Brave New World

In Orwell's 1984, it is sadness and hate that are the themes of the book - what with never-ending wars, children ratting out their parents for perceived treason, and nothing being sacred. Sprinkled with a plot which is amazing on its own merit, the result is a spectacular novel which is spellbinding.
In extreme contrast comes Huxley with his magnum opus ‘Brave New World' - where happiness and satisfaction form the lingering themes of the book - the result is surprisingly still a dystopia.
The goal of pursuing happiness and satisfaction with Huxley's work, to the neglect of everything else, leads to a dystopia that functions on hypnopaedia (sleep conditioning so that no ‘impure thoughts' develop), meaningless entertainment (responding to conditioned stimuli rather than your own subjective tastes), meaningless promiscuity (in fact, people trying to practice monogamy are outcasts), and a meaningless existence (supply and demand are both manufactured, and solitude is actively discouraged). The addition of a good plot would have made it a deserving classic - right now, it looks like I just read a postgraduate dissertation of an aspiring anthropologist.
TL;DR - no less horrifying than Orwell's masterpiece, this is an extremely important read. For all the media screaming that our world is 1984, our world is much closer to Huxley's vision than we dare to think of.