Not so far into the future, the world has become a single supranational state, ruled by a council of World Controllers. Consumerism has replaced religion, science has eliminated illness and ageing; the happiness of all is ensured by genetic engineering, brainwashing, recreational sex and tranquillizing drugs. But Bernard Marx feels alienated from a society in which 'everybody belongs to everybody else' and begins to show alarming signs of individualism. When he plucks a Shakespeare-reading 'Savage' from a South American reservation and brings him back to London, two incompatible views of the world come into conflict, with dramatic results.

First published in 1932, Huxley's bleak dystopian novel explores the very real dangers of social and technological progress, questions the nature of freedom and uncovers the dark side of mankind's seemingly insatiable appetite for amusement.