Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Future American society where books are outlawed and firemen burn any that are found.

 

Fahrenheit 451 is divided into three parts: 

The Hearth and the Salamander

The Sieve and the Sand

Burning Bright

Guy Montag is a fireman hired to burn the possessions of those who read outlawed books. One night  he meets his new neighbor, a teenage girl named Clarisse McClellan, while returning from work one night.  Her free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and his own perceived happiness. Montag returns home to find that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills. She recovers without any recollection of what happened. While at work one day with the other firemen ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman before the inevitable burning, Montag steals a book before any of his coworkers notice. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match and burn herself alive. Guy returns home jarred by the woman's suicide. Montag is shocked to discover that Clarisse was hit by a speeding car four days ago earlier and her family moved away. As he tries to fall asleep, he senses The Hound, an eight-legged robotic dog-like creature that resides in the firehouse and aids the firemen. He and his wife are perusing stolen books when Guy recognizes a sniffing occurs at their front door. Could it be The Hound? His wife passes it off as a random dog. Montag is ordered to destroy his own house, thinking that his wife and her friends were the ones who reported him.  His wife gets into a taxi, and vanishes down the street. He obeys his chief, destroying the home piece by piece with a flamethrower....... 

Printing History

Written by Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)

The Ballantine Publishing Group

October 1953

 

The Movie

1966

  

Directed by

François Truffaut

Cast

Oskar Werner as Guy Montag
Julie Christie as Linda Montag/Clarisse
Cyril Cusack as Captain
Anton Diffring as Fabian