Antic hay / Aldous Huxley ; afterword by John O'Brien.

By:

Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963 [author.]

Contributor(s):

O'Brien, John, 1945-2020 [writer of afterword.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: [Dallas] : [Dalkey Archive Press], [2026]Description: 255 pages ; 22 cmContent type:

text
still image

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781628975680
1628975687

Genre/Form:

DDC classification:

[Fic] 23

LOC classification:

PR6015.U9 A82 2026

Summary: "A social satire dissecting morally bankrupt London society just after World War I, from the author of Brave New World. Like Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises,' Aldous Huxley's 'Antic Hay' portrays a world of lost souls madly pursuing both pleasure and meaning. Fake artists, third-rate poets, pompous critics, pseudo-scientists, con-men, bewildered romantics, and cock-eyed futurists all inhabit this world spinning out of control, as wildly comic as it is disturbingly accurate. In a style that ranges from the lyrical to the absurd, and with characters whose identities shift and change as often as their names and appearances, Huxley has here invented a novel that bristles with life and energy, in what The New York Times called 'a delirium of sense enjoyment!'"-- Publisher.

Fiction notes: Click to open in new window

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Notes	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Fiction	New Books	FIC HUXLEY	Available	pap ed.		36748002637314

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A social satire dissecting morally bankrupt London society just after World War I, from the author of Brave New World.

Like Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Aldous Huxley's Antic Hay, portrays a world of lost souls madly pursuing both pleasure and meaning. Fake artists, third-rate poets, pompous critics, pseudo-scientists, con-men, bewildered romantics, and cock-eyed futurists all inhabit this world spinning out of control, as wildly comic as it is disturbingly accurate. In a style that ranges from the lyrical to the absurd, and with characters whose identities shift and change as often as their names and appearances, Huxley has here invented a novel that bristles with life and energy, in what The New York Times called "a delirium of sense enjoyment!"

"Originally published in English by Chatto & Windus, London, UK, 1923"--Copyright page.

"A social satire dissecting morally bankrupt London society just after World War I, from the author of Brave New World. Like Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises,' Aldous Huxley's 'Antic Hay' portrays a world of lost souls madly pursuing both pleasure and meaning. Fake artists, third-rate poets, pompous critics, pseudo-scientists, con-men, bewildered romantics, and cock-eyed futurists all inhabit this world spinning out of control, as wildly comic as it is disturbingly accurate. In a style that ranges from the lyrical to the absurd, and with characters whose identities shift and change as often as their names and appearances, Huxley has here invented a novel that bristles with life and energy, in what The New York Times called 'a delirium of sense enjoyment!'"-- Publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Readers of Huxley's Brave New World will find glimmers of that book's dark humor and sterling powers of observation in this stellar 1923 lampoon of English intellectualism after WWI. Protagonist Theodore Gumbril Jr. teaches at an insignificant prep school for boys, work he pursues with little enthusiasm. "You weren't sufficiently interested in anything to want to devote yourself to it," his father says. "That was why you sought the last refuge of feeble minds." Gumbril performs scarcely better in a harebrained business venture, having quit his post and laid his hopes on making a fortune by selling "trousers with pneumatic seats," an idea that came to him while sitting on the school chapel's uncomfortable pews. What ensues is an uproarious kaleidoscope of character sketches as Gumbril tries to drum up interest in his project from a series of London acquaintances. Among them are Shearwater, a dilettante medical enthusiast; Lypiatt, a failed artist and self-proclaimed "man of genius"; Mercaptan, a bloviating critic; and world-weary socialite Mrs. Myra Viveash. The story isn't really about the pants, but about the men's failures. Each of them fumbles at profundity while trying to gain the affections of the beautiful Myra, which adds an entertaining dimension to Huxley's excoriating depiction of self-seriousness and idleness. It's a riot. (Jan.)