Which dystopian novel features the pleasure drug 'soma'?

The dystopian novel featuring the pleasure drug “soma” is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Published in 1932, the novel imagines a technologically managed World State where citizens are conditioned from birth and social stability depends on eliminating discomfort. Soma is distributed as a government-approved drug that produces calm, pleasure, and temporary escape from unpleasant feelings. Huxley presents it as a substitute for religion, alcohol, and private emotional struggle.

The drug’s name comes from soma, a sacred drink described in ancient Hindu texts. Huxley encountered ideas about Indian culture during travels in the 1920s, although the novel’s soma is a fictional invention rather than a direct recreation of the historical substance. In the story, different doses provide different degrees of escape, and excessive use contributes to Linda’s death.

A common mix-up is confusing Huxley’s soma with Orwell’s “victory gin” in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both novels depict substances within authoritarian societies, but soma is associated with cheerful compliance rather than grim deprivation.