Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation [Paperback]

Ray Bradbury (Author), Tim Hamilton (Illustrator)

Book Description

Release date: July 21, 2009

“Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn ’em to ashes, then burn the ashes.”

 

For Guy Montag, a career fireman for whom kerosene is perfume, this is not just an official slogan. It is a mantra, a duty, a way of life in a tightly monitored world where thinking is dangerous and books are forbidden.

 

In 1953, Ray Bradbury envisioned one of the world’s most unforgettable dystopian futures, and in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the artist Tim Hamilton translates this frightening modern masterpiece into a gorgeously imagined graphic novel. As could only occur with Bradbury’s full cooperation in this authorized adaptation, Hamilton has created a striking work of art that uniquely captures Montag’s awakening to the evil of government-controlled thought and the inestimable value of philosophy, theology, and literature.

 

Including an original foreword by Ray Bradbury and fully depicting the brilliance and force of his canonic and beloved masterwork, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is an exceptional, haunting work of graphic literature.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Book Description
"Monday burn Millay, Wednesday Whitman, Friday Faulkner, burn ’em to ashes, then burn the ashes." For Guy Montag, a career fireman for whom kerosene is perfume, this is not just an official slogan. It is a mantra, a duty, a way of life in a tightly monitored world where thinking is dangerous and books are forbidden.

In 1953, Ray Bradbury envisioned one of the world's most unforgettable dystopian futures, and in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the artist Tim Hamilton translates this frightening modern masterpiece into a gorgeously imagined graphic novel. As could only occur with Bradbury's full cooperation in this authorized adaptation, Hamilton has created a striking work of art that uniquely captures Montag's awakening to the evil of government-controlled thought and the inestimable value of philosophy, theology, and literature.

Including an original foreword by Ray Bradbury and fully depicting the brilliance and force of his canonic and beloved masterwork, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is an exceptional, haunting work of graphic literature.

Look Inside This Stunning Adaptation of Fahrenheit 451
In the panels below, fireman Guy Montag returns home after a night of burning books and encounters Clarice, a teenager who changes his life.
Click on each image to enlarge.

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From Publishers Weekly

A faithful adaptation of the original, Hamilton's comics version conveys the social commentary of the novel, while using the images to develop the tone. He uses grainy, static colors and images obscured by heavy black shadows and textures to portray the oppressive nature of this world where firemen start fires instead of putting them out. Malevolent forces and danger lurk in the shadows pervading the suburban home of fireman Montag and his wife, Mildred. Montag questions the happiness of his mundane life when prodded by his strange new neighbor, a young girl named Clarisse, as well as his wife's drug overdose. This leads him to throw himself into a dangerous struggle to expose the world's hypocrisy by spreading the forbidden knowledge contained in books. The art solidifies atmospheric elements such as the fire and rain; fire, tapering and curling, is rendered into a crucial additional character. Since the original expounds the importance of valuing and preserving books and knowledge, adapting it into the comics form emphasizes the growth of the medium, as well as its potency across genres and subjects. (July)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 1st edition thus edition (July 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080905101X
• ISBN-13: 978-0809051014
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive! I enjoyed it thoroughly August 12, 2009

By M. Helmke

Format:Paperback

I first read about this graphic novel adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic book about a month ago. I was immediately intrigued. The original book is one of my all time favorites and I wanted to see if a graphic adaptation could do it justice. In short: it does.

Tim Hamilton and the folks at Hill and Wang, with the blessing of Ray Bradbury, who writes the introduction to the book, have produces a beautiful and well crafted retelling of the classic story that is both true to the original and able to stand on its own.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Guy Montag is a fireman, only in his world firemen don't put out fires, they start them. Books are banned and are the target of the firemen's activity. One day, Montag meets a person who intrigues him with her joie de vivre. He has never met anyone so alive and vibrant and he wonders why. He also begins to look at his own life and realizes he is not happy, that there is something missing. The rest of the tale revolves around his struggle to find meaning in a sterile, inoffensive world where everything is brought down to a common denominator of homogeneous agreeability. I won't spoil your enjoyment by revealing more than that.

Those of us who know the story well will note a few details are missing from this adaptation. Like when a movie is made, in this graphic novel it appears that some details of the written story were sacrificed to enable a cleaner telling in the new medium. Again, to avoid spoilers I won't mention here what has been left out, but I will say that the overall structure and message remain intact and the story does not suffer from the loss. Instead, those who move from this as an initial taste will find the book richer and even more enjoyable.

What about the artwork? That is the main point here, isn't it? I loved it. The artist chose a wonderful style to convey the emotion and action that is reminiscent of the minimalism of 1940s propaganda art, with a limited color palate on each page and just enough detail to convey the main point. Please don't read that to mean the art is simple or simplistic. On the contrary, Hamilton does an amazing job of choosing which details are most important and distilling the scenes down to only those which further the plot, emotion, or scene. Extraneous information is nowhere to be seen. That can only be by design and due to the disciplined intent of the artist. Detail that is useful is everywhere, and throughout the book the art complements the text beautifully while taking nothing away from it. That is an achievement.

I confess, I am a reader. I always have several books being read concurrently, stashed here and there for convenience. Fahrenheit 451 is a book I have read several times and which I love. I admit there was some trepidation when I heard about it being adapted into a new form. In this case, none was needed. I am not only pleased by the quality of the graphic novelization, but happy to recommend it. In fact, this makes me want to request a few other classic novels to be adapted, not as replacements, but as introductions to whet the appetites of the curious in the hopes of satisfying their initial curiosity about the works as well as convince some who might not otherwise to delve in and read the originals. Now, I wonder where I put the publisher's email address?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Where is the light? August 23, 2009

By R. Parthasarathy

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I love Fahrenheit 451- the book by Ray Bradbury. I consider it one of my favorite books. When I heard about the authorized graphic novel adaptation, I immediately ordered it. I have read it twice now and here are my thoughts.
For starters, the GN is true to the original material but takes all the artistic liberties it is afforded. This does not dilute, affect or pollute the original message in any form or manner. The art is definitely eye catching and impressive. Tim Hamilton has done an excellent job in that regard. My only qualm against the GN adaptation is that it is too dark. Agreed the source material is dark and deserves the treatment from the artist but I would have liked to see a little more color- maybe contrast the few pleasant scenes with the otherwise grim situations in the story. I see why the artist colored it the way he did and I am sure there may be a lot more readers who like this approach better.
All in all, definitely a buy from a F451 fan.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fahrenheit 451, the graphic novel August 28, 2009

By David Mcalpine

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I think all of Ray Bradbury's stories are difficult to capture in movies. I think most of them have bombed. It's a shame that a writer that captures the imagination and illustrates it so well can't be translated into movies (so far). However, after reading this graphic novel, I believe Tim Hamilton was able to capture the visual magic of Bradbury's best novel in pictures. My message to younger people who have never read 451 (the book), but are picking up this graphic novel for the first time, need to read the book! Although this graphic novel is brilliant and works wonderfully as a graphic novel, it is abridged from the book. Since the whole subject of 451 is about the value of a book and it's ideas, the graphic novel should never replace the book, only add to its color and life! Have fun leafing through the pages of this great graphic version of 451!