Aldous Huxley: A Biography

This is my latest read of Sybille Bedford's works and, I might add, I'm a huge fan of hers. In some ways this is a masterful effort on Sybille's part, the cradle to grave biographical tome, yet it will take a very dedicated reader to plow through this one without putting it aside. As the Sybille Bedford reader will attest, if you are not at least somewhat fluent beyond English (i.e. French, a bit of Spanish, Italian) she can be a somewhat distracting as she intersperses her paragraphs in foreign tongues. Of course, Sybille knew the Huxleys well for many years and can certainly paint the portrait. However, as she mentions, quite a bit of Aldous's own letters have been lost and she relies extensively on Maria's (his wife) lengthy letters to family and friends; to say she was a prolific letter writer is an understatement. Anyhow, I do believe this was a gallant effort to capture the life and times of Aldous Huxley and most probably Sybille Bedford was the best author to do so. At 700+ pages, just make the commitment!

I read this superb biography years ago, as part of a Summer's "free reading" (a luxury for an academic), for I had no particular interest in Huxley, having read only his "Chrome Yellow" and "Point Counter Point" at that time. Bedford, I discovered, is a glorious writer (she has written probably the best book in English on Mexico) and possesses rare insight into the minds of other artists. These gifts make her biography of Huxley a masterpiece. As you follow her narrative, you will be impelled, I predict, to read the Huxley novels you have thus far ignored.

Syville Bedford's literary biography Aldous Huxley blends Huxley's remarkable life with his quite successful literary career, all wrapped in the familiarity of the author with Huxley's family over the decades. With such associations in hand, biographer and author Syville Bedford then deftly probes Huxley's life and writings, creating a memorable biography and a set of insights that deserves ongoing mention.