Original artwork, not a still
Brave New World · 1932
A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The word 'only' does a lot here: thirty-four floors is a modest building in this world, and the sentence speaks in the flat voice of a surveyor's report. There is no menace, only a grey and ordinary place where people are manufactured, and that deadpan is exactly the unease readers remember. It is a first line that sets up the whole society before a single character speaks.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Brave New WorldShow the scene
The opening sentence of Brave New World (1932), a fragment rather than a full sentence. It describes the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, and the rest of the sentence goes on to give the name over the main entrance and the World State's motto on a shield. Chapter 1 then follows the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning as he leads students through the building, explaining how a single egg can be made to bud into up to ninety-six embryos. Huxley wrote the novel in 1931 and published it the next year.
Sources (3)
- Wikiquote: Opening linesentry for Brave New World by Aldous HuxleyReference checked
- Wikiquote: Brave New Worldsection Chapter 1Reference checked
- Wikipedia: Brave New Worldlead; BackgroundReference checked
Context reviewed
