Masks by Ray Bradbury – Review

Masks by Ray Bradbury

Fascinated by carved masks (of which he had assembled a remarkable collection) and intrigued by the concept of masks as a symbol of the way people conceal their true nature and their deepest feelings when facing, day in day out, the cruelty of the world they are living in, Bradbury conceived and tried to write a novel in the period between 1945 and 1950. In order to complete that novel, tentatively entitled The Masks, Bradbury also applied (unsuccessfully) for a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949. In the author’s words, the outline of the work was going to reveal how “people shape their personalities not to their hearts’ desire, but to the expectancies of their friends and the demands of business and society.”

The SF Site Featured Review: Masks.