Below is a list of some classic dystopian novels along with a few more contemporary selections to make you reflect and think “what if?”
1984George Orwell’s 1984
The gold standard in dystopian fiction and all too relevant today. Orwell crafts a hyper-collectivist world of constant surveillance and ever-shifting groupthink. Based on his view of the early Labor government’s rule after the end of the Second World War.
Animal FarmGeorge Orwell’s Animal Farm
An excellent book for introducing children to the evils of communism. The tale of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Stalinist witch hunts are told using farm animals. As good for teaching literary techniques, as it is history and values.
Brave New WorldAldous Huxley’s Brave New World
Huxley’s Brave New World offers a voluptuary, sex-controlled dystopia that may be familiar to denizens of the 21st Century. Can people be too comfortable? An important read for a time when we are learning more about the effects of comfort.
IslandAldous Huxley’s Island
Aldous Huxley wrote Island as the utopian counterpart to the dystopian Brave New World. In it Huxley explores a vision of a perfect world that is very much one of its time; the optimism of post-war Europe. Island sees man using science and the end of old taboos to forge the perfect world.
Read more Dystopian Societies: Best Fiction Novels on Dystopian Societies at Spread Great Ideas here: https://spreadgreatideas.org/recommended-books/best-dystopian-societies-fiction-novels/