Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopic America where Guy Montag is "fireman"--a burner of books for an oppressive regime. For many years, books were condensed and summarized due to shortening attention spans, and were finally banned. Montag begins to secretly steal books from his work and read them. After his wife snitches on him, he is forced to burn his house and run away with other readers. After the city is destroyed in a nuclear war, Montag and his group return to the city to build anew.
In The Veldt, George and Lydia Hadley discover that their children's futuristic, telepathic, three-dimensional nursery walls are a little more real than they should be. The room, which displays whatever the children desire, has been showing nothing but African veldt and murderous lions. This short story examines the ideas of an overly mechanized society and the horrors that can lurk in children's psyches.
Vanity Fair is the story of Becky Sharp, a clever and ambitious young woman, and her friend Amelia Sedley who is more pliable and likable. The two women go through their lives in the climate of England during the Napoleonic Wars, enduring difficult marriages, relationships, the perils of motherhood, and the trials of womanhood during the oppressive period. The novel presents the passive Amelia as an admirable figure while the acid-tongued and manipulative Becky is derided.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is a collection of short stories dealing with themes of love, both romantic and platonic, and communication. The stories present different relationships as frame devices to discuss how culture handles the idea of loving another human being. The tone of the stories varies significantly, with some handling grieving, loss, and jealousy while others explore healthy and beneficial relationships. The stories have been widely anthologized and adapted in film.