One of the most important novels of the twentieth century is also witty, thrilling and uncannily prophetic - read it today
Aldous Huxley was born on 26 July 1894 near Godalming, Surrey. He began writing poetry and short stories in his early 20s, but it was his first novel, Crome Yellow (1921), which established his literary reputation. This was swiftly followed by Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925) and Point Counter Point (1928) – bright, brilliant satires in which Huxley wittily but ruthlessly passed judgement on the shortcomings of contemporary society. For most of the 1920s Huxley lived in Italy and an account of his experiences there can be found in Along the Road (1925). The great novels of ideas, including his most famous work Brave New World (published in 1932 this warned against the dehumanising aspects of scientific and material 'progress') and the pacifist novel Eyeless in Gaza (1936) were accompanied by a series of wise and brilliant essays, collected in volume form under titles such as Music at Night (1931) and Ends and Means (1937). In 1937, at the height of his fame, Huxley left Europe to live in California, working for a time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. As the West braced itself for war, Huxley came increasingly to believe that the key to solving the world's problems lay in changing the individual through mystical enlightenment. The exploration of the inner life through mysticism and hallucinogenic drugs was to dominate his work for the rest of his life. His beliefs found expression in both fiction (Time Must Have a Stop,1944, and Island, 1962) and non-fiction (The Perennial Philosophy, 1945; Grey Eminence, 1941; and the account of his first mescalin experience, The Doors of Perception, 1954. Huxley died in California on 22 November 1963.
Huxley's nightmare, set out in Brave New World, his great dystopian
novel, was that we would be undone by the things that delight
us
*Guardian*
The most prophetic book of the 20th century... If you have time for
just one book, this would be my top choice.
A brilliant tour de force, Brave New World may be read as a grave
warning of the pitfalls that await uncontrolled scientific advance.
Full of barbed wit and malice-spiked frankness. Provoking,
stimulating, shocking and dazzling
*Observer*
Such ingenious wit, derisive logic and swiftness of expression,
Huxley's resources of sardonic invention have never been more
brilliantly displayed
*The Times*
Aldous Huxley was uncannily prophetic, a more astute guide to the
future than any other 20th century novelist ... Nineteen
Eighty-Four has never really arrived, but Brave New World is around
us everywhere
Huxley's nightmare, set out in Brave New World, his great
dystopian novel, was that we would be undone by the things that
delight us * Guardian *
The most prophetic book of the 20th century... If you have time for
just one book, this would be my top choice.
A brilliant tour de force, Brave New World may be read as a
grave warning of the pitfalls that await uncontrolled scientific
advance. Full of barbed wit and malice-spiked frankness.
Provoking, stimulating, shocking and dazzling * Observer
*
Such ingenious wit, derisive logic and swiftness of
expression, Huxley's resources of sardonic invention have never
been more brilliantly displayed * The Times *
Aldous Huxley was uncannily prophetic, a more astute guide
to the future than any other 20th century novelist ... Nineteen
Eighty-Four has never really arrived, but Brave New
World is around us everywhere
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