Connections between Brave New World and Aldous Huxley

Brave New World was inspired by the Utopian novels of H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (1905) and Men Like Gods (1923). Wells' hopeful vision of the future's possibilities gave Huxley the idea to begin writing a parody of the novel, which was Brave New World. Huxley wrote in a letter to Mrs. Arthur Goldsmith, an acquaintance, that he had "been having a little fun pulling the leg of H. G. Wells," but then he "got caught up in the excitement of his own ideas." Huxley tried to provide a frightening vision of the future. Huxley referred to Brave New World as a "negative utopia", influenced by Wells' own The Sleeper Awakes (dealing with subjects like corporate tyranny and behavioral conditioning) and the works of D. H. Lawrence.