Literawiki
Register
Advertisement
Fahrenheit 451 1st cover

Front cover of a first edition.

Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. It was first published in 1953. The protagonist is a fireman named Guy Montag, who lives in a society where books are banned. The main weapon used against literature are the firemen, who with their flame throwers burn the few remaining illegally owned books in existence.

Plot[]

One a day the fireman Montag meets a woman named Clarisse and he talks with her. She is a bit strange, and, reflecting on their conversation later, Montag understands that she reads. But when he tries to talk with her again, he discovers she has died. Montag later befriends a man named Faber, who succeeds in convincing him that books are wonderful. At that point, Montag changes his life, going against his captain and his fellow firemen, escaping from the city and reaching a hidden community of other readers.

Adaptations[]

  • In television, there was an American anthology series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960, and it was called Playhouse 90. This television series combined the plot ideas of Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
  • In film, there are two eponymous adaptations: one released in 1966, written and directed by François Truffaut, and starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie, and one released in 2018, directed by Ramin Bahrani and starring Michael B. Jordan, Michael Shannon, Sofia Boutella, and Lilly Singh.
  • In theater, Bradbury officially adapted his novel into a play in the late 1970s. Part of the play was performed at the Colony Theatre in Los Angeles in 1979. The official world premiere occurred November 1988 by the Indiana Civic Theatre in Fort Wayne.
  • In radio, Gregory Evans's dramatization of the novel was produced by BBC Radio in 1982. It was broadcast again on in February 2012 and April 2013, on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Moreover, a second BBC adaptation by David Calcutt was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003.
  • In computer gaming, an eponymous computer text adventure game was released in 1984 by the software company Trillium.
  • In comics, a graphic novel, illustrated by Tim Hamilton, was released in June 2009. It was entitled Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation.

External links[]

Advertisement