Fahreinheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (American, 1953)

Summary:
The story begins with Guy Montag, a fireman who has to burn any belongings of the traitors -people who secretly have books- and the books. One night while heading back home, he encounters a girl named Clarisse McCellan, his new neighbor, which makes him wonder about his life and whether he is happy or not. When he arrives home, he finds Mildred, his wife, about to die of an overdose. Quickly, the ambulance arrives and saves Mildred; the next morning she acts as if nothing happened.
 The following days, the interaction between Guy and Clarisse is more frequent, however, one day she just disappears. Guy is worried and senses that something is wrong. 
 One day, in one of their calls, before he starts to burn everything, Guy steals a book, and the owner, knowing that she was going to die either way, sets herself on fire. Montag returns home and hides the book beneath his pillow, and asks Mildred if she knows anything about Clarisse and her family, then she tells him that she is dead and the rest moved out. When they go to bed, he can't sleep since he feels guilt towards Clarisse and is afraid of what could happen if someone discovers that he has a book. 
 The following morning, Guy is not in the mood to go to work since the recent events have seriously affected him, Mildred panics since she fears she would lose everything she has. While they are arguing, Guy's boss arrives to see how he is doing, feeling his worries, Beatty begins to tell him how the firemen were originated and the books began to be forbidden. Mildred enters the room to help Guy and at that moment she feels the book behind Guy. Beatty leaves, not without warning him that previously there had been firemen who had stolen a book out of curiosity, but they have twenty four hours to burn them before they are considered traitors. 
 Once Beatty has left, Montag confesses to Mildred that he not only has one book but a collection that is hidden in the air duct. Mildred wants to burn them immediately, but Guy stops her and convinces her to read them so they can discover what is the big fuss about them. Mildred does not want to be part of it and while they are arguing, Mildred's friend interrupts them.
 Montag then remembers that not so long ago, he met a man in a park that used to be a teacher but also used to have a book and Montag opted to not take him to the fireman; his name is Faber. Montag then establishes contact with him and says he suspects to have the last copy of the bible. Now, Faber is Montag's ally. 
 Back home, Montag finds Mildred's friends desperated by his detachment decides to read them a poem. Mildred and Faber- which was speaking to him through a device- tell him to burn the book so they cannot be suspects. Mildred's friends leave and she locks herself in the bathroom trying to commit suicide again. 
 The following day, Montag goes to work with another book that was not the one he stole, everything seems normal, but the alarms began to ring and when they arrive at the place, it turns out to be Montag's home. Beatty orders Montag to set fire to his home since he knows that Montag has more books hidden somewhere, Montag was already a suspect since Mildred´s friend had called the authorities earlier that day. Montag is about to do what he was ordered when Beatty finds out about the device in his ear and threatens him to go after his ally. Montag decides then to burn him alive. Montag runs away, but the rest of the security goes after him. Montag manages to get to Faber's place. Faber tells him that his best option is to run to the forest and try to find the other bookworms, meanwhile the persecution is streamed on tv. Montag runs away again and falls in the river, the river takes him to the forest and is saved by the exiled. He meets Granges, their leader and tells him that they know him and that in short, he will stop exiting for the rest of the world. In a small tv, it is shown how supposedly Montag is captured and killed. Then Granger asks Montag what he can give to the others, Montag is confused until Granger explains that everyone in there has memorized at least a part of a book, then Montag says that he knows the bible. While they are talking about their new situation, not far away they see a plane approaching releasing atomic bombs to the city. The city is destroyed and now they have to face that they have to rebuild society.

Another summary:
We follow this story from the point of view of Montag, a fireman whose job in the system in which he lives and works is to burn houses and destroy the books that are banned by the government. He seems to enjoy his work, until one night when he gets back home he meets his new neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, a strange young woman who raises odd conversation topics and makes him think about whether he is really happy. He realizes that he is not. He confirms this when he arrives home and sees that his wife, Mildred, has swallowed an entire bottle of sleeping pills. Montag constantly encounters Clarisse, who continues to have strange behaviors to which he is not accustomed, which leads him to question the way he sees things, people and life; she also arouses his interest and makes him feel that someone cares about him. But one day, Clarisse simply disappears, leaving Montag baffled. When he later asks his wife if she knows anything about her and she tells him that her family moved after she was run over and probably dead, he is even more puzzled. While burning a house, he decides to steal a book; but the owner stoically chooses to burn with her house after they destroy all her books. This has great influence on Montag, who the next day wakes up sick and begins to question himself whether he should continue working as a fireman. He expresses this uncertainty to his wife and she quickly disregards it. The head of Montag's department, Captain Beatty, visits him on the pretext of seeing how he is doing, and takes the opportunity to tell him about the importance of their work for a society in which entertainment is found in audiovisual media; since books only have outdated and meaningless content, the work of firemen was modified for social welfare: in order to keep the world happy, it is necessary to burn books that would only represent an obstacle for that happiness. Beatty also reminds him that in case a fireman steals a book, he must get rid of it as soon as possible or else his house will be burned, which makes Montag think that he knows what he did. After this short visit, Montag reveals to his wife that he secretly keeps a collection of books in their house; she is frightened and wants to destroy them as soon as possible, but he proposes to read them together to find out if those books are as bad as Beatty said, so they begin to read. Although Mildred seems to be receptive, she struggles to accept the idea of ​​books as a way to achieve freedom instead of viewing them as something negative, as the government claims. Montag soon realizes that his wife is not someone he can count on regarding this, so he goes to a former English professor called Faber and asks him for help in understanding the books he reads. Faber gives him an audio-capsule for them to be able to communicate even when separated, and then he explains what they need to do. When Montag gets back home, he meets two friends of his wife and makes the mistake of taking out a book and read poetry to them; Faber, who is listening through the headset, orders him to burn the book. The friends are upset and disgusted and Mildred even tries to commit suicide after the incident. Montag hides his books and goes to the fire station to give Beatty a book instead of the one he stole. After he does and the book is get rid of, the fire alarm sounds, and the firemen start to get ready. Montag is surprised when he realizes that the place to where they are appointed is actually his house. Beatty informs Montag that his wife and her friends denounced him after what he did, so he has to burn his house just as he has done with others; Montag does what he is asked. Beatty tells him that when he finishes he will be under arrest and that he knows about his relationship with Faber, so the professor will also be arrested. Montag gets angry and kills him with the flamethrower. Then he manages to escape after fooling his coworkers and the Mechanical Hound, and goes in search of Faber. On the way, he hears on the radio that war has been declared. When he arrives at the former professor's house he recommends him to go by the river to the hobo camps and look for old Harvard graduates that hide there. Montag finds the exiles that Faber told him about, including his leader, Granger, who tells him not to worry about the authorities looking for him, because they are probably going to spread the news that they have found him and come up with an end that meets the audience's expectations; and that is exactly what happens. Later, Granger explains that each of the ones that hide there, has memorized a book to help rebuild history in case society is destroyed; they hope to be useful for the world when the war ends so they ask him what he can offer them and Montag remembers memorizing part of the Book of Ecclesiastes. While Montag talks with Granger, he thinks about his wife and feels sorry for her, and together they watch the war begin and end in a fraction of a second with the bombing of the city. All he can do is hope that MIldred and Faber are well. He remembers that Clarisse is already dead and finally remembers the place where he met his wife. When everything ends, they assume that probably everyone in the city was killed and that maybe many people died in the entire country. It seems that they are the only survivors, Granger explains to them the story of the phoenix and its process of life, death and rebirth, which is something similar to the way of life of the human being, with the exception that the human beings can remember their mistakes and act on it. Granger's words influence the other exiles and decide to go to the city together to rebuild what remains.

Another summary:
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job consists in burning books. In this alternate universe humanity has left behind the need for books and knowledge in favor of empty and meaningless happiness. Books lead to thinking, and thinking leads to doubts, which means woe, and therefore, unhappiness, so they must be eliminated. One day while walking home from work, Montag meets a new neighbor, a girl called Clarisse. She is full or energy, questions, and odd pieces of knowledge. When he gets home, he discovers his wife has ingested a whole batch of pills. He calls for help and a two men come into his house to pump his wife’s stomach clean and change her blood. As days go by, Montag feels more and more compelled to listen to his new neighbor. This opens his mind to thoughts he didn’t previously have; he becomes curious. One day Clarisse disappears without a trace. Until then he had had a few doubts, but when a woman chooses to burn with her whole library rather than save herself, he really starts questioning his work. He steals a book from the woman’s library which, once home, he hides under his pillow. He asks his wife about Clarisse and she gives him the news that she died. He is really shaken by this news, which adds to his uneasiness that was awakened by the woman who died with her books. The next morning, he wakes up sick. His wife is too distracted to notice his condition for she was watching her parlor “family”, which is a sort of program that is played on the wall screens in their living room,. It is through these screens that everybody consumes entertainment. While sick in bed, Montag’s captain, a man called Beatty, seems to sense Montag’s uneasiness and comes to his house to see how he is doing. Montag tries to stay calm as Beatty explains to him how is it that society came to shun books and knowledge. The captain explains how as years passed, people began consuming faster entertainment and books were digested to the point where they were barely more than a few lines in the newspaper. When technology advanced enough to fireproof homes, the traditional job of firemen shifted to adapt to a new need, burning the books that only brought unhappiness by making people aware of the reality of the world. Beatty knows that Montag has a book and tries to ease him by telling him that it is okay as long is he burns it within 24 hours. Once Beatty leaves, Montag reveals to his wife a whole stash of books he has hidden. They go over them, but his wife does not feel good about it and insists on burning them. Montag convinces her to keep them just a little bit longer, at least until they have decided if they hold any value or not. He gets in an argument with his wife which is interrupted by a call. Montag leaves his house looking for a man he met a few years back called Faber who used to be a professor. Faber thinks Montag is perhaps going to burn down his house but soon realizes that that is not the case. Montag wants to bring down the entire system and asks the help of Faber, who reluctantly agrees. Faber shares with the fireman an invention of his, which is a communicator with which they will keep in contact at all times. Once back home, Montag finds his wife with a few friends watching the parlor wall screens. He is frustrated by their inane talk and attempts to read poetry to them. It doesn’t go well for anybody and the women leave. He leaves, very frustrated, for work where the captain seems to be increasingly suspicious of him. Montag turns in a random book from his collection to be burnt. Later, they receive a call and the firemen get to work. It turns out the call received came in for Montag’s house which he has to burn all on his own. He does so, he burns more than just the books, he takes great care in burning the whole thing down. Beatty discovers the communicator that Montag is wearing in his ear and, after threatening to track down whoever is on the other side, Montag burns him alive. This begins a persecution. Montag runs to Faber’s house where they make plans to eventually find each other. The fireman runs out to the outskirts of town and jumps into a river. Everybody in town has been following the chase on their screens. After floating for a while, Montag gets to shore, where a few old professors take him in. The town is struck by a bomb that kills everybody. The next morning the men go back to town in hopes of rebuilding it.

World view: The world portrayed in the story is an hypothetical society which seems to be worse than the one the author lives in.
Future projections: It’s a fearful prediction of the possible outcomes of today’s actions. Thus, it warns us against the terrible disasters (e.g. overpopulation, war, climate change) which would follow if there is no change in direction.
Ideology:  It’s either the polarization of an ideology or an absurdist exaggeration of unfortunate or odd circumstances
Characters, plot and writing style: The story features a rebellion against the adverse circumstances (revolutionaries may exploit newer technologies for these ends).
Classification: Non-dystopia