In this Cliff's Notes booklet, the reviewer, Warren Paul of Columbia University, provides the following (in order): a brief biography of Aldous Huxley, a 6-page history of utopian/dystopian novels, 1-and-a-half pages containing the general plot, one or two lines describing each of the characters, a detailed description of each chapter (each with a few paragraphs of commentary), a critical analysis of the novel as a whole and of the characters, definitions of the terms (e.g., Malthusian Belt, Musical Bridge) used in Brave New World, a chapter-by-chapter summary of Brave New World Revisited, review questions for the student, and a "Selected Biblography." All in all, this Cliff Notes succeeds in providing the details the student of Aldous Huxley needs to do a book report on either of the two books for which it provides commentary. It also serves to stimulate interest in utopian and dystopian novels. The review would have been better if there had been more assessment of how Brave New World Revisited was received by the public compared with the reception of its predecessor, and of the very different treatment of the new world in the two texts (a novel in the first case, and an extended essay in the second). I also would have appreciated a list of all of Aldous Huxley's novels and other literary works in chronological order to help me put Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited in their proper perspective with regard to the author's literary career. Lastly, the Selected Bibliography consisted of only four texts, many of which were old when this Cliff Notes booklet was written. I would have expected at least 20.

This cliff notes helped understand this book.(I am a high school senior). And I would tell anyone who has read this book, if they need help to pick this book up.

This small volume (fewer than 60 pages of text) is well worth tracking down through the 'out-of- print' mechanisms. Originally a lecture, the book introduces Piero della Francesca as a "reclusive, silent, rather taciturn friend", but a friend nonetheless. Mr Henessey's rounded analysis and warm descriptions of both the painter and his paintings certainly allow the reader to establish a relationship with Piero. Depsite the author's slightly disparaging remark about "tourists in their rented Fiats" following the Piero della Francesca trail, I urge travellers (Fiat driven, armchair or others) to increase their knowledge, appreciation and sheer enjoyment of Piero by slipping this volume into their luggage or onto the bookshelf. The book is usefully illustrated.

One of the pleasures of a small book is the ability to savour the author's writing. This volume combines Huxley's essay (which makes the startling claim that Piero's Resurrection is the best painting in the world) with Pope-Hennessy's lucid descriptions of Piero's works. The plates are wonderful and well arranged. PH's swipes at Kenneth Clark and John Mortimer would seem churlish in a larger, more ponderous volume, but are merely charmingly opinionated here. A lovely way to spend an hour or two.

Masked by large quantities of frighteningly erudite British/cultural social satire. As an eager young American, I found myself entranced, and initially a little intimidated, by Huxley's god's eye view of Oxford-educated, limerick-composing, medieval-theologian-reference-making, pre-WWII upper-middle class Europeans. Imagine my incredulity at discovering at something like one fourth of the way through that the author was attempting to make some sort of serious and self-important point about the fate of humanity. Then, imagine my further incredulity at discovering about halfway through that this was one of those horrible 'instructive' works of literature where all literary merits are subordinated to a moral lesson. Finally, imagine my relief mingled with new-found disrespect for Aldous Huxley when I saw at the book's end that the aforementioned moral lesson involved nothing more than a cheap, pretentious, unimaginative leap-of-faith argument that has probably been around since the time of Plato himself. Oi. Now at last I can say with confidence: Huxley? Please. That is *so* passe...

Huxley was a man of many bizarre ideas as well as an uneven writer, but he could also be quite a deep and compelling thinker. This book is a particularly vivid example of this contradiction. I found parts of the novel almost painfully bad (one of the characters trying to communicate from the afterlife through an incompetent medium, or the epilogue that in effect abandons any pretense of being part of novel in order to become an unconfortable mix of essay and sermon). There is also the lingering problem of Huxley's uninformed and unfair attitude towards natural science. But in exchange for accepting these failures the reader gets two extraordinary character portraits: one of a monster (Mrs. Thwale) and one of a saint (Bruno the bookseller), both very convincing and immensely insightful. Add to that a penetrating study of the perils of self-absorption, a sound case for moral restraint, and the best diagnosis I have come across of why artists who express the most sublime insight about human nature can still behave like swine. It's sad and doubly ironic the Huxley himself should have been an impeachable character. Anyway, quite a worthwhile read.

Huxley is the master of complex philosophical writing. This is not "Brave New World" at all. It is much more complex, and it's theme is different.

Three stars for a well written book, however did he not learn anything from Krishnamurti......

The author had a lot of knowledge that he could bring into his understanding of all this. He's got a good understanding of what the Bates Method is about (even most interested people totally miss it), and he's a good writer and a smart guy, so I'd have to say that I like this book and recommend it.

From what I understand, Huxley didn't end up improving to the point where he had normal vision all the time. His failing to read a paper one time at a speaking is what's referenced a lot by the critics as "proof" he didn't benefit. Give me a break. If you consider the serious visual problems that this guy started with, and how much he improved his condition from there, it's quite a success story.

This account of Huxley's personal experience with the Bates method is enjoyable, and useful. Unlike a hoax, the method doesn't require any leap of faith or that you wear a pyramid on your head. You have to work, reflect and learn. This is perhaps why the method isn't successful with everyone. It is far easier to pay for a pair of glasses. My advice: If you get your hands on this book, read it.

I had the expectation of receiving the same edition i enjoyed as a child. This one has a smaller page size and the illustrations are nothing special.

This is my three year old daughter's favorite book. She doesn't know that it was supposedly written as a allegory to World War II. She just likes the characters in the story. My wife and I get a kick out of it because it is just like life. "Why don't you go down into the snake's hole and kill him" (That's my job!) But I reply, "Somehow I don't think that's a good idea," and so the story goes.
Jordan likes this book so I'm not going to write in a lot of psycho-babble. Maybe she sees a problem within a family that has to be solved. And it is! Maybe she sees a threat to a family that the parents must solve. And they do! Perhaps she just doesn't like snakes and feels he got what he deserves. If you have this book, it is a classic in the true sense of the word, to be treasured.

Since my earliest memories (app. ages 3 and 4) I have loved and treasured this book. Even before I could read, the animal characters within were well-beloved friends of mine, simply through the pictures. I was thrilled when my parents would read it to me, and when I learned to read myself I was proud to be able to get through it on my own. It was only much later, when I actually knew who Huxley was and realized he was the author of one of my favorite early childhood books, that I learned to love it for its historic context as well.

This book comes from an interesting background. Others have already commented on the time period Huxley wrote it in--during the second World War. It is his only children's book and he wrote it not for publication but for Olivia, the young daughter of his nextdoor neighbors (human characters who are actually referred to by name in the course of the book, further personalizing this effort of Huxley's.) There were only two copies, Huxley's and the one belonging to these neighbors. The first was destroyed in a fire that broke out in the Huxley home. The second was published following his death.

While I recognize the problem a previous reader had with this book, I must respectfully disagree. That "The Crows of Pearblossom" has a certain morbidity is in fact partly the point. Looking back on most successful children's stories, we see that they often have elements of the violent or morbid, since the first time the Big Bad Wolf ate Little Red Riding Hood and beyond. That children be acquainted by these means with some of the more unpleasant aspects of life is important. If they don't encounter them through a relatively harmless and provocative medium like a bed-time story, they can only become acquainted with them through other means, frequently personal experience, which can be infinitely more detrimental to the child than a story like Huxley's "Crows." Children need to be prepared to deal with life, and a story like this can provide a means for doing so.

All of this aside, "The Crows" also presents interesting and likeable animal characters, with the exception of the snake, (though as a child I actually rather got a kick out of him and the little song he sings) and is not without its humorous points. The idea of an owl shaving, for example, still makes me chuckle. The story itself teaches an important lesson about how not to accept an unacceptable situation, and how to use personal ingenuity and intelligence against brute strength, in an easily understood format. It also embraces a certain lighter-hearted, more fanciful spirit than readers of "Brave New World" may have known Huxley could posess.

In the early 1920s, Theodore Gumbril Jr, disenchanted with his teaching job in a boys' school, leaves for London determined to pursue his idea for "pneumatic trousers". After his arrival, Theodore enters the strange world of London's well-to-do dilettantes.

This satirical novel reminded me of Evelyn Waugh's early novels and of some of Anthony Powell's work (perhaps Huxley influenced those authors). "Antic Hay" is not a novel with strong plot development, rather Huxley concentrates on the attitudes of his characters. Theodore Gumbril soon ceases to be the main character of the novel, his importance being no more and no less than several others. This was a bit surprising given his prominence at the start.

Huxley satirises the opinions, actions and mores of the well-heeled young artistic "society" animals of the time. His style is at times very sharp and witty, and I felt that he was trying to scratch beneath the facade of their lifestyle, where lies a bitter meaningless to their existence, and a despair with the society they live in. "Antic Hay" is not, therefore, a novel for people who enjoy fiction based on a strong pplot, but it is an interesting period piece, reflecting the uncertainties and disaffection of one particular part of British society shortly after World War One.

G Rodgers

Huxley I can usually take or leave, but not Antic Hay: there are just too many farces to decipher for me to put it down. Huxley's women are beautiful and easy; his men are amoral and excrutiatingly clever.

But underlying their antics is a novel of incredible complexity. Huxley makes his attentive readers squirm as we recognize our own pretensions and idiocies in his archetypal characters. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

The other gift in this novel is that it has helped me appreciate and understand the work of other writers such as Waugh and Mitford: i.e., in order to enjoy them, you have to suspend your own understanding of life and realize that there actually was a thriving class of people in England who didn't have jobs, relied on servants, and had no lives to speak of. And were bored to tears by their sumptuous privilege, believe it or no.

For modern readers, I'd say this is a pretty tough read. I know a respectable amount of both French and Latin, and I had to look up at least part of most of those passages. But if you're prepping for the vocabulary section of the GRE or the SAT...this book will provide you with myriad words to look up and learn, including the wonderful "callipygous".

Maybe I should give the rest of Huxley's work another reading...

Crome Yellow was Aldous Huxley's first book written when he was 27. The early Huxley was the best: when Huxley was young, he was fluid, enthusiastic, and his potential was limitless. As he grew older, he became more calcified, limited, and he spent the last years of his life in California, mired by his own mystic obscurisms. Crome Yellow centers around a house called Crome (like Wuthering Heights centered around a house -Abbey Grange) Crome was a gathering place of artists. The hero of the story is Denis Stone, a naive neophyte like Huxley was at the time. When Huxley grew more sophisticated, so did his characters. This book attacks the ennui, and existential malaise of life with a righteous indignation that is refreshing. He also uproariously endorses the common feeling of misanthropy that all refined cynics must feel. Huxley played the expatriate game, most of his life, to draw on his own words from Crome, he was "one of those distinguished people who for some reason or other, find it impossible to live in England." He spent most of the 1920's in Italy. Crome Yellow is a great introduction to Huxley, as well as a great way to know him better. It is difficult to believe that Huxley was so young when he wrote this. He writes like a 50 yr. old in this book.

THIS TIMELESS MOMENT is Laura Archera Huxley's memoir of her marriage to Aldous Huxley. Laura Archera, a young musician from Italy, married the aging and recently-widowed Huxley in 1956. Her book chronicles their life together until his death in 1963.

By her own admission, Mrs. Huxley was not a "bookish" person. Nor was English her mother tongue. Her writing style is strangely disjointed and contains both non-sequitors and inconsistent statements. Nonetheless, her love for Aldous Huxley is clear. It is this love that makes the book worthwhile.

Due to Mrs. Huxley's tact and her awkward writing style, the reader needs a background knowledge of Aldous Huxley's life and work to understand a number of her anecdotes and veiled references. I re-read Mrs. Huxley's memoir after completing David King Dunaway's ALDOUS HUXLEY RECOLLECTED. Only then did Mrs. Huxley's story begin to make some sense.

Mrs. Huxley devotes a chapter and then some to the Huxleys' drug use. This section of the work has a "crusading" tone which I found annoying. It is followed by several heartbreaking chapters describing Huxley's final illness and death. I developed a new appreciation for this great man and his wife who worked so hard to finish one final essay, "Shakespeare and Religion", just days before his death. Mrs. Huxley's reveals that Huxley was working on a novel on mysticism at the time of his death. She states that Huxley told her in his final days that he was on the verge of fitting everything together in one last novel. She then shares the first chapter of this unnamed, unfinished work. It is beautiful (and, unmistakeably, Aldous Huxley). It is the finest chapter in Mrs. Huxley's book. I kept wishing it would go on and on.

Mrs. Huxley succeeds in showing a rarely seen side of Aldous Huxley. So often, he is portrayed as cold, aloof and cerebral. Here, Huxley is a warm, vibrant, sensual human being who is utterly at peace with himself and the world.

After reading Huxley's books for years, we finally get a glimpse into his later years through the eyes of his second wife, Laura Huxley. It is apparent throughout the book the extent to which Laura loved and admired Aldous. Nothing wrong with that.

We learn the truth about his alleged "blindness", his view of psychedelics and how he handled death. Although through my readings it was apparent that Huxley was a brilliant man of letters, the biography brought to light the kindness of the man. He was, according to Ms. Huxley, willing to avail himself and his knowledge to anyone who sought it (except perhaps reporters from whom he understandably sought sanctuary).

Even though I am sure it was unintended, we also come away with some notions about Ms. Huxley. Her devotion to Aldous, open-mindedness, and self-effacing manners shine through.

I liked the book, but somehow felt the picture was incomplete. Certainly Huxley must have had an interior struggle between his religous beliefs and his intellect. Such a struggle is not discussed in this book. Perhaps Ms. Huxley was unaware of such a struggle or perhaps Aldous had somehow transcended it by the time he met Laura.

"This Timeless Moment" has been selected for listing in "Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomthy" http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy

"And then you must remember that most readers don't really read...We all read too much nowadays to be able to read properly. We read with the eyes alone, not with the imagination." Thus speaks Mr. Cardan, a character in Aldous Huxley's "Those Barren Leaves," and all I can say in reply is, "Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa." Wanting to rush into the plot, I found myself annoyed with Huxley's slow, careful unfolding of the characters--the upper-class English guests at the Tuscan castle of the pretentious, amorous Mrs. Aldwinkle--and their long-winded conversations about Balzac and Diderot. I started to agree with Elizabeth Bowen's comment that Huxley was "the stupid person's idea of the clever person." After I had slowed down, however, and started to really read Huxley's painstaking dialogue and careful descriptions of the Italian countryside, I began to appreciate his brilliant evisceration of the motley crew around the impossible Mrs. Aldwinkle: Mr. Cardan, the Epicurean philosopher; Calamy, the amorist who is beginning to wonder if there is more to life than bedding women; Mary Thriplow, the novelist who never stops writing, even when making love; Chelifer, the disillusioned poet; and the hapless Grace Elver, a sort of female Forrest Gump without Forrest's lucky star. This wickedly funny yet meditative book repays the work of thoughtful readers, it has much to say about what is really important in life, and how expert people are at self-delusion. People who liked "My Dinner with Andre" or Robertson Davies' Cornish Trilogy should like "Those Barren Leaves."

A hard-to-find book--I came across it as a yellowed old paperback at a rummage sale, and I'm glad I did. Full of characters you're ready to hate, you end up loving nearly every one. Extraordinarily beautiful language, the writing is the cream of the crop. Not much of a plot, to be sure, as it is filled mostly with conversation that asks all of life's profoundest questions. He doesn't answer all the questions--no one can!--but gives you ample food for thought. The book is set in Italy after WWI, and abounds in beautiful scenery. Read it when you're relaxed and have time to chew on it.

Certainly, Aldous Huxley believed in the rule of elites and had anti-democratic notions -- for a period of time. In these essays and letters it is a troubled Huxley that can't fathom the solutions to the social problems of his time that can be observed. He went through many changes and was greatly influenced in thought by ocurrances which he had to live through. This is a pivotal point to understading Huxley which has been overlooked as a consequence of the "claims" that his greatest novels are a few that only reflect one period of his life (e.g. Brave New World). Must read! Redeems Huxley as a thinker with great love and concern for masses.

If you enjoyed Huxley's insights in Brave New world and have an interest in political theory in general, you'll enjoy this book. In this collection of essays and broadcasts Huxley waxes on evereything from childcare to sex to big business to education.