Those Barren Leaves by Aldous Huxley (100 books to read txt) ๐
Description
Mrs. Aldwinkle, an English aristocrat of a certain age, has purchased a mansion in the Italian countryside. She wishes to bring a salon of intellectual luminaries into her orbit, and to that end she invites a strange cast of characters to spend time with her in her palazzo: Irene, her young niece; Ms. Thriplow, a governess-turned-novelist; Mr. Calamy, a handsome young man of great privilege and even greater ennui; Mr. Cardan, a worldly gentleman whose main talent seems to be the enjoyment of life; Hovenden, a young motorcar-obsessed lord with a speech impediment; and Mr. Falx, a socialist leader. To this unlikely cast is soon added Mr. Chelifer, an author with an especially florid, overwrought style that is wasted on his day job as editor of The Rabbit Fancierโs Gazette, and the Elvers, a scheming brother who is the guardian of his mentally-challenged sister.
As this unlikely group mingles, they discuss a great many grand topics: love, art, language, life, culture. Yet very early on the reader comes to realize that behind the pompousness of their elaborate discussions lies nothing but vacuityโthese characters are a satire of the self-important intellectuals of Huxleyโs era.
His skewering of their intellectual barrenness continues as the group moves on to a trip around the surrounding country, in a satire of the Grand Tour tradition. The party brings their English snobbery out in full force as they traipse around Rome, sure of nothing else except in their belief that Italy is culturally superior simply because itโs Italy.
As the vacation winds down, weโre left with a biting lampoon of the elites who suppose themselves to be at the height of art and cultureโthe kinds of personalities that arise in every generation, sure of their own greatness but unable to actually contribute anything to the world of art and culture that they feel is so important.
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- Author: Aldous Huxley
Read book online ยซThose Barren Leaves by Aldous Huxley (100 books to read txt) ๐ยป. Author - Aldous Huxley
Or perhaps, he reflected, nothing would come of it. Perhaps he had been a fool.
The cottage was in the shadow now. Looking up the slope he could see a clump of trees still glittering as though prepared for a festival above the rising flood of darkness. And at the head of the valley, like an immense precious stone, glowing with its own inward fire, the limestone crags reached up through the clouds into the pale sky. Perhaps he had been a fool, thought Calamy. But looking at that shining peak, he was somehow reassured.
ColophonThose Barren Leaves
was published in 1925 by
Aldous Huxley.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Alex Cabal,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2016 by
Alex White and the Online Distributed Proofreaders Canada
for
Faded Page Canada
and on digital scans available at
Google Books.
The cover page is adapted from
The Grand Staircase of the Villa dโEste at Tivoli,
a painting completed in 1760 by
Jean-Honorรฉ Fragonard.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
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March 4, 2022, 3:01 a.m.
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