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Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in Sanary-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, between May and August 1931. He set it in the year 632 After Ford, AD 2540, and opened it at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where babies are bottled, sorted into castes and trained to love their place; a drug called soma removes whatever feeling is left. He had begun, he said, by “pulling the leg of H. G. Wells”. In 1953 he took mescaline under a psychiatrist’s supervision and wrote The Doors of Perception (1954). On 22 November 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was shot, he died in Los Angeles after writing a request to his wife for “LSD, 100 μg, intramuscular”. The ten writers below share his two subjects: how a society can control people through comfort, and what a person might do to see past it.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Dystopia · Satire · Mysticism · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Aldous Huxley, start with Yevgeny Zamyatin, whose We (written 1920–21) imagined a perfectly regulated state a decade before Brave New World. George Orwell, whom Huxley taught at Eton, wrote the dystopia of fear to Huxley’s dystopia of pleasure, and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) argues that Huxley’s was the more accurate prediction. Further down are the mystic, the satirists and a philosopher who brings the argument up to date.
10 authors like Aldous Huxley
Where to start if you loved Aldous Huxley
If you loved Brave New World, read Yevgeny Zamyatin.
We: the glass city, the numbered citizens, and the dystopia before Huxley’s.
If you want the argument with Orwell, read Neil Postman.
Amusing Ourselves to Death: why Huxley’s future of pleasure looks more like ours.
If you loved The Doors of Perception, read Alan Watts.
The Way of Zen: Eastern religion for Western readers, by another Englishman in California.
If you liked early Huxley’s satire, read Evelyn Waugh.
Vile Bodies: the parties and the emptiness of 1920s London.
If you want more Aldous Huxley, read three books.
Crome Yellow (1921) for the satirist, Brave New World (1932) for the dystopia, and Island (1962) for the utopia he wrote at the end of his life.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Aldous Huxley
Who writes like Aldous Huxley?
Yevgeny Zamyatin, George Orwell and Neil Postman are the closest matches. Zamyatin’s We imagined a regulated state before Brave New World, Orwell wrote the dystopia of fear to Huxley’s dystopia of pleasure, and Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death argues that Huxley’s vision fits the modern world.
What should I read after Brave New World?
Zamyatin’s We and Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) are the classic companions. For a modern view, read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) or Byung-Chul Han’s Psychopolitics (2014).
Did Huxley copy Zamyatin’s We?
George Orwell believed Brave New World was partly derived from We. In a 1962 letter, Huxley said he had written his book long before he had heard of Zamyatin’s.
Is Aldous Huxley like George Orwell?
They are often read together, and Huxley taught Orwell French at Eton. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four imagines control by fear and surveillance; Huxley’s Brave New World imagines control by pleasure and conditioning.
Is there a new Aldous Huxley book?
No. Huxley died in 1963, and his last novel was Island (1962). The most recent major adaptation is Fred Fordham’s graphic novel of Brave New World, published in 2022.
Which Aldous Huxley book should I read first?
Brave New World (1932) is the usual starting point. Read The Doors of Perception (1954) if you are interested in his writing on mysticism and perception, and Island (1962) for his attempt at a good society.
Sources
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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