Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Fahrenheit 451

  • By: Ray Bradbury
  • Narrated by: Tim Robbins
  • Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (5,360 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Fahrenheit 451 cover art

Fahrenheit 451

By: Ray Bradbury
Narrated by: Tim Robbins
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Slaughterhouse-Five cover art
Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh cover art
Something Wicked This Way Comes cover art
Brave New World cover art
The Martian Chronicles cover art
The Cat's Pajamas cover art
Quicker Than the Eye cover art
A Graveyard for Lunatics cover art
The October Country cover art
Breakfast of Champions cover art
Dandelion Wine cover art
The Illustrated Man cover art
Keep the Aspidistra Flying cover art
The Hunger and Other Stories cover art
Perchance to Dream cover art
Invisible Man cover art

Editor reviews

Editors Select, October 2014 - I credit Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 as one of the books that sparked my love of reading, and now that I'm an avid listener, I'm excited to be able to experience the story anew with Academy Award-winner Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) narrating. Robbins' tone expertly mirrors the story's narrative – shifting effortlessly from somber and contemplative to suspenseful and terrifying. Each character, from the rebellious protagonist Guy Montag, to the enigmatic Clarisse McClellan, to the gruff Captain Beatty is distinct and realistic, making this frightening future seem all the more possible. Whether you enjoyed the book in a high school English class or never quite got around to it, every book lover should experience this poignant version of a dystopian classic. 

—Sam, Audible Editor

Summary

Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future, narrated here by Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television "family." But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television. When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.

©1951 Ray Bradbury (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Bradbury's iconic novel about the dangers of complacency and the value of curiosity gains a solid new voice with this audio performance. Tim Robbins puts his acting prowess to use here, creating superb dialogue and striding confidently through powerful speeches that celebrate books and warn against the lure of technology. Protagonist Montag burns with all the earnestness of a man eager for change; Faber's aged scholar simmers with cautious hope; Mildred's vacuous presence echoes emptily. Robbins provides the theatrical with the expected confidence, but he also makes good use of quiet in this production. He makes Bradbury's words even more powerful by remembering to pause at opportune moments to let them sink in." (AudioFile)

More from the same

What listeners say about Fahrenheit 451

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2,908
  • 4 Stars
    1,564
  • 3 Stars
    662
  • 2 Stars
    159
  • 1 Stars
    67
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    3,189
  • 4 Stars
    1,057
  • 3 Stars
    390
  • 2 Stars
    110
  • 1 Stars
    61
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    2,560
  • 4 Stars
    1,367
  • 3 Stars
    631
  • 2 Stars
    175
  • 1 Stars
    69

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Mr
  • 27-02-17

Fantastic story, worth getting into...

Any additional comments?

The story is a classic, but the narration takes some getting into. The voice acting for the characters is great throughout, but the narration in the early scenes feels a little rushed and, at times, a little clunky. It gets better as you go through the book, and there are some points in which Tim Robbins really captures the frustration and drama of the world in which the protagonist lives. By halfway, the narrating style had me on the edge of my seat, so well worth persevering with if you find it poor at the start. As i say, the story itself is great. A really fantastic tale and a great overall audiobook.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

43 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Glimpse of the future?

Really thought provoking book. Took a while to get into and finished all too soon. Can't believe it was written in the 50's - must have had a crystal ball.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

grasping till the end

The start was a bit difficult to digest but then I've grown into it and now I simply love it. There are some passages which have a clear resonance with our modern world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fahrenheit 451

Compulsive listening. A world without books would be a frightening thought. Knowledge of for everyone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb

I loved every single word and enjoyed every second listening to this book. This will be one of the very few books I will listen to again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Essential listening

I tried reading this book at school (mainly because it was quite thin) and couldn't get past the first few pages. The same was true when I downloaded the audiobook; the first 15 minutes were quite difficult to appreciate. However, after that I was completely hooked. This is such an important book because, even though we may not be burning books at the moment, we might as well be; far too few people - especially amongst the young - are interested in literature at all. This book frames the whole issue in a thrilling story which grips.

The narrator did an excellent job, really bringing the characters to life, but I deducted him one star for putting extra commas in long sentences which aren't actually there. Don't worry about that, though, download this very important book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great thought provoking story

Excellent narration and well worth a listen. A brilliant story and one we hope will not be our reality.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Hyped literature

I like books that were written a long time ago about the future,. It’s then enjoyable to look at them against the current climate.

However, this just did not have the impact it should have had for me.....for instance I loved Brave new world by Aldous Huxley.

I am just an amateur very keen book lady and not a critic when it comes to the literary world, but this just did not excite me despite the amazing reviews.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not for me

Let me start by saying I really wanted to like this book. It got rave reviews, it was that bit different, and it was narrated by a famous actor. So far so good. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.
I found the writing to be very inaccessible. It tried to be so different that it came across as pompous.
The storyline was so poorly developed I don’t know where to start. It has that many gaps and unexplored issues in it, I wonder whether even the author got bored.
The characters are barely developed, including I would say the main protagonist.
I don’t necessarily mind an open ending, but this is so open ended it had me checking Audible to make sure I wasn’t missing a chapter.
Tim Robbins is, I’m sure, a great actor; but he really struggles with this narration. At numerous points during the book, he has to repeat a word or a phrase 10 or more times. There are only so many different intonations you can give to a word, before it sound like reading out loud a particularly bizarre shopping list.
Well at least I tried it and persevered to the end, but I will avoid this author in the future.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it !!!

I really loved this book and the narration was amazing. I'd recommend it to anyone. and it's so short it's not a big commitment.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful