Aldous Huxley is best known for his novels Brave New World, Antic Hay, and Point Counter Point, and essays. James Sexton teaches English at Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia.
Aldous Huxley's letters represent a valuable contribution to
literary history-and an entertaining one. They reflect his high
seriousness, and the extraordinary range of his cultural interests;
at the same time they abound in witty gossip and shrewdly observed
social detail. They also reveal many unexpected aspects of his
personality and his private life. The Huxley who emerges from these
pages is both formidable and very human. He can sometimes be
arrogant or wrong-headed, too-but that doesn't make him any less
readable.
*John Gross*
A fascinating and revelatory glimpse into the mental engine room of
one of the twentieth-century's most commanding men of letters.
Huxley knew everybody, and everybody knew him: these letters
provide a vital record of an extraordinary moment in Europe's
history as well as a portrait of an extraordinary man. A volume as
entertaining as it is illuminating.
*Roger Kimball*
These newly published letters of Aldous Huxley are like the
discovery of buried treasure. It is as if some leading figure from
the Age of Enlightenment had survived into the present. Expressing
himself so naturally and often wittily in these letters, he sets a
lasting example of intelligence and humanity.
*David Pryce Jones*
His reading was immense, his taste was impeccable, and his ear
acute...His place in English literature is unique and is certainly
assured.
*T. S. Eliot*
Huxley was among the few writers who played with ideas so freely,
so gaily, with such virtuosity, that the responsive reader was
dazzled and excited.
*Isaiah Berlin*
"An illuminating work.... Sexton helps reveal Huxley more fully
than ever before."
*Publishers Weekly*
A book of letters, many previously unpublished, reinforces the
impression that Aldous Huxley was attracted to eccentric ideas ...
ENGROSSING.
*The New York Times*
Main pleasures here derive from correspondence with two women, one
of whom Huxley shared as a lover with his wife.
*The New York Times*
Brings a new perspective on the personal and intellectual life of a
giant of modern English prose.
*Sarasota Herald-Tribune*
Remarkable scope...its hundreds of never-before-published letters
recommend it for large academic libraries.
*Library Journal*
Letters extend one’s sense of Huxley’s ubiquitous presence in
20th-century intellectual society....Attractive collection
represents diligent research....Recommended.
*CHOICE*
A powerful gathering of his personal and intellectual life in
letters-most of them published for the first time.
*Midwest Book Review*
We see Huxley's full range: husband, traveler, lover, aesthete, and
scathing social commentator....Sexton has done an invaluable
service.
*The New Criterion*
There are wonderful things in these letters: dazzling historical,
literary-critical and etymological excursions; very funny gossip;
reflections on Huxley's writing…and on his increasingly religious
reading and sympathies.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Sexton's attractive collection represents diligent research in
dozens of libraries, and his useful introduction places the letters
in the context of Huxley's life and friendships.
*CHOICE*
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