Bernard eventually builds up the courage to invite Lenina on a week long trip to a "reservation" in New Mexico, where, sealed off from the rest of the world by electric fences, people still live the "old life", marrying, conceiving and birthing children, living in family units with knowledge of religion, passion, disease, old age and death. While there, they come across Linda and her eighteen year old son John. Linda originally came from the outside world, but becoming accidentally pregnant and then lost inside the reservation has been living there ever since. John's father happens to be the director of Bernard and Lenina's hatchery, and Bernard brings John and Linda back with him to London in a scheme to disgrace his boss, thus circumventing his transfer to Iceland, which had previously been threatened by the director on the grounds of Bernard's anti-social behaviour. John has been raised on pain and suffering, honour and virtue, god and self-sacrifice, (and the complete works of William Shakespeare) and at once finds the "brave new world" both intriguing and repulsive. John has fallen in love with Lenina and sets about to court her in the traditional manner. But Lenina likes John too and thus throws herself at him in the socially-accepted and characteristic manner of society, horrifying John. He slaps her, denounces her as a strumpet and reciting shakespearean chastity-whore speeches, flees from her presence. Meanwhile John's mother Linda has become sick from her excessive consumption of soma (coupled with her poor state of health). John rushes to be at her bed as she passes away at the park lane hospital for the dying, but when he exhibits signs of grief in front of a group of children brought into the hospital to be conditioned with positive experiences associated to death, John is forced to leave. In a fit of rage he makes a public spectacle by interrupting a group of workers from receiving their daily ration of soma and is arrested along with Bernard and Helmholtz who have rushed to his aid. Bernard and Helmholtz are labelled as socially-undesirables and exiled to an island of like-minded individuals, away from the rest of society. But John is not permitted to go with them or return to the reservation, on the grounds that he is an "nice experiment", and is promptly returned to mainstream society, where he seeks out the life of a hermit. John is hounded and tormented by curious sight-seers after he is witnessed undergoing self-flagellation and after being forced into a ritualistic orgy of sex and soma, hangs himself in despair.
"Brave New World" is considered one of the two great dystopian science fiction novels of the twentieth century, alongside Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell. It's an impressive novel for it's thoughtful (and somewhat accurate) prophesy of the future state of the world, particularly considering it was written in 1931. The book contains a fantastic blend of characters, particularly John and, the most unlikeable, Bernard. I guess I would have appreciated a bit more depth to Lenina's character; I just didn't really understand why she liked Bernard and John so much. There was such a rich use of visuals and smells in the writing, from the scent taps and sprays to the the rich, vulgar smells of the reservation (interestingly Huxley was partially blind; I wonder what effect this had on his perception of smell in his writing). John's passionate application of Shakespeare to his dialogue was fun but I wonder if one was raised as he was, could they really appreciate the meaning of everything he read without reading of knowing anything but Shakespeare (of course neglecting his mother's conditioning centre manual) ... he must have had some pretty good study guides to accompany the texts!
As for criticism of the novel, its a bit too suggestive that any future society that uses free-love, conditioning or developmental manipulation (i.e. eugenics) will be inherently horrible and insane. The way in which these elements of the brave new world are presented to the reader is deliberately negative: consider the nasty, violent conditioning techniques used to train babies to hate nature that leaves the reader with the impression that in fact they could result in long-lasting, sub-conscious psychological trauma (undermining the logic of the technique in the first place). Consider the use of Soma: not really such a perfect drug, it just leaves it's consumers in a happy stupor, a short-term solution to their problems (?? provides a interesting criticism <insert link> of the novel in this regard). Although, of course treating the book as a work of fiction (rather than prophesy) Huxley does a good job of creating horror from the insanity of the world state; particularly in Linda's death scene with the use of the surreal army of twins and their attitudes towards death, which adds a nice dramatic touch.
Its interesting to think that Huxley didn't take the analogy of the factory line further to consider that mechanical and robotic automation could have such a big effect on the lives of those in the the brave new world. The presence of mechanical automation kind of removes that requirement for a system of sub-class humans (i.e. gammas, deltas and epsilons), taking the edge off the requirements to make this sort of society feasible (consider Le Guin's technological anarchy in "The Dispossessed").
Overall, a really fantastic read, it's easy to see why this is considered a classic, being careful not to consider it too "prophetic".
