Collected Short Stories

If your idea of Aldous Huxley as a writer of fiction begins and ends with "Brave New World," rejoice, my friend, because you may be happily surprised by the wit, clarity, ironic charm, and impressive variety of these short stories. Two of them, "Young Archimedes" and "The Tillotson Banquet," by themselves repay the cost of admission, but most of the pieces should beguile nearly any serious reader. Huxley was of course a very successful novelist of manners and mores before he emitted his "classic," ("Brave New World") and as that excellent piece of science fiction has unjustly overshadowed the other novels, the novels have unjustly overshadowed the stories. (BTW: Have you ever noticed how many really strong writers of fiction -- particularly Americans -- in fact did much of their best prose work in the shorter, less prestigious form? Try Poe, Hawthorne, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cheever, Sherwood Anderson, Welty, Chekhov, Maupassant, Carver, Borges, maybe Thomas Mann, etc.) Sadly, Huxley the man was also destined to be put in the shade. Despite being born into arguably the most intellectually eminent family in Britain over the last two centuries, and despite building a tremendous reputation while he lived, this purblind, stooped-over tall man disappeared from the earth as silently as a drop of dew, since he died within hours of both John F. Kennedy and C.S. Lewis. These two are names to conjure with, one must admit. But in another two centuries, it might well be Huxley, of the three that died on that day, who most reliably entertains and instructs. You can be part of this revival, and have fun doing it, by reading these stories.