Brave New World is a notable literary work by Aldous Huxley. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, to various questions of Brave New World.
Key info
Writer: Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
Original Title: Brave New World
Source: William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”, Act V, Scene I, Miranda’s speech:
“How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in ‘t.”
Written Time: 1931
Published Date: 1932
Genre: Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction
Tone: Satirical, Pessimistic, Ironic, and Detached
Point of View: Third-person Omniscient
Words: 63,766 words, 311 (1932 ed.)
Total Chapters: 18
Setting
Time Setting: AF 632 (After Ford), which is around the 26th century.
Place Setting: The World State and the Savage Reservation in New Mexico
Background: Huxley wrote Brave New World in four months while living in France in 1931. The title comes from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. In the play, Miranda says, “O brave new world, That has such people in it.” Huxley got the idea from H.G. Wells’ books. He wanted to make fun of Wells’ positive view of the future. But Huxley became excited about his own ideas. He wanted to show a scary future, not a happy one. He called it a “negative utopia.” He was also inspired by Wells’ book The Sleeper Awakes and the works of D.H. Lawrence.
Moral Lesson
True happiness needs freedom and individuality.