book review of brave new world

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - review

"O brave new world, that hath such people in it!"

Brave New World is a classic - it is a dystopian novel similar in theme to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I was recommended to read this book, by my cousin, as I enjoy dystopian novels. Brave New World revolves around the idea of totalitarianism and is set in a futuristic world where a combination of science and pleasure form a rather feudalistic society. This idea of totalitarianism is achieved through test tube babies, and hypnotism, resulting in a pre-ordained caste system consisting of intelligent humans suited to the highest positions and conversely, serf-like beings genetically programmed to carry out menial works. In this world of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and the unfortunate Epsilons, exists drug-induced happiness, caused by what is known as soma. Here, "everyone belongs to everyone else" emphasising the system of forced promiscuity, brainwashed into the people from the moment of birth. At the core of this book is the horrific idea of eugenics and despite being written several decades ago, its message remains valid for our generation.

Brave New World explores the negatives of a ostensibly successful world in which everyone appears to be content and satisfied, with excessive carnal pleasures yet really, this stability is only achieved by sacrificing freedom in its true sense and the idea of personal responsibility.

I think this book is really interesting as it explores the dangers of technology and what it can do to a whole world; indeed, Huxley is trying to convey the idea that technology does not have the power to save us successfully. This theme is what makes the novel controversial - yet a classic that we can relate to, especially in today's world, where technology is close enough to ruling our lives, what with high tech computers, music players and gaming consoles fast becoming a natural part of our lives. Additionally, Brave New World explores the idea of just how far science can go without being immoral. Would we really want to live in a world where eugenics rule and despite everyone being equal on the surface, deep underneath bubbles the idea of inequuality and unfairness? Not for me, thanks! The novel presents the contradictory idea of a Utopia, a perfect world, yet the word "utopia" is derived from two Greek words meaning "good place" and "no place"; this suggests that the perfect world is impossible.

It is true that this book is a complex read and I must confess that some parts I did not understand; however, the novel's meaning has left a deep impression on me. It's certainly a book I won't forget, and I would recommend it to readers aged fourteen and over as the ideas presented are complex, and Huxley writes in a very adult-like manner, with exceedingly complicated sentences and very complex vocabulary.

Overall, Brave New World is a scary depiction of what could soon be our future. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this well written and thought provoking novel.

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Brave new world, common sense media reviewers.

Satire of ultimate consumerist society still packs punch.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Brave New World is an extremely influential dystop

By showing the hollowness of lives devoted to cons

John, also known as "the Savage," comes as close t

Science seems to have eliminated most violent tend

Brave New World is permeated by sex, although ther

African Americans are referred to as "Negroes" and

The novel is set in a society given completely ove

In Brave New World, "soma" is the drug of choice f

Parents need to know that Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World is one of the most famous dystopian satires in the English language. Set in a society given completely over to pleasure and consumerism, it is both humorous and chilling, and ultimately raises questions about what makes us human…

Educational Value

Brave New World is an extremely influential dystopian science-fiction novel that presents both a richly imagined future and a sharp critique of trends prevalent at the time of its publication that are still relevant today.

Positive Messages

By showing the hollowness of lives devoted to consumerism, promiscuity, and empty pleasure, Huxley tacitly endorses community, literacy, family, service, faithfulness, and reverence.

Positive Role Models

John, also known as "the Savage," comes as close to a sympathetic character as this novel permits. It is his belief that there is more to life than empty sex, emotion-numbing drugs, and meaningless pastimes. A white boy raised on an Indian reservation, he feels like an outcast among the Native Americans, only to be overwhelmed by the promiscuous consumer culture promoted by the World State.

Violence & Scariness

Science seems to have eliminated most violent tendencies in the inhabitants of Central London. On the Indian reservation, however, life is far harsher and physically punishing. John's mother is abused by her lover, by other men, and by other women in the camp. There are also scenes of self-flagellation. The end of the novel features a violent orgy and a suicide, both of which are more implied than directly dramatized.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brave New World is permeated by sex, although there are no explicit descriptions of sexual acts. Promiscuous sex is the norm, and characters routinely speak of "having" each other. Young children are encouraged to engage in sex play with their peers. Orgies are not unusual. Men chew sex-hormone gum. Women carry elaborate contraception kits. Having grown up on the reservation in New Mexico, John seeks a romantic relationship in Central London but cannot bear the gulf between his idealistic notions and his own physical urges.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

African Americans are referred to as "Negroes" and Native Americans as "savages," terms not unusual at the time of the novel's publication. Because the inhabitants of Central London regard Henry Ford as a secular prophet, they use his surname as a mild expletive. Also, the word "mother" is practically an obsenity to a populace conceived and decanted from bottles.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

The novel is set in a society given completely over to pleasure and consumerism. There are fictional products mentioned, but nothing that matches one-to-one with real-world items. The Ford brand is presented as a quasi-religion, but it's not meant to be taken seriously.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In Brave New World , "soma" is the drug of choice for nearly everyone. It seems to be a tranquilizer with hallucinatory effects. It is addicitive, and prolonged use inevitably leads to physical deterioration. On the Indian reservation, mescal is drunk by the residents, and peyote is used during tribal initiations. A major character's mother succumbs to the slow deterioration brought on by soma.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World is one of the most famous dystopian satires in the English language. Set in a society given completely over to pleasure and consumerism, it is both humorous and chilling, and ultimately raises questions about what makes us human. Although there are no explicit descriptions of sexual acts, promiscuous sex is the norm, and there is a violent orgy. There is also a suicide. Citizens of the World State take a tranquilizing, hallucinatory drug called soma, and on an Indian reservation, residents drink mescal and use peyote during tribal initiations.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (14)
• Kids say (23)

Based on 14 parent reviews

Everything in Context

Favorite book, what's the story.

In the far future, humanity has become almost completely dissociated from the process of reproduction. Fetuses are developed in bottles, cloned and treated with chemicals to produce infants that will fit within rigidly structured caste systems. Marriage and motherhood are unheard of. Citizens do their jobs and then relax by indulging in promiscuous sex, elaborate games, and doses of tranquilizing, hallucinatory \"soma.\" When John, a \"savage\" from an Indian reservation in what was once New Mexico, is brought to Central London, he must reconcile his beliefs with those of a bewildering, responsibility-free society.

Is It Any Good?

Along with George Orwell's 1984 , this chilling novel is one of the most famous dystopian science-fiction novels in the English language. Aldous Huxley envisions a future where a person's destiny is determined through in vitro fertilization and prenatal treatments, leading to adulthoods ruled by consumerism and aimless sex. Although originally a critique of social trends in the 1930s, the novel is still funny, disturbing, and relevant for today's readers.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how well author Aldous Huxley predicted the future when he wrote Brave New World in 1932. Was he only imagining the future, or was he also commenting upon trends at the time of the novel's publication?

Why do you think Henry Ford is viewed as a kind of prophet by the citizens of the World State? What satirical point was Huxley trying to make with this choice?

Why do you think Huxley has John quote Shakespeare so often in the novel? And why do you think Huxley chose to quote Shakespeare's play The Tempest in the book's title?

Why do you think Brave New World continues to be read and taught in high school and college literature courses?

Book Details

• Author : Aldous Huxley
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Science and Nature
• Book type : Fiction
• Publication date : February 1, 1932
• Number of pages : 288
• Last updated : June 9, 2015

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The chilling realities of a technological utopia turned dystopia

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian Fiction
• First Publication: 1932
• Language:  English
• Setting: New Mexico (United States), London, England ( in the year 2540)
• Characters: John, Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, Helmholtz Watson, Mustapha Mond, The Warden, Pope, Linda, Fanny Crowne, The Director, The Arch-Community Songster

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a literary journey that will shake you to your core. Published back in 1932, this dystopian novel was decades ahead of its time in issuing a haunting warning about the insidious creep of societal control, the dehumanizing perils of unbridled scientific advancement, and the fragility of individual freedom. Huxley’s vision of a totalitarian future cloaked in technological utopia is equal parts brilliant and chilling.

On the surface level, the “World State” that serves as Brave New World’s setting appears to be a shiny, happy, meticulously engineered paradise. Through advanced reproductive technologies and genetic engineering, humans are literally manufactured in hatcheries to fit predetermined caste roles within the regime’s strict social hierarchy. From birth, they’re indoctrinated by “hypnopaedic” programming to be model, unquestioning citizens who consume manufactured feelies ( Huxley’s version of movies and entertainment ) and take a steady drip of the ubiquitous drug soma to remain blissfully docile.

But scratch that glossy veneer and you’ll find a deeply disturbing underbelly. In this soulless dystopia, concepts like family, monogamy, heartbreak, and most forms of authentic human connection have been surgically removed as archaic “ offensive ” relics. Art, literature, and spirituality are quaint ancient pursuits to be mocked. And any glimmer of individualism or desire to question the regime is met with brutal reconditioning and social exile.

Enter our protagonist, the decidedly imperfect and dissident Alpha-Plus male Bernard Marx. Bernard is a subversive thinker who dares to harbor complex emotions and yearn for something beyond the vacuous, drug-addled life that pervades the World State. His overt disdain for the sheep-like herd mentality around him has left him isolated, the target of casual cruelty from coworkers.

Bernard’s life takes a sharp turn when he makes an illicit visit to the Savage Reservation – one of the few remaining pockets of the “primitive” human civilization left in the world. Here he encounters the captivating John, a young man born of natural childbirth raised in the old ways ( and with an endearing obsession with the works of Shakespeare, no less ). Recognizing a kindred maverick spirit, Bernard smuggles John back to unveil the “brave new world” beyond.

What ensues is a potent clash between cultures, ideologies, and worldviews that sends shock waves through the book’s precariously balanced society. John’s naive yet profound perspective throws the hypocrisies and deep-seated misery of the World State into stark relief, while Bernard faces a pivotal inner battle over whether to continue subverting the established order.

The Characters

Bernard Marx is a deliciously complex and memorable protagonist in the canon of dystopian fiction. He’s the eternal outsider at odds with the herd mindset, feeling deeply unmoored and isolated despite his elite Alpha-Plus status. Huxley imbues Bernard with undeniable flaws (like a staggering insecurity that masks his subversiveness), yet also makes him profoundly relatable and sympathetic—he’s the lone voice of dissent, struggling to deprogram himself from systemic brainwashing.

I was particularly struck by John the Savage’s perspective as the ultimate “outsider within.” Having been raised in a sheltered traditionalist environment, his brushes with so-called “civilized” society are disorienting whirlwind. His soulful introspection and existential grappling felt so raw and real to me. How many of us raised in modern society can also relate to that gnawing sense that there’s something deeply wrong and dehumanizing about the systems we inhabit? John gave voice to that inner conflict so powerfully.

Many readers agree that Huxley’s brilliant characterizations are what make Brave New World so impactful, even all these decades later. The World State citizens like the jaded Helmholtz Watson or the vapid, pleasure-seeking Lenina Crowne serve as chilling caricature archetypes—embodiments of the willful ignorance and soul-deadening conformity that the regime inflicts on its populace.

Writing Style and Themes

From the first few pages, it becomes clear that Huxley was a true master craftsman in command of gorgeously rich, impactful prose. His descriptive talents are unparalleled, painting shockingly visceral yet clinical depictions of the dehumanizing hatchery system, genetic engineering processes, and the vapid bacchanals of recreational intimacy without emotional intimacy. This juxtaposition between elegant language and deeply unsettling subject matter grips you in a constant push-pull.

Tonally, Huxley wields the full versatility of his writing, seamlessly alternating between biting satire, philosophically dense ponderings, and moments of stark emotional poignancy. Punctuated with ominous bits of wry, dark humor, Brave New World never lets you get too comfortable.

Thematically, this is a dense work that serves up a buffet of thought-provoking questions and ruminations to chew on. The battle between cold scientific rationality and human emotion. The chilling leveling effects of unchecked totalitarianism and dehumanization. The inextricable link between personal freedom and pain/hardship. The existential search for truth and meaning in a society that has supplanted all sense of spirituality, ethics and culture with hollow pleasures. I found myself underlining passage after passage as Huxley ignited a roaring philosophical debate within my own mind.

The book is also deeply prescient in foreshadowing many of the social and technological dilemmas we face today—issues around genetic engineering, overpopulation, and growing calamities unfolding due to reckless scientific advancement without moral/ethical guardrails. Huxley’s crystal ball in 1932 was frighteningly on-point about where we may be headed if we fully divorce ourselves from our humanity.

What People Are Saying

Brave New World has long been hailed as one of the greatest dystopian novels ever written, and over 90 years later, the effusive praise and intense discussion around Huxley’s masterwork hasn’t dimmed. Readers are still dissecting the book’s eerily on-point prognostications about our societal trajectory and continuing to derive new relevance from its timeless themes.

Critics have lauded Huxley’s ingenious world-building and creation of a plausible, intricately constructed anti-utopia. The regime’s ruthless scientific caste system, indoctrination methods, and systematic stripping of human connections have chilling modern parallels that resonate powerfully. Many point to how Huxley seemed to accurately predict the rise of mass distraction/entertainment and pharmaceutical numbing of the populace.

Academics have penned volumes analyzing the complex philosophical questions Brave New World forces us to confront. Ethics in scientific advancement, metaphysical ponderings on what makes us human and finds meaning, and the perils of unfettered control systems stripped of morality are just some of the rich veins mined.

Socially, the novel has sparked heated debates about totalitarianism, censorship, conformity, and the tension between collective “stability” and personal liberty. Both proponents of Huxley’s vision and staunch detractors make compelling arguments that remain salient today.

On a personal level, I can’t understate how profoundly Brave New World shook my core belief systems and inner world to their foundations. As both a ravenous reader and someone who works in the technology sector, Huxley’s dystopian prognostications gave me a full-body chill of discomfort.

We like to assume in 2024 that we’re enlightened, that we’ve learned the lessons of history’s darkest totalitarian chapters and hardwired safeguards to prevent such a dehumanizing societal backslide. Yet as I sank deeper into Bernard and John’s world, I recognized glaring mirrors being held up to many aspects of our current society. The relentless pursuit of manufactured, fleeting pleasures and comforts via consumerism, pharmaceutical crutches and vapid entertainment, for one.

I found the notion of an entire segment of people being preconditioned from birth to blindly consume, obey, have the “appropriate” emotions…to surrender any semblance of independent identity or thought, utterly chilling. And having seen intimately how unchecked growth and prioritizing of technological “disruption” at any cost can eat away at our humanity, Huxley’s warnings hit like a ton of bricks.

John the Savage’s perspective resonated with me on a visceral level too. How many of us feel that building inner emptiness that technology and perpetual “progress” can never satiate? That nagging sense that despite all our advancements and material abundance, we’ve lost some vital essence – a spiritual and communal richness that grounds us and gives existence profound meaning and beauty? Brave New World forced me to stare that feeling directly in the face.

While the subject matter is undeniably bleak and often deeply disturbing, I actually came away from this reading experience with an unexpected glimmer of hope. Huxley seems to posit that what elevates us and preserves our humanity is our capacity for love, emotional connection, and artistic expression—these are the catalysts for genuine meaning that no manufactured utopia can ever replicate.

Characters like Bernard and John were flawed and deeply scarred individuals. Yet their dogged insistence on retaining their inner identity, questioning the orthodoxy, and fighting for freedom represented the spark of the human spirit that no regime can extinguish. Their spirit resonated with me long after that gut-punch of a final chapter.

Wrapping It Up

Brave New World is a transcendent literary achievement that every reader needs to experience at least once. This is so much more than just a gripping, disquieting tale of a plausible dystopian future. It’s a brilliant philosophical exercise, an unblinking mirror into the uncomfortable truths about our modern society, and a timeless meditation on the perils of divorcing science and “progress” from ethics, freedom and our essential humanity.

Has Huxley’s imagined world manifested in all its horrifying specifics in 2024? Perhaps not (though some would argue we’re closer than we’d like to admit) . But the deeper questions and warnings this novel issued some 90 years ago are still just as vital, catalyzing intense introspection about where our trajectory as a civilization is leading us.

Above all, Brave New World is an exquisitely rendered reminder of the fundamental truth that great art, true emotion, human connections, and freedom of thought are not just lofty ideals to cling to…they are the core pillars that uphold our very existential vibrancy. To quote a character, “What is the price for a slice of reality?”

In the precarious balance of that question hangs the fate and soul of the “brave new world” we’re building every single day. This is a book that will burrow under your skin long after reading and rattle the way you view technology, comfort, individual liberty and, ultimately, what it means to be alive. Read it, analyze it, and discuss it. But most importantly, let it compel you to choose humanity, in all its messy, anguished, yet exquisite vibrancy.

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The Best Fiction Books » Science Fiction

Brave new world, by aldous huxley, recommendations from our site.

“It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us.” Read more...

The best books on Alternative Futures

Catherine Mayer , Politician

“It is a hilarious, and also very prescient, parody of utopias. Huxley goes back to the idea that coming together and forming a community of common interests is a great idea – it’s the basis of civil society. At the same time, when communities of common interests are taken to utopian degrees the self starts to dissolve into the larger community, you lose privacy and interiority; that becomes frightening. In Huxley’s parody, the people are convinced that they are melding together and that they are completely happy, but in the end it is utterly empty.” Read more...

The best books on Utopia

Ellen Wayland-Smith , Miscellaneou

“Brave New World was written in the 1930s, and the book portrays a happy dystopia. There is an abundance of sex. People have a good time.” Read more...

The best books on Dystopia and Utopia

Chan Koonchung , Novelist

“Huxley posits the idea that the political system actually does perfect things for people and it turns out to be nearly as scary as the horror shows actually created in the 20th century in the attempt to create the new man, whether as Aryan super-German or Marxist and whatever Mussolini and Franco were up to. So Huxley was showing us that this is a rum goal however ‘well’ it turns out.” Read more...

The Best Political Satire Books

P. J. O’Rourke , Political Commentator

“The lesson I draw from this is that the purpose of utopia is not so much as an achieved state, as to give people the freedom to pursue their own projects. That freedom requires that people are free of the fear of unemployment, or of financial disaster through poor healthcare. They should be free to have access to the kind of resources they need for their education and we should maintain and extend access to things like the Internet. Then we would have a situation where everyone is free to participate in whatever way they choose – rather than aiming for the mindless state of contentment that is the implied goal in Brave New World .” Read more...

John Quiggin , Economist

Other books by Aldous Huxley

Island by aldous huxley, moksha: aldous huxley's classic writings on psychedelics and the visionary experience by aldous huxley, our most recommended books, the dispossessed by ursula le guin, the left hand of darkness by ursula le guin, world war z: an oral history of the zombie war by max brooks, the word for world is forest by ursula le guin, the city & the city by china miéville, the time machine by h g wells.

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'Brave New World' Overview

Aldous Huxley's Controversial Dystopian Masterpiece

Leslie Holland / Chatto and Windus (London)

• M.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan
• M.A., Journalism, New York University.
• B.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan

Brave New World is Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel set in a technocratic World State, a society that rests on the core of community, identity, and stability. The reader follows two main characters, first the disgruntled Bernard Marx, then the outsider John, or “The Savage,” as they question the tenets of the World State, a place where people live on a baseline-state of superficial happiness in order to avoid dealing with the truth.

Fast Facts: Brave New World

• Title: Brave New World
• Author: Aldous Huxley
• Publisher:  Chatto & Windous
• Year Published: 1932
• Genre: Dystopian
• Type of Work: Novel
• Original Language: English
• Themes: Utopia/dystopia; technocracy; individual vs. community; truth and deception
• Main Characters: Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, John, Linda, DHC, Mustapha Mond
• Notable Adaptations: Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Brave New World for SyFy
• Fun Fact: Kurt Vonnegut admitted to ripping off the plot of Brave New World for Player Piano (1952), claiming that Brave New World ’s plot “had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's 'We.'" 

Plot Summary

Brave New World follows a few characters as they live their lives in the seemingly utopian World State metropolis of London. It is a society that rests on consumerism and collectivism and has a rigid caste system. Bernard Marx, a petty and depressive psychiatrist who works for the Hatchery, is sent on a mission to the New Mexico Reservation, where “savages” live. He is accompanied by Lenina Crowne, an attractive foetus technician. On the Reservation, they meet Linda, a former citizen of the World State who had stayed behind, and her son John, born through a “viviparous” procreation, a scandal in the World State. When Bernard and Lenina bring the two back to London, John serves as the mouthpiece for the conflicts between the Reservation, which still abides by traditional values, and the technocracy of the World State. 

Main Characters

Bernard Marx. The protagonist of the first part of the novel, Marx is a member of the “Alpha” caste with an inferiority complex, which prompts him to question the core values of the regime of the World State. He has an overall bad personality.

John. Known also as “The Savage,” John is the protagonist of the second half of the novel. He grew up in the Reservation and was birthed naturally by Linda, a former citizen of the World State. He bases his world view on Shakespeare’s work and antagonizes the values of the World State. He loves Lenina in a way that is more than lust.

Lenina Crowne. Lenina is an attractive foetus technician who is promiscuous according to the social requirements of the World State, and seems perfectly content with her life. She is sexually attracted to Marx’s melancholy and to John.

Linda. John’s mother, she got accidentally impregnated by the DHC and was left behind following a storm during a mission in New Mexico. In her new environment, she was both desired, since she was promiscuous, and reviled for the very same reason. She likes mescaline, peyotl, and craves the World State drug soma.

Director of Hatchery and Conditioning (DHC). A man devoted to the regime, he at first intends to exile Marx for his less than ideal disposition, but then Marx outs him as the natural father of John, causing him to resign in shame.

Main Themes

Community vs. Individuals. The World State rests on three pillars, which are community, identity, and Stability. Individuals are seen as part of a greater whole, and superficial happiness is encouraged, and difficult emotions are artificially suppressed, for the sake of stability

Truth vs. Self Delusion. Delusion for the sake of stability prevents citizens from accessing the truth. Mustapha Mond claims that people are better off living with a superficial sense of happiness than with facing the truth.

Technocracy. The World State is ruled by technology and is particularly controlling of reproduction and emotions. Emotions are mitigated through shallow entertainment and drugs, while reproduction happens in assembly-line fashion. Sex, by contrast, becomes a very mechanized commodity. 

Literary Style

Brave New World is written in a highly detailed, yet clinical style that reflects the predominance of technology at the expense of emotions. Huxley has a tendency to juxtapose and jump between scenes, such as when he interposes Lenina and Fanny’s locker-room talk with the history of the World State, which contrasts the regime with the individuals that dwell in it. Through the character of John, Huxley introduces literary references and Shakespeare quotes. 

About the Author

Aldous Huxley authored nearly 50 books between novels and non-fiction works. He was part of the Bloomsbury group, studied the Vedanta, and pursued mystical experiences through the use of psychedelics, which are recurring themes in his novels Brave New World (1932) and Island (1962), and in his memoiristic work The Doors of Perception (1954).

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Brave New World

By aldous huxley.

The protagonist Bernard rebels against his conditioned conformity in a dystopian society of genetically engineered humans controlled by pleasure-driven distractions.

Article written by Ebuka Igbokwe

Bachelor's degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University.

‘ Brave New World ,’ written by Aldous Huxley , is a classic dystopian novel set in a futuristic society in which, through advances in technology, a powerful government has eliminated pain, suffering, and conflict in its society. Citizens are conditioned from birth to accept their roles in a caste system and encouraged to engage in consumerism and pursuits of pleasure.

“Spoiler-Free” Summary of Brave New World

The story of ‘ Brave New World ‘ primarily follows three key characters : Bernard Marx, an intelligent but physically small and socially awkward man who finds it hard to fit into his society; Lenina Crowne, Bernard’s love interest who struggles with his individualist tendencies; and John “the Savage,” a young man from outside the controlled society who becomes a central figure in challenging the established order. Through these characters and their interactions, we explore questions about individuality and freedom in the rigid society they inhabit, founded on human conditioning, fixed social roles, and pleasure on demand.

Full Summary of Brave New World

Warning – This article contains important details and spoilers

The story begins at the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre, where the Director of the Hatchery, the DHC, and one of his assistants, Henry Foster, give a tour to a group of boys. The boys learn about the technology that allows the Hatchery to produce thousands of nearly identical human embryos. During the gestation period, the embryos travel in bottles along a conveyor belt through a factory-like building and are modified to belong to one of five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon, in their decreasing order of intelligence.

The Director explains various conditioning techniques used on the infants, the most important of them being hypnagogic learning. As a later part of the orientation tour, Mustapha Mond, the Resident World Controller for Western Europe, whose role is the management of that society, explains the workings of the society and the reasoning behind the motto “Community, Identity, Stability.” He maintains that even though people in that society are fixed in different castes and roles determined from birth, everyone was content with their place and everybody was equally important.

Lenina Crowne, a Beta employee at the factory, is introduced. Lenina Crowne and Fanny Crowne discuss Lenina’s four-month monogamous relationship with Henry Foster, a situation frowned upon by their society which promotes promiscuity. A common axiom in their society is that everyone belongs to everyone. To deflect from this criticism, Lenina mentions that she is interested in Bernard Marx.

Bernard Marx is a psychologist and an Alpha. He is shorter in stature than the average member of his high caste, which gives him an inferiority complex. His work with sleep-learning allows him to understand and makes him disapprove of his society’s methods of keeping its citizens peaceful, which includes their constant consumption of a soothing, happiness-producing drug called “soma.” He and his friend Helmholtz Watson, a propaganda writer bored with the dullness of his work, often discuss their dissatisfaction with their society. Bernard is strongly attracted to Lenina, which is unusual in his society as sex is casual and devoid of passion.

Lenina and Bernard Marx go on a date. Lenina is puzzled by Bernard’s preference for privacy, desire for a deeper romantic connection, and general dissatisfaction with his life and his position in society. She nevertheless agrees when Bernard invites her to join him on a trip to a Savage Reservation in New Mexico.

Bernard applies for permission to visit the reservation and the DHC approves. Thinking aloud, the DHC reveals that in the past, he had gone on a trip to the reservation with a lover but had lost her and returned alone. The DHC also reprimands Bernard for his deviant attitude which was becoming obvious. When Bernard departs, he learns on a phone call from Helmholtz that the DHC is making plans to exile him to Iceland. Bernard is so distressed at the news that he takes soma, which he has expressed distaste for.

Bernard and Lenina arrive at the reservation. They are shocked to witness for the first time a society in which diseases, old age, religion, family, and dirt are commonplace, things unheard of in their world. The tourists watch in horror as the inhabitants of the community perform a brutal ritual where the members of the community whip a boy until he collapses.

As they explore the reservation, they meet John, a man born naturally and raised outside of their civilization but who is different from the other members of the reservation. John reveals that his mother was a former citizen of World State abandoned at the reservation during a group trip. He introduces them to his mother Linda, and from their conversation, Bernard suspects John to be the son of the DHC.

Linda’s background as a citizen of World State puts her at odds with the inhabitants of the reservation. The harsh reality of life on the reservation is different from her former life in London, and to cope, she becomes addicted to mescal. She is promiscuous, which was a norm in London but taboo in the reservation where traditional sexual mores and family values rule. As a result of this culture clash, she and her son are treated as outcasts. Bernard, who feels like an outcast in his society, develops a kin-like attraction to John.

Lenina is so horrified by the things she witnesses on the reservation that she takes a greater dose of soma and goes on a “soma holiday”, an extended period of drug-induced sleep. During this period, Bernard calls London and gets approval from Mond to bring John and Linda back to London with him.

On Bernard’s return to London, the DHC publicly threatens to exile him to Iceland. However, Bernard springs a surprise and presents Linda and John to the public. John calls the DHC “Father,” an act that disgraces the Director and forces him to resign—fatherhood being a social taboo in World State. Thus, Bernard is saved from exile.

Circumstances change for Bernard, John, and Linda. Because Bernard brings John to London and all who want to see John have to go through him, Bernard becomes a minor celebrity and revels in his changed status. John, for his part, finds it difficult to adjust to his new life in London. He becomes increasingly disillusioned with London society’s values. John’s education consisted mainly of reading Shakespeare and his romantic view of life that was different from what he witnessed in society. Linda, grown old and ugly, is shunned by the Londoners. To deal with her disappointment and hurt, she goes on a permanent soma holiday—taking the drug non-stop to remain in a perpetual daze.

As John becomes a sensation among the citizens of London who are curious to see “the savage,” he becomes more disgusted by them. He cannot stand their values and their attention. He and Helmholtz Watson become friends, however, sharing a common interest in Shakespeare and the true expression found in his poetry. Bernard is unhappy for he feels this newly formed friendship excludes him. Also, with John losing interest in entertaining society on Bernard’s behalf, Bernard finds that he is losing his newly-won popularity, too.

Lenina and John are sexually attracted to each other and have been since the time they met each other at the reservation. They have different ideas of what expressing these feelings means. John held to romantic ideals found in Shakespeare, particularly the chaste romance between Romeo and Juliet. Lenina, on the other hand, goes for a straightforward seduction, and when she acts on this John turns against her. He attacks her and she escapes by barricading herself behind a door. In that instant, John receives a call bearing news of his mother’s death.

John’s expression of grief on seeing his dead mother shocks the hospital staff and visitors. This is because there were no familial relationships in the society, and people were conditioned to treat death casually and without emotion. John is offended when a child in one of these conditioning excursions makes a rude remark about his mother and makes a scene by throwing soma rations out of the window. Bernard and Helmholtz arrive and try to stop him, and the ensuing riot is stopped by the police. The trio are detained and are subsequently presented before Mustapha Mond.

For failing to fit into society, Mustapha Mond sentences Bernard and Helmholtz Watson to exile. Bernard is initially distressed, but Helmholtz accepts the news gracefully, choosing a place where he would have creative liberty and inspiration. John and Mustapha Mond discuss history, philosophy, happiness, and religion, with John criticizing the World State society and Mond defending it. Mond refuses to exile John, claiming that John’s presence in London is an experiment of great interest to him.

As a concession, John finds and retires to an abandoned lighthouse and wards off intruders who follow him out of curiosity. He chooses solitude to purify himself from the corrupt influences of London’s society, and he does this by self-flagellation. While occupied in this activity, he is spied out by a nosy journalist. The news of his actions spreads quickly and attracts the citizens of London whom he had abandoned. A crowd gathers and urges him to flog himself and this sets him on edge. He spies Lenina in the crowd, attacks her with his whip, and flogs himself as well. In the frenzy, the crowd join in flogging each other and soon the situation degenerates into an orgy.

At the end of the orgy, the crowd disperses, and John is stricken with guilt. He believes that society has defeated him in a battle of wills and morals. The next day, when the people of the city visit John’s lighthouse again, they discover he has committed suicide.

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About Ebuka Igbokwe

Ebuka Igbokwe is the founder and former leader of a book club, the Liber Book Club, in 2016 and managed it for four years. Ebuka has also authored several children's books. He shares philosophical insights on his newsletter, Carefree Sketches and has published several short stories on a few literary blogs online.

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Book Review For Teens: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

This classic dystopian novel illuminates very clearly how the fears of eighty years ago still remain today. Only by looking to the future, and to the past, can readers come to understand what it truly means to be happy.

Previous review: Book Review: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

TEACHER REVIEW | by Matt Peterson

Published in 1932, Aldous Huxley’s futuristic, anti-industrial dystopia, Brave New World , offers a blithe picture of a bleak possibility. The novel is set in an era called After Ford (A.F.) and by 632 A.F., global civilization has solved over-population, geo-political violence, unemployment, class conflict, and social malaise—all within the pillars of Community, Identity, and Stability.

To us, perhaps, it sounds like the citizens of the World State have it all. Until we count the cost. For the people of “Our Ford,” the best way to “have it all” is not, actually, to have it all. Instead it’s to change the terms, to constrain and redefine the goal. Fordians live by a narrower bandwidth, free from the chasms of life, but also alien to its heights. They exchange happiness for pleasure and quality for quantity. As readers, we can’t shake the notion that Huxley’s future gains stability at the cost of what truly gives us life: purpose, love, and belonging.

At the start of each school year , to reclaim my educational footing (as much for myself as for my students), I take to the chalkboard and define what fiction is: “an imaginative response to a social reality.”

By implication, all serious fiction is prophecy. It is a call to the masses and to the human heart to reconcile what we are becoming with all that we should become. Huxley’s dystopia is not about the future. It’s no cautionary tale, but an indictment of the principles we live by. Huxley’s readers are shocked, not by how shallow his future is, but by how similar it is to their own.

No spoiler alert here: I don’t know the end of our story. We are, as Rainer Maria Rilke said, living our way into the answers. We read on to learn the fate of Lenina Crowne, Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, and John Savage. And we read to learn to author a fate different from theirs—a fate far richer, even if refined by the crucible of an uncertain world.

TEEN REVIEW | by Lexi Hubbel

Brave New World is a stunningly current novel that presents social critique through a dystopian world. The conversations prompted by this novel are no less relevant today than when the book was first published 83 years ago.

Huxley fabricates a world centered on the pillars of “Community, Identity, and Stability,” one that has chosen to “shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness.” This society achieves comfort and happiness through pre-birth conditioning of its members. You have a predestined role, and in that role you are happy, desiring nothing greater. When you slip away from happiness, you drink a soothing beverage called soma “to calm your anger, to reconcile your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering.” Rather than bothering with the complexities and instability caused by families and marital relationships, in this society “everyone belongs to everyone else.” You have no mother. You have no spouse, no god to rely on. Instead you rely on the system, the soma, the conditioning.

Then a man called “the Savage,” raised by his mother with beliefs founded in God, disrupts the system. He exposes this carefully planned world to life dictated by passion. For the Fordians, this is an entirely unfamiliar concept. The Savage is familiar with the highs and lows that accompany the intense feelings of passion. He brings about the instability this world works to control.

Brave New World prompts readers to reconsider their own values, and how through these values they find meaning—whether they choose the path of happiness, or truth, or perhaps a combination of the two.

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Book Review

Brave new world.

• Aldous Huxley
• Dystopian , Futuristic , Science Fiction

Readability Age Range

• Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2006) is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers
• Modern Library 100 Best Novels list, The Guardian’s Best 100 Novels and others

Year Published

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

The year is 632 A.F., (which stands for After Ford). Henry Ford’s name is reverenced and used the way Christians once used the Lord’s name. Innovation and technology abound in this society, which abides by the motto “Community, Identity, Stability.”

The story opens with the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (DHC) explaining his work to young students. He shows them around the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where children are mass-produced. He explains the Bokanovsky Process, in which groups of up to 96 identical human beings can be created at once. It provides uniformity and stability, he explains, if groups of identical individuals can all work in the same factories doing the same tasks.

Children are grown and conditioned at the Centre to be Alphas or Betas and downward to include the least intelligent Epsilons. They receive messages when they sleep (called hypnopaedia) and conditioning, including shock therapy, while they’re awake. They’re trained to know exactly what to think, say, feel and believe based on their predestined position in society.

They’re also conditioned about how to think and feel about the other social classes. They’re repeatedly assured that everyone is happy now. They’re told history is bunk, including religion and other stories contained in forbidden books like the Bible or anything else published before 150 A.F.

No matter the social class, children are taught to be consumers for the good of society. They should always buy something new rather than try to repair something old. Some embryos are developed as freemartins. They are structurally normal but guaranteed sterile. Technology allows people to remain fairly young-looking until they reach about 60, when they die quickly and happily.

Viviparous reproduction (or the development of a child within its mother’s body) is scorned as an antiquated and repulsive practice. Leaders believe the kind of strong love and passion that once existed between mother and child or monogamous lovers caused unnecessary pain and isolation. In this society, sexual promiscuity is encouraged and even required.

As all children are taught hypnopathically, everyone belongs to everyone else. People also use a substance called soma regularly. It supposedly includes all of the advantages of Christianity and alcohol but none of the side effects.

Lenina Crowne is a young woman who follows the conventions of her time. The problem is that she’s been having sex with the same man lately. Her friend urges her to follow protocol and be more promiscuous. Lenina decides to accept an invitation from co-worker Bernard Marx to go on holiday in America.

Even though he’s an Alpha, Bernard is shorter and thinner than the typical highly intelligent male. Some speculate alcohol accidentally got mixed in with his chemicals during fertilization. Bernard always feels he’s not receiving the credit and attention he deserves. He feels isolated on many levels, and people look down on him for his desire to spend time alone.

He seems less susceptible to the conditioning messages and soma -induced relaxation than others. Bernard’s only real friend is Helmholtz Watson. Helmholtz is a massive, handsome specimen. But like Bernard, he suffers from mental excess. Both men are just a little too smart, which makes them keenly aware of the emptiness in the people and activities around them.

Bernard wants to take Lenina to an Indian reservation in New Mexico, but he has to get clearance from the Director. The Director lapses into a story of a time he took a woman named Linda to that same reservation. She got lost, and he was never able to find her again. He had to leave without her.

The reservation is a startling contrast from Bernard and Lenina’s insulated society. The so-called savages don’t have pleasant golf games, scented rooms or anti-aging technology. They honor Jesus and practice other ancient worship rituals. Most unsettling, women still give birth to babies.

Bernard is fascinated, but the overwhelmed Lenina drowns her feelings in soma until she runs out. They meet a young savage with light-colored skin named John. When Bernard hears that John’s mother was trapped here, he realizes John must be the Director’s son. Bernard and Lenina are shocked to meet Linda, an ugly and old woman.

On the reservation, Linda had continued to practice her conditioned promiscuity. She was scorned and even beaten by the Indians who believed in marriage and fidelity. Since soma wasn’t used on the reservation, Linda drowned her sorrow in alcohol. She tells Bernard and Lenina she doesn’t know how her contraception failed. Since there was no abortion clinic available, she had to go through the horrible process of childbearing.

Because of Bernard’s unorthodox behavior at the Centre, the Director has threatened to transfer him to an island. Bernard realizes Linda and John are his bargaining chips. He brings them back to London with him as part of a social experiment. When the Director tries to publically transfer him, Bernard brings the boy and his mother in to meet Daddy.

The abashed Director resigns immediately. Linda is too horrid for anyone to look at, so she’s hospitalized and given large doses of soma that will ultimately kill her. People are fascinated by the savage John, and Bernard quickly takes on the role of publicist. For the first time in his life, Bernard enjoys the respect of others.

He starts taking soma , sleeping with more women and enjoying all the happiness offered by his society. John, however, is shocked and appalled by the society he’s entered. Having grown up with a combination of Native American tradition and a love for Shakespeare, he can’t fathom people’s desire to numb all of their emotions.

John is enamored with Lenina, but he’s a romantic with a vastly different value system. They go on a date to see a feely, which is a 4-D, sexually-charged movie. Lenina is disappointed that John is appalled by the movie and that he won’t sleep with her.

Bernard plans a major event at which his savage is supposed to appear. John, who is growing more distraught, refuses to attend. Bernard is scorned by all, and his foray into fame immediately ends. Lenina tries again to seduce John, who wants to have a pure and romantic relationship.

He asks her to marry him, which she considers absurd. She begins to undress, and the aghast John pushes her off, calling her a whore. She hides in the bathroom while, in his anger, he quotes Shakespeare . Just then, John gets a call that his mother is dying. He rushes to Linda’s side.

John is shocked by the cheerfully decorated Hospital for the Dying. Linda barely knows John, though she remembers her old lover from the reservation. John panics and starts crying out God’s name as her face turns blue. Traumatized children, who are present because they’re supposed to be receiving positive conditioning about death, are quickly given chocolate eclairs.

John rushes from the ward to find the menial staff, two large Bokanovsky groups, lining up for the nightly soma distribution. John addresses the men and women, passionately urging them to choose freedom from soma . When they will not, he starts throwing the pills out the window. Their supervisor calls Bernard to tell him John is there and has gone mad. Bernard and Helmholtz arrive while police calm the anxious employees by playing relaxing messages and spraying soma gas.

The police take John, Bernard and Helmholtz to the office of Western Europe World Controller, Mustapha Mond. John is surprised to hear Mond likes Shakespeare, too. He’s allowed to read such an old book because he makes the rules. But, Mond explains, Shakespeare doesn’t work in the society he rules.

People must be encouraged to find beauty in new things, not old. In their blissful ignorance, the people in his society wouldn’t understand the pain and passion in Shakespeare. This is the price that must be paid for a stable society. Science, too, must be muzzled. That’s the reason he’s sending Bernard and Helmholtz to an island. He explains this is really a reward. It means they’ll get to be with smart, interesting people who don’t fit in with the bulk of society.

Mond should be on an island himself, but he chose to help the greater good by staying and creating false happiness for the masses. He acknowledges John’s points when the savage says true happiness means a person can feel things. John and the Controller then discuss God and His absence in this society.

The Controller says he believes God may very well exist, but that a culture of perfect, ignorant happiness like theirs can’t include Him. They don’t feel a need for Him. The Controller explains there is even a compulsory treatment that produces all the feelings of rage and passion so the people won’t have to express them outwardly. John says he chooses the right to feel pain.

John moves to an old lighthouse where he can be alone. He repeatedly prays, beats himself and drinks warm mustard-water in an effort to purge himself of societal evils and lustful feelings. Reporters stalk him. At one point, reporters chant that they want to see him whip himself. Lenina arrives on the scene. In his rage, John turns the whip on her. A giant orgy ensues. When John awakens from a soma haze to realize what he’s done, he is devastated and hangs himself.

Christian Beliefs

The savages on the reservation believe in God and Jesus, along with other gods and ancient rituals. John tries to purify himself by standing with arms outstretched like Jesus on the Cross and by practicing various forms of self-punishment. John and the Controller engage in a lengthy debate about God and His place in modern society.

The Controller is familiar with and quotes the writings of religious leaders such as Cardinal Newman. He believes there may be a God, but he says too much has changed in their modern society for people to find God appealing or necessary. People don’t suffer or grow old, so they have no occasion to seek Him.

Since God isn’t compatible with their utopian society, He manifests himself as an absence, as though He weren’t there at all. John contends that belief in God is natural in people. The Controller argues that belief in God comes because people are conditioned to believe in Him.

Other Belief Systems

In this new society, Christianity is no longer accepted. Most books are banned, including the Bible. Christianity is remembered as a philosophy that encouraged people not to consume. It also repressed women, forcing them to continue giving birth to babies.

When God and Jesus were eliminated from their societal consciousness, all crosses had their tops cut off and became “T”s in honor of Ford’s Model T. People genuflect in the shape of a “T” when Ford’s name is mentioned. A narrator recalls the concepts of immortality and heaven in ancient times, but notes that people still consumed a lot of drugs and alcohol. The current society offers a substance called soma as an answer to the old society’s drugs, alcohol and religion. The Controller calls soma Christianity without tears.

Members of the society attend Solidarity groups. They listen to music, sing Solidarity hymns, and make the sign of the “T.” They partake in the dedicated soma tablets and soma -laced strawberry ice cream drink. They sing praises to Ford, calling him the Greater Being and asking him into their presence. They strive to annihilate self as they become one with Ford and each other. Caught up in the music and the high from the soma , they begin to dance and sing their orgy song. As the music pulsates, members cry that they hear him coming. The service morphs into an orgy. The twice-monthly service offers peace, balance and release.

Authority Roles

The Controller believes he is serving the greater good by offering the society false happiness rather than God, pain and passion.

Profanity & Violence

A– , d— , h— appear. The Lord’s name is taken in vain. Ford’s name is used in any context “Lord” might be used in our society, both in reverence and in vain. John calls Lenina a strumpet and a whore . He misuses the name of God repeatedly, generally when he feels remorse for things he’s done or experienced in the brave new world.

Linda slaps John around when he’s a child, banging his head. She calls him a beast who has turned her into an animal because she gave birth like one. Later she feels remorse and kisses him over and over. John catches his mother sleeping with a man, the man’s hand on her breast. John tries to stab the man, who only laughs at him.

The violence John experiences on the reservation conditions him to act out violently when Lenina offers herself to him sexually. Another time, he whips Lenina when she tries to give herself to him. Crowds and media are on the scene, and a soma orgy ensues.

Sexual Content

Children are urged to engage in erotic play, just as adults are encouraged to have many sexual partners. The Director laughs with the students about a time when erotic play was suppressed and considered immoral.

Lenina sees a group of men in her office and recalls sleeping with most of them. Lenina has been sleeping with Henry Foster on a regular basis. Her friend chides her for not having more random sex and urges her to be more promiscuous. Women are required to have pregnancy substitutes, pills and injections that stimulate the effects of pregnancy.

Bernard dislikes that men talk about their sexual conquests and discuss women as though they were pieces of meat. As Lenina prepares for a trip with Bernard, she wears a belt bulging with the regulation supply of contraceptives. Hypnopaedia from age 12 to 17 along with drills three times a week have ensured that contraception use is automatic in young women.

People chew sex-hormone chewing gum. The society’s religious services, called Solidarity meetings, end in orgies. Linda regularly sleeps with several men at the reservation. Most people attend movies called “feelies.” These are erotic motion pictures that also include tactile sensations.

Lenina and John attend a feely in which a black man rapes a white woman. Lenina is relieved when Bernard starts fondling her breast on their trip. Bernard and John note that sex without relationship is infantile and unsatisfying. Lenina can’t comprehend this idea and throws herself at John by undressing in front of him.

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Book Review: Brave New World

Brave New World is a classic dystopian novel, written in the early 1930s by Aldous Huxley. Set in a society in which humans are manufactured and programmed depending on their assigned social class, it addresses individualism, conformity, and the dangers of complete government control. Citizens in this dystopia frequently take a drug to subdue their emotions, living in a state of ignorance and 'bliss' as they go through the motions unquestioningly. In order to keep the system of manufacturing people running smoothly, certain things are considered taboo--such as literature, religion, and family--while what we typically consider unorthodox is commonplace in this society.

The story follow several central characters who don't completely fit in or believe there could be more to life than what they experience every day. Huxley takes readers to a 'Savage Camp' where John, the protagonist (whose ideals are completely different from everyone else's), is introduced, and the other characters experience an extreme contrast to their advanced and ordered society. Readers experience John's intense internal conflict as he attempts to find his place in the new world into which he is thrust; they also learn more about the ideology of the dystopia, and what goes on behind its 'perfect' facade.

I enjoyed most aspects of Brave New World, and would recommend it to dystopian readers who appreciate a deeper meaning. However, there were some parts of this novel that I found disturbing, as what's considered taboo is the opposite of how we view things in our world. Sometimes I had trouble connecting with the story emotionally, and I would've liked more specifics about how the dystopia came to be. But looking past the negatives, the themes Huxley brings up are very important, and even pertinent to society today. His characters have depth, the underlying themes make readers think, and overall it is an interesting concept of a future world with complete dictatorship. Brave New World is a classic that I believe everyone should read.

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Review: Peacock’s ‘Brave New World’ Is Neither Brave Nor New

This adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s classic novel, inaugurating the NBCUniversal streaming service, is generic and tame (despite the orgies).

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By James Poniewozik

Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel “Brave New World” famously imagined a future society in which people were enslaved to pleasure. The future’s diversions were so absorbing that they commanded attention over everything else.

If only you could say that about its latest TV adaptation. Dull, generic and padded, the series, one of the premiere offerings for NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service on Wednesday, transmutes a provocative warning into a vision of a sci-fi world that feels neither brave nor new.

The premise, as in so many new series based on pre-existing intellectual property, is essentially that of the novel, but stretched out. We arrive in New London, the gleaming citadel of a hedonistic society that has snuffed out discontent with three rules — “No privacy, no family, no monogamy” — and an endless supply of soma, a feel-good drug dispensed like Pez.

The citizens, stratified into castes labeled “Alpha,” “Beta” and so on, shrug off the class inequities with the help of pills, orgies and “feelies,” tactile entertainments in which a populace mostly alienated from physical struggle can experience virtual thrills like getting punched in the face.

Outside the city, “savages” still practice primitive rites like having babies biologically, and perform at theme parks for the amusement of their safariing betters. (“Brave New World” shares with “Westworld” a faith in the future health of the live-amusements industry.)

Bernard (Harry Lloyd), a supercilious Alpha, strikes up a friendship with Lenina (Jessica Brown Findlay), a Beta whom he’s investigated for having sex too often with the same man — a transgression of “solipsism” against the “social body,” in which “everyone belongs to everyone else.” After a getaway to the Savage Lands adventure park goes awry, they return to New London with a fugitive native, John (Alden Ehrenreich), whose defiant authenticity makes him a subject of fascination.

That John will threaten the complacency of New London by teaching its citizens how to feel is no surprise. “Brave New World,” while an enduring tale, was also a product of a time concerned with totalitarianism and threats to the individual. The job of any adaptation is to retain the DNA of the original while mutating it to the times, and that’s where this version fails.

“Brave New World” was originally developed for NBCUniversal’s Syfy channel, then for USA , and as in some of those networks’ less-accomplished series, its future feels off-the-rack. It’s one of those dystopias in which the prosperous locations vaguely resemble the World Trade Center Oculus and the impoverished zones are strewn with fires burning in oil drums. Its main distinction from basic-cable fare is the copious nudity in the orgies, which are nonetheless antiseptic and unsexy, like a fancy cologne ad.

And this world is populated with flat characters. Demi Moore has little to do as John’s drunk, idle mother, and the antagonists back in New London — suspicious of John’s popularity and of Bernard’s interest in him — are one-note sneering technocrats.

The series doesn’t lack for dystopian pedigrees. The showrunner, David Wiener, hails from Amazon’s “Homecoming” and it shares a director, Owen Harris, with “Black Mirror.” But it doesn’t compare well with either predecessor, each of which better explored the dangers of digitally and biologically fine-tuning humanity.

The one area in which this “World” is reimagined to relate to 2020 is its focus on social technology. The denizens of New London are equipped with eye implants that not only apply a digital overlay to everything they see but connect them to a universal network, in which they can they can see through the eyes of anyone else logged on to the system. It’s the ultimate overshare: Facebook for your face.

This builds on Huxley’s original idea of an anti-individualist society. But more thought seems to have gone into the design of the optical device (a lens with a nerve-like wire, unsettling for those of us who don’t even like putting contacts in) than to what led this society to fetishize radical openness.

In theory, “Brave New World” is ripe for a newly relevant update. After the 2016 election, there was renewed interest in George Orwell’s “1984,” with its warnings about totalitarian politics and language. But as the media critic Neil Postman wrote in his 1985 fire alarm “Amusing Ourselves to Death” (revivified after that same election), the “Huxleyan warning” was in many ways more relevant to Western culture, in which the populace was often seduced by entertainments rather than bludgeoned by blunt force.

This speaks to 2020 — to a point. One difference is how our society’s versions of soma — Twitter, YouTube algorithms — as often seek to inflame as to pacify us. (The pacification, maybe, comes more from the surfeit of streaming-TV services that Peacock is adding to.) If you’re not going to delve into what Huxley has to say to a future nearly a century later, why bother making another adaptation?

There are a few, welcome flashes of life. Lloyd gives Bernard a pitiable desperation as he comes to find his accustomed life more and more empty. (“Everybody’s happy unless they choose not to be!” he tells himself, crankily popping a soma.) And by late in the season, the series starts to loosen up and have dark-humored fun with its premise.

But it’s not enough to be worth the wait. For the most part, we’re left with an unsexy portrait of decadence, a thriller without thrills, a prescription that’s less soma than Sominex.

James Poniewozik is the chief television critic. He writes reviews and essays with an emphasis on television as it reflects a changing culture and politics. He previously spent 16 years with Time magazine as a columnist and critic. More about James Poniewozik

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