Chapter Brief Introduction of Brave New World - Study Guide by Aldous Huxley

Brief Introduction

'Brave New World' is a phrase that has become synonymous with nightmarish visions of the future (dystopias), and indeed perceived negative changes in the present. The novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, along with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, is one of the twin pillars of Twentieth Century dystopianism. Unlike Nineteen Eighty-Four, which owes a certain debt to it, it was written relatively early on in its author's career. Consequently, it should not be seen as Huxley's definitive statement on utopia and dystopia. Of course, the dichotomy with Orwell is a false one, as if he had lived longer his ideas would, like Huxley's, have been open to revision. However, Huxley did live for over thirty years after he wrote Brave New World, and continued to explicitly and implicitly re-evaluate the work - most notably in Brave New World Revisited (1958). Indeed, the life of this polymath and polyglot was one of re- evaluation and ambivalence, though at its heart undercut with recurring interests and pre-occupations.