the whole story to read in 1 minute flat with “Je bouquine”

What happens at 451 degrees Fahrenheit? The paper burns… and the books burn in the famous dystopia imagined by the American writer Ray Bradbury, in 1953. This breathtaking anticipation novel alerts us to the entertainment society and the screens which distract us from books, from the real world, and deprive us of memory. To our teenagers, the magazine I read offers an ultra-short version to awaken their taste for reading and critical thinking.

Fahrenheit 451, “Classic without the hassle” version for 12-15 year olds

Montag is a firefighter, and he loves his job: burning books. One evening, returning happily from his barracks, he meets Clarisse. She is seventeen years old and seems a little crazy: she claims that before, firefighters put out fires! When she says that in the morning, dew settles on the grass, Montag gets angry. But when she asks him if he is happy, he feels uneasy. Additionally, at home, his wife Mildred attempted suicide.

The emergency department arrives, washes his stomach and brain. In the morning, finding her with amnesia and obsessed with her screen walls, Montag becomes depressed..

Clarisse disappears shortly after. But his ideas now germinate in Montag’s mind. During a house fire, he steals a book. When he realizes that neither Mildred nor he remember their first meeting, we dare say, he is disgusted. The next day, he refuses to go to work. Beatty, his boss, visits him and gives him a fiery speech: humans don’t like to think! It complicates their lives, and it makes them sad! What they want is to entertain themselves with movies and parties! Thus, by burning books, firefighters ensure the happiness of humanity!

Montag is not convinced. The proof, he begins to read on the sly. With the help of Faber (a guy who earlier seemed too erudite to be honest), he even hatches a plan to change the world. Alas, one evening, Beatty traps Montag. He forces her to burn a house and all the books it contains: hers.

It’s too much for Montag. He cracks. He kills Beatty and flees. While bombers roar in the sky, a bloodhound – a deadly robot with a super-Labrador sense of smell – is released into the streets. His prey: Montag. But he narrowly escapes: he throws himself into a river, the waters of which hide him from the monster’s nose, as well as from the eyes of humans.

Far from the city, Montag meets wandering intellectuals. These are “human-books” : everyone knows the content of a book by heart. Finally, Montag finds his place! It will be one of them, taken from the Bible: the book of Ecclesiastes! With that, a blitzkrieg breaks out, the town is wiped off the map and, after all his adventures, Montag is ready to rebuild a better world!

What’s the message?

The quote: “Do you now see where the hatred and fear of books comes from? They show the pores on the face of life…”

“The classic without the hassle: Fahrenheit 451”, I read n°491, January 2025. Text: Jérôme Blanchart. Illustrations: Marion Puech.