Back to Blog
Huxley novel5/13/2023 ![]() ![]() He then begins to seek a source of meaning, and seems to find it when he discovers pacifism and then mysticism. ![]() It describes Beavis's experiences as he goes through school, college and various romantic affairs the meaninglessness of upper-class life during these times and Beavis's gradual disillusionment with high society, brought to a head by a friend's suicide. The novel focuses on four periods in the life of a socialite named Anthony Beavis between the 1890s (when he is a young boy) and 1936 – but not in chronological order. Huxley's biographer, Sybille Bedford, whom Huxley knew personally (they were neighbours in the south of France), claims in her fictional memoir Jigsaw that two of the novel's characters – Mary Amberley, a drug addict, and her daughter – were partly inspired by Bedford and her mother, who was addicted to morphine. The chapters of the novel are not ordered chronologically. The title of the book, like Milton's poem, recalls the biblical story of Samson: he was captured by the Philistines, his eyes were burned out and he was taken to Gaza, where he was forced to work at grinding grain in a mill. Promise was that I Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves. The title is taken from a phrase in John Milton's Samson Agonistes: Eyeless in Gaza is a bestselling novel by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1936. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |