Cirrus@Austlit

'In the early 1930s, a widely travelled author, who had rubbed shoulders with the Bloomsbury set in London, decided to try something new. His reputation had been built on witty realistic novels that poked fun at current mores. Now in his thirties, he was ready to explore the darker realm of dystopian fiction. The result was a tale set in a fanciful locale but designed to raise the alarm about pressing contemporary political and cultural issues. It included a description of an imaginary bliss-inducing substance, which rendered members of a population dangerously docile.'  (Introduction)