#25 in Dystopian
Fahrenheit 451
- 190
- Pages
- about 3.5 h
- Reading time
- Prometheus Award - Hall of Fame
- NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
- Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel
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Our view
Bradbury’s short novel about firemen who burn books is strongest where it looks at screens rather than flames: the chatter that fills every silence and the technology that poses as family still feel uncomfortably current. The prose is lush; some readers find it showy at times, the symbolism blunt, the women thinly drawn and the pacing strained. Read it for its images and its warning, less for subtle argument.
Worth knowing Bradbury typed the first version on coin-operated typewriters in the basement of the UCLA library, at ten cents per half hour; it grew from his 1951 novella The Fireman into this 1953 novel. He later insisted the book was less about state censorship than about television crowding out reading. At under two hundred pages it is a quick read. François Truffaut filmed it in 1966.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury. It presents a future American society where books have been outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found. The novel follows the viewpoint of Guy Montag, a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.8 across 5,668 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 97% of the weight and the score stays at 7.9 — the Dystopian average of 7.7 barely moves it. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.0 | 446 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 5.2K | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is Fahrenheit 451?
It has 190 pages — shorter than 94% of the ranked books in Dystopian.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Dystopian — with scores between 7.1 and 8.5, closest to this book.
