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美丽新世界是一本强推小说，了解西方文化必备！它描绘了一个看起来无所不有的完美社会，但事实上它却泯灭了使人之所以为人的最宝贵的东西——自由意志。准备去英国留学或者对西方文化感兴趣的童鞋们，今天推荐的这本小说可以列入书目表了~~
WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT？内容概览
Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World is among the greatest novels of the 20th century, combining sharp social commentary with a terrifying vision of the future. The book follows a number of characters as they navigate a seemingly utopian world in which everyone is always happy but has no real control over their own lives. Through a combination of genetic engineering, sleep-hypnosis, and a wonder-drug, the World State extends their power over every aspect of a global society, and it seems unlikely that any of our protagonists will make it out alive.
奥尔德斯·赫胥黎(译者注：英国著名作家)的这部反乌托邦小说《美丽新世界》无疑是上个世纪最伟大的作品之一，对现实的辛辣讽刺和关于人类社会未来的骇人预言贯穿全篇。小说中，主人公们意外闯入了一个乌托邦的世界，由此开始了一段惊心动魄的漫游。他们发现，虽然这个世界里的每个人都看似永无烦恼，但他们却无法真正掌控自己的生活。通过使用基因工程、催眠疗法、迷幻制剂等控制手段，世界国将其权力触角伸向了社会的方方面面。我们的主人公似乎是很难逃离这个“美丽新世界”了。
WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND IT？小说背后的故事
Huxley was deeply affected by the events of the depression on Britain in 1931, which brought massive unemployment and social difficulties. Inspired by the utopian novels of H.G. Wells, he decided to explore what it would be like to live in an apparently perfect world, where mass production was applied to every part of society, making financial problems a thing of the past. Although George Orwell, author of the equally popular dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, accused Huxley of deriving his work from the Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin’s workWe, Huxley denied the link. Many of his characters were derived from real people in the economic landscape of the time, such as Mustapha Mond, who is inspired by Sir Alfred Mond, the head of a technologically advanced power plant that Huxley visited shortly before starting Brave New World.
赫胥黎本人曾深受1931年英国经济危机的影响，这场前所未有的大萧条引致了居高不下的失业率和无数社会问题。受到赫伯特·乔治·威尔斯描绘乌托邦的小说的启发，他也打算用笔探索一下在一个表面上看起来完美无瑕的世界里生活是怎样的一番体验。在这样的一个世界里，大规模生产已经渗透到了社会的每个环节，财政经济问题似乎已经彻底变成了过去式。虽然乔治·奥威尔，一位同样以其反乌托邦小说《1984》闻名于世的作家，批评赫胥黎的小说完全取材于叶夫根尼·扎米亚京的《我们》，但赫胥黎否认了二者间的联系。事实上，《美丽新世界》的许多人物都来源于当时英国社会中的真实人物，比如穆斯塔法·蒙德的原型就是一位现实中存在的阿尔弗雷德·蒙德先生，他是赫胥黎在开始写作《美丽新世界》前所参观的一家工艺先进的能源工厂的主管。
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