Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Mortal Coils

Rate this book
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), the world-famous author of BRAVE NEW WORLD, was one of the great literary visionaries of the 20th century. The grandson of Thomas H, Huxley (Darwin's famous defender), he was born in England and educated at Eton and Oxford. He traveled widely in his youth and lived in Italy for a while in the 1920s. He began his literary career with poetry and critical essays, then turned to novels. Having been born just too late to participate in World War I, he was able, in his early works, such as CROME YELLOW (1921), ANTIC HAY (1923), THOSE BARREN LEAVES (1925), and POINT COUNTER POINT (1928), to perfectly capture a sense of purposeless aftermath which resonated strongly in British society at the time. A satirical strain already evident manifested itself spectacularly in BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932), after which much of his work began to show a fantastic or speculative cast, including AFTER MANY A SUMMER DIES THE SWAN (about immortality, 1939), TIMES MUST HAVE A STOP (1944), and APE AND ESSENCE (a dystopia, 1948). ISLAND, his last work, published in 1962, is a utopia. Late in life he developed an increasing disdain for Western society and an interest in Eastern mysticism and in the possibilities of psychedelic drugs, which he described in THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION (1954). MORTAL COILS is a short-story collection from Huxley's early period, including one of his most popular stories, "The Gioconda Smile."

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 16, 1920

Loading interface...
Loading interface...

About the author

Aldous Huxley

1,042 books13k followers
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
62 (15%)
4 stars
126 (30%)
3 stars
160 (39%)
2 stars
50 (12%)
1 star
10 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
Profile Image for Vit Babenco.
1,654 reviews4,996 followers
November 7, 2022
“For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil…” Hamlet : William Shakespeare
Aldous Huxley was a master of subtle irony. But he was capable to make his irony so exquisite and venomous that he could kill with a single phrase.
Photographs of Greek statuary, photographs of the Roman Forum, coloured prints of Italian masterpieces, all very safe and well known. Poor, dear Janet, what a prig what an intellectual snob! Her real taste was illustrated in that water-colour by the pavement artist, the one she had paid half a crown for (and thirty-five shillings for the frame). How often he had heard her tell the story, how often expatiate on the beauties of that skilful imitation of an oleograph! “A real Artist in the streets,” and you could hear the capital A in Artist as she spoke the words. She made you feel that part of his glory had entered into Janet Spence when she tendered him that halfcrown for the copy of the oleograph. She was implying a compliment to her own taste and penetration. A genuine Old Master for half a crown. Poor, dear Janet!

Mortal Coils is a collection of five fine sarcastic stories about the commotion and petty vanity of living.
We all come to the vanity fair to have some fun but we are forced to take things as they come.
Profile Image for B0nnie.
136 reviews49 followers
September 30, 2012
Huxley is a writer who knows acid, and these five short stories have it abundantly. I have rated them out of 5 µg's of acid. This is not a measure of merit...and it's the wrong kind of acid but...

The Gioconda Smile (µg µg µg) - heavy with irony, and later made into a movie, Huxley the screenwriter.
description


Huxley is hilarious in his descriptions:
What a queer face she had! That small mouth pursed forward by the Gioconda expression into a little snout with a round hole in the middle as though for whistling—it was like a penholder seen from the front. Above the mouth a well-shaped nose, finely aquiline. Eyes large, lustrous, and dark, with the largeness, lustre, and darkness that seems to invite sties and an occasional blood-shot suffusion. They were fine eyes, but unchangingly grave. The penholder might do its Gioconda trick, but the eyes never altered in their earnestness. Above them, a pair of boldly arched, heavily pencilled black eyebrows lent a surprising air of power, as of a Roman matron, to the upper portion of the face. Her hair was dark and equally Roman; Agrippina from the brows upward.

Permutations Among the Nightingales (µg µg) - a play, could be milked for laughs on stage.
PAUL (suddenly grave). Not of that description. But I will tell you a story of another kind, a true story, a tragic story.
SIMONE. Did I ever tell you how I saw a woman run over by a train? Cut to pieces, literally, to pieces. So disagreeable. I'll tell you later. But now, what about your story?

The Tillotson Banquet (µg) - The best story in this collection, made me all teary-eyed.
Ah, Mr. Spode, my luck is extraordinary. I believe in it, I trust in it. And after all, what is luck? Simply another name for Providence, in spite of the Origin of Species and the rest of it. How right the Laureate was when he said that there was more faith in honest doubt, believe me, than in all the ... er, the ... er ... well, you know. I regard you, Mr. Spode, as the emissary of Providence. Your coming marked a turning-point in my life, and the beginning, for me, of happier days. Do you know, one of the first things I shall do when my fortunes are restored will be to buy a hedgehog."

Green Tunnels (µg µg µg) - A great ending. Funny and a swift kick.
She turned round with a sudden start. There, in the shadows behind her.... No, of course there was nothing.
It was that awful picture in a magazine she had looked at, so many years ago, when she was a child. There was a lady sitting at her dressing-table, doing her hair in front of the glass; and a huge, hairy black monkey creeping up behind her. She always got the creeps when she looked at herself in a mirror. It was very silly. But still.

Nuns at Luncheon (µg µg µg µg µg) - Huxley is a big meanie.
It was rather a relief for Melpomene when Aunt Bertha shuffled off, in the summer of 1911, this mortal coil. She was one of those indispensables of whom one makes the discovery, when they are gone, that one can get on quite as well without them. Poor Aunt Bertha!

Huxley
Free ebook at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39378


Profile Image for Classic reverie.
1,726 reviews
October 4, 2018
After reading Huxley's Crome Yellow, "Mortal Coils" followed in my Kindle edition. If interested look up my Huxley shelf to see that edition which has my highlights there.

I had mentioned this in my review of "Crome Yellow" and it applies to these short stories also. After reading "Mortal Coils" and "Crome Yellow" I get more of a sense what kind of writer, he was and his vast ability to tap into the human being with all its pathos, goodness, evilness and yes, self centeredness. There are many degrees of this in humans which vary from person to person but there is always some amount of selfishness, even when we are around people it is there. It doesn't mean we care nothing for others but it is natural to a point and deviations can be quite unhealthy. In these stories, it is evident and some have more of this extreme compared to other characters. So Huxley's characters seem so real yet with the exaggeration of some. In thinking about who he reminds me of it is Irene Nemirovsky because her characters seem to show there bare self at times.


That being said there are 5 short stories here.

"Mortal coil is a poetic term for the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned. To "shuffle off this mortal coil" is to die, as in the "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Shakespeare's Hamlet." Wikipedia



1) The Gioconda Smile- This would have been perfect for OTR (old time radio) The Whistler or Suspense. Mr. Hutton is not a faithful to his invalid wife. He is kind of a complex character for reasons going into this would tip the story of his women and his wife.

2) Permutations Among the Nightingales - A Play - An poet loves but is too shy, a rake looks for what will make him profit and a too emotional man are staying at the same hotel. There are misunderstanding and naive folly.


3) The Tillotson Banquet- A self centered art collector finds an old 97 year old once famous artist and a banquet is given. I found this so sad on many levels, yet also uplifting in a sense. After having trouble with my eyesight this year, I can relate to this half blind old man. It shows a perseverance in dealing with that though being an artist and so many obstacles in life.


4) Green Tunnels- A young girl who travels with her father overseas is bored and dreams of a life different.


5) Nuns at Luncheon- This extremely sad story of a nun in Germany told by a female reporter to her male counterpart. There is nothing but sadness here and the callous talking of this is more tragic.


I loved all these sad, melancholy stories which had their moral in a sense. It is not all "Mortal Coils" for all but it seems to be in their feelings what happened to them. I love 💕 Huxley and will read him again in the future.
Profile Image for Dee.
403 reviews129 followers
December 5, 2024
This is my first read of anything by Huxley and for some reason I was expecting something more hard hitting. I think it's because he is best known for the novel Brave New World. With this being an uncomfortable, future fantasy style I had no idea that Huxley's other work would be so sophisticated, slightly humorous or witty. I enjoyed one or two of the stories within this but I found it a little too slow paced for me. I lost interest in the story's sadly. I would definitely look into reading his other work as I think this one just didn't work for me. I still have to get around to reading Brave New World!! Terrible I know...
Profile Image for George.
2,876 reviews
November 24, 2022
3.5 stars. Five well written short stories. The descriptions of the characters and use of satire are very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed ‘The Gioconda Smile’, which is about a rich, womanising man, who thinks highly of himself. His wife died in questionable circumstances.

This book was first published in 1921.
Profile Image for Dane Cobain.
Author 19 books323 followers
April 30, 2020
This little Penguin is a collection of five of Aldous Huxley’s short stories, and that made it a fascinating read for me because I’ve only ever read his iconic non-fiction before. It turns out that he’s just as good at writing fiction as he is as writing non-fiction.

What’s interesting here is that it’s not just short stories. In fact, the second piece in here is a short play, and I actually think that was my favourite of the lot. But honestly, all of the pieces here were worth reading, and I have to say I’m excited to read more of Huxley’s work, especially if it comes in these stunning Penguin editions.

This is definitely one I’d recommend, partly because it’s so easy to get through.
Profile Image for John Frankham.
677 reviews13 followers
November 28, 2017
Brilliantly written, sad, acid, and ironic little stories about the human condition.

'MORTAL COILS is a short-story collection from Huxley's early period, including one of his most popular stories, "The Gioconda Smile." '
Profile Image for Jakub Sládek.
39 reviews9 followers
September 28, 2023
“Most of one’s life,” Mr. Topes went on, “is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking. Your father and I, we collect pictures and read about the dead. Other people achieve the same results by drinking, or breeding rabbits, or doing amateur carpentry. Anything rather than think calmly about the important things.”
Profile Image for Ad Astra.
601 reviews3 followers
May 21, 2015
I really enjoy Aldous Huxley. His literature takes me a while to piece together, because his descriptions and language don't read like modern text. Some of these stories have a very Lovecraftian vibe to them, which seems appropriate. These stories are pretty far removed from his Brave New World feel. I'd recommend this if you like Huxley in general, but beyond that I'm not sure what you'd get out of it.
556 reviews1 follower
March 18, 2024
I have been on a bit of an Aldous Huxley tear lately, and this collection of novellas and short stories was narrated by Simon Vance who would make classified ads worth listening to, so how could I resist?

The first story, The Giaconda Smile, is apparently one of his most popular short works and seems to have been meant as an Agatha Christie sort of tale. It is very well done and reminds me of The Devils of Loudon, also by Huxley, in that a man with many flaws is accused and convicted of a crime that he had nothing to do with. Huxley tries to follow that classic short story formula of an unexpected twist at the end, but even I, who never knows that it was the butler in the pantry with the carving knife, saw this one coming. I saw one review that said it would have been perfect for an old time radio broadcast and that is apt. Pretty good, but not as good as Agatha.

The second story is a play, Permutations Among the Nightingales, a silly play of Brits and Yanks in Italy, with perfidy on the part of the Italians and ignorance and naivete among the Anglo Saxons. Perhaps it would work on the stage, because it is funny, but it feels contrived and pretty shallow.

The third story puzzles me, as it tells of an ancient English painter who has been forgotten and for various reasons is refound and celebrated, slightly, at a dinner. Just not sure what this was all about.

The fourth story is by far the best. A young English girl is somewhere on the Italian coast with wizened older travelers. Unlike in earlier works by Huxley, the older folks are not absurd, although they are wrapped up in themselves and haven't much awareness of or interest in their young compatriot, who loves to swim in the sea and will go out far into the waters. There is a handsome Italian noble of some type who also swims and runs down the beach and seems such a contrast to the Anglo Saxons. He treats the young girl courteously and from there the story unfolds. Huxley had a deep and thoughtful understanding of teenage girls, which appears elsewhere in his work, and he displays it here so well. I think it's about the best writing by him that I have read--insightful and restrained while dealing with powerful emotions. And yes, it has the classic short story twist ending--surprising but credible and following directly from the plot. I just loved it

The fifth entry is Nuns at Lunch, a story which uses a structure common to Huxley--a story told by characters rather the story being narrated. Two writers meet for lunch--she discusses plans for several articles designed to irritate one side or other the political settings in London. She has come back from Germany, just after the end of WWI, and has a tale that she thinks can be meaningful fiction in the right hands--namely those of the narrator, a younger male writer. It is a good tale--Huxley always writes so beautifully, but in the end it's all a bit contrived, as if Huxley didn't know how to write the actual tale and so set it forth in this way. It isn't bad but it lacks that abandon of great writing.



Profile Image for Philip.
Author 8 books139 followers
July 29, 2024
Once upon a Time, I read the writing of Aldous Huxley with enthusiasm. I was a little younger then… More recently, I have tended to find his attitudes rather stuffy, and class-ridden, not embodying the fresh view of the world I once thought he held. Brave New World was not representative and, in my youth, I perhaps mis-read its intentions. A television adaptation of Eyeless In Gaza at the end of the 1960s prompted further exploration. Recently, I found The Art Of Seeing worth avoiding. So it was with mixed expectations that I started Mortal Coils, a work the author published in 1921

Its form is interesting. Aldous Huxley described its five separate sections as three short stories, a novelette and the play. In each of the pieces, there is a keen, if somewhat caricatured central character for whom some random event, some twist of fate provides an ironic punchline. For that reason, I will not review the stories in detail. What happens is crucial, and it tends to happen right at the end.

Throughout, Aldous Huxley seems to be mocking anyone who apparently takes him or herself, seriously. There is a keen eye for pretension, but, it has to be said, these tales of competition are won, more often than not, by the wily, not the showy.

The Gioconda Smile is the novelette. Miss Spence has the smile in question. She is thirtyish and a spinster. Mr. Hutton is a well-to-do friend with a hypochondriac wife, who needs to take her medicine.

Permutations Among The Nightingales is a play set in a hotel. Various society-type guests pirouette around themselves for attention. There is a lot of coming and going.

The Tillotson Banquet involves rather rich people with a decoration urge tracing a long-lost artist who has fallen on bad times. There might be a commission. In his nineties, and living in a basement among beetles, the old artist accepts the invitation to dine.

The Green Tunnels is it story about a group of visitors to Italy. They become obsessed with one another as well as with themselves. Both gestures and actions are mis-interpreted.

In Nuns At Luncheon, Huxley mocks the act of writing, itself, as a scribbler imagines how he might fictionalize a tale about a nun who falls from grace.

None of these has anything like a grand vision. These five pieces are like extended jokes with unexpected punch lines. They are stories, however, worth the telling, and certainly worth the reading.
Profile Image for Glimmer.
170 reviews2 followers
April 6, 2022
Witty cynicism has always been a specialty in regard to early Huxley's writing. His satirical remarks to early 1900's upper class British society imbued with childish picking has always had the positive effect of making the instances of his snobbishness less stagnating and generally humorous. In this collection of short stories predating Huxley's first leap into more serious novelization, the novel blue print was in essence told in short story form. Each story felt was made with the conscious effort to practice a narrative form rather than to tell a story, notably Permutations among The Nightingales unashamedly a play among the herd. Each story didn't have a proper ending and each was led up to be a short soap opera. The card-board level characterization Huxley's known for is abominably clear, made worse this time by having the said characters projecting no worthy ideal or purpose with exception to Nuns at Luncheon which Huxely described it as, “I have done an admirable short story — so heartless and cruel that you would scream if you read it. The concentrated venom of it is quite delicious.”


In short, Mortal Coils surmounts to a try-hard attitude to make a stance, where there are clear early signs of a promising writer that doesn't manage to know when to flex his muscles. And while it pains me to rate anything by Aldous Huxley this low, I feel it justified given how little they resonated in my mind.
Profile Image for Julia Langnes.
241 reviews
November 19, 2018
I gotta say, what joy it is to read regular novels again after "A Suitable Boy". I feel like I've shrugged off a massive cape and can now go running around happily in normal sized novels. In my thrill, I may be rushing things a little bit, just savouring the completion and the finishing of a book, but I assure you I am still reading them properly. First came Hemingway, then Huxley, and now I shall move on to Steinbeck. Ah the joy of classic literature.
Now I adore Huxley. "Brave New World" is one of the greatest novels ever written. His ideas are so fantastic, and his imagery marvellous. I, however, don't enjoy his short story writing. As someone who thinks of Roald Dahl as a short story God, I find Huxley's stories to be underwhelming. I only really liked 2 of them (Nuns at Luncheon and the Tillotson Banquet), and hence the 2 stars. I like my short stories to have punch and clarity, and I lacked that with most of these. I'm sure there must be some large philosophical meaning that I'm missing with these novels, but I can't for the life of me find the will to care or look for them. I found the Gioconda Smile story to be too obvious, and anti-climatic, and the other ones were just messy.
I still adore you Huxley, but I think I'll stick to your novels and essays from now on. Though I promise to give these stories another read to see if they improve with time.
545 reviews3 followers
June 13, 2024
Fun to see a different side of Huxley but the cynical humour is definitely still there.

The Giaconda Smile - OK maybe I'm an old granny but I'm sort of shocked a book from 1921 talks so openly about cheating! Interesting tale; the jumps in time are fun and jarring. Of course you kind of see it coming but it's still a fun ride. (I guess doctors are fine with not turning in murderers and just giving them sleeping draughts?)

Permutations Among the Nightingales - written as a play in which everyone is pursuing the wrong love interest. The characters seem very stock so I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others.

The Tillotson Banquet - Really enjoyed this one; a sad and tender portrait of age and forgottenness.

Green Tunnels- Huxley nails being a bored 17-year-old girl who puts her eggs in the wrong basket. Run away from the fascisti, Barbara, even if he's gallant to you!

Nuns at Luncheon - again, sort of surprised Huxley talks so openly about a probable sexual assault of a minor, which leads her to becoming a nun. Kind of an interesting portrait of how novelists and journalists think through someone's motivations, and which motivations are interesting to write about (or sell).
Profile Image for Yesenia.
749 reviews27 followers
July 5, 2022
I liked this book! Even the play (I usually do not like reading plays).

I was expecting to like only some stories, since so many reviews said that it was an "irregular" book. But I didn't find it so at all. Of course I liked some more than others, that's normal, but the book is not a mere collection of stories, it is a book that looks at the "mortal coils" in which people find themselves. As people who are alive, in love, out of love, good people, bad people, silly people, petty people... it's a book about passions and lacks of passion, about human folly. It's a very good book and I am very glad that I read it.

My least favorite story was perhaps the Gioconda smile, since I guessed the ending too early. But the main male character is superbly described and created! So realistic, so believable! The play was hilarious. Well, very funny. The banquet story was sooo sad, despite its funny aspects. Nuns at luncheon, as many have said, is the best. But, again, each story (I think I'm missing one?) is simply a very different and unique tale about people being foolish.

I will definitely look for another Huxley book...
Profile Image for Aria.
490 reviews42 followers
July 27, 2020
My 1948 edition had only the title play in it & was not a collection of stories as apparently, judging from reviews, was some same-titled collection that others here are referencing. As for this 1 play, I enjoyed it well enough until the end. I really did not agree with the idea being sold that everything that ever happens in the universe, to anyone at all, ultimately washes out evenly with each person, one way or another. It's selling a misapplied idea of karma without naming it as such, despite a reference to the Hindu religion near the end. Karma is not some kind of mystical issuer of consequences, nor is it a reward and punishment system. I'm disappointed Huxley didn't seem to fully grasp that. That he failed to do so actually perplexes me a bit. As for the play though, everything was going along quite fine until all that mess near the end. Too bad, I guess.
Profile Image for Michael Zwiauer.
22 reviews
December 29, 2024
Only fitting that I should finish the year with some more Huxley.

Mortal Coils is a very entertaining read, comprising some of Huxley’s earliest stories and a great deal of experimentation with form, narration, and tone. I loved them all (Tillotson’s Banquet was incredibly funny), but my favourite is probably the short story entitled Green Tunnels, which prefigures the acerbic, almost painful satires in which Huxley comes up with some seriously flawed characters and uses them as his playthings to an excruciatingly cruel degree. The concluding line of the story is like a literary paper cut.

Another mention must be given to Nuns at Luncheon which is an incredibly creative exercise in meta narrative and characterisation - a very stimulating read!
545 reviews65 followers
March 2, 2017
5 very early stories by Huxley, which show once more that he could write straightforward narratives that weren't simply philosophical dialogues, and that he could see the silliness and pomposity of intellectuals. "The Giaconda Smile" is an Agatha Christie yarn dispatched simply and efficiently, whilst "The Tillotson Banquet" is a superb dark comedy about ambition and reputation and the personalities of the culture racket. "Green Tunnels" meanders about amongst some dull English tourists in Italy but does have some highly acute topical observation of the emerging Fascisti (in 1922) and their attractiveness to the bourgeois of other countries.
Profile Image for Kieran Johnson.
490 reviews
November 6, 2024
The Gioconda Smile is a sarky revenge tale that plays like a watered-down Saki, i.e. still pretty enjoyable. Permutations Among the Nightingales: A Play is as stupid as it sounds. The Tillotson Banquet is a half-assed art-world satire that peters out into irrelevance. Green Tunnels is a moderately moving account of romantic disillusionment. Nuns at Luncheon is another piss-take of literary types that doesn't break a single inch of new ground.

Overall, not as good as the other collection of Huxley shorts I've read, Brief Candles.
Profile Image for Sarah Pitman.
365 reviews3 followers
June 12, 2019
First and last, "The Gioconda Smile" and "Nuns at Luncheon" had a good mix of intrigue and character drive. At first I thought the play "Permutations Among the Nightingales" was a satire on melodramas, but appears to take itself completely seriously (while I could do no such thing) at the end. The other two, "The Tillotson Banquet" and "Green Tunnels" reached for a kind of touching realism and melancholy but didn't quite get to it. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood.
157 reviews1 follower
May 29, 2021
Fifty years after reading Brave New World, I recently came upon Huxley's short stories - they are uniformly excellent and well worth reading. Set in a Europe decimated - physically, emotionally, and morally - by World War I, his stories are witty, satirical, darkly funny, well-constructed, and precisely written.
Profile Image for Alice.
105 reviews
October 8, 2023
"What dreams may come/ When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" - 'Hamlet', William Shakespeare

In this collection of four short stories and one play, Aldous Huxley weaves dreams and reality together to conjure tales that evoke misery, disquiet, and grim humour.
Good dream or nightmare, Huxley warns us that they will come, in this life or the next.
Profile Image for Mike.
403 reviews23 followers
September 2, 2018
Mortal Coils is a collection of five short stories written by Aldous Huxley, published in 1921. The first, The Gioconda Smile, is probably the most memorable - an entertaining social satire and murder mystery. Next we have Permutations Among The Nightingales (a play following the various romantic difficulties of a group of hotel guests), followed by The Tillotson Banquet (a story about an old artist, who was assumed to be dead before being re-discovered living in poverty), Green Tunnels (a story about a bored young girl on holiday with her family) and, finally, Nuns at Luncheon (a story about a nun falling in love). Personally I didn't enjoy these as much as I'd enjoyed some of Huxley's full-length novels, but there are worse ways to pass the time. 6/10
Profile Image for Hall's Bookshop.
220 reviews3 followers
July 3, 2019
Fabulous short stories and a play by the Master. The key phrase in the book seems to be "Repression is the Devil." In each story a tragic waste of life plays out, caused by the repression of desire. No one portrays the messy anticlimaxes of love with such flare as Huxley.

JM 03/07/19
Profile Image for Audioiter.
77 reviews25 followers
September 6, 2019
Unklike "Doors of perception", where I enjoyed Huxelys approach to problem and his clear thinking in a metter that used to be far from clarity, those short stories about boring people are well, boring.
Profile Image for Kitty Shaw.
35 reviews3 followers
March 16, 2021
Huxley is best known for writing BNW, which I think people mostly remember for its plot, and essays / acid, but this is the proof that he’s a consummate writer with an innate understanding of people.
Profile Image for Alicia Fox.
473 reviews28 followers
June 18, 2018
The early Huxley short stories and plays in this collection are good but not great. I suppose they were more original at the time.
Profile Image for solitaryfossil.
420 reviews22 followers
July 13, 2018
Poetic with many allusions to paintings, caustic and entertaining. Fine dialogue all around. A modest collection, my edition was just 114 pages, so it’s a quick read. I especially enjoyed "The Gioconda Smile,” but they all hit their mark.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.
icon
Messages
image
Flipkart 90% Off Sales
Only For UPI users iPhone 11 Pro @ Rs.1999
image
Reply
Like
View