Product Description

This third volume (including the years 1930D1935) of a projected six reinforces Huxley's stature as one of the most acute and informed observers of the social and ideological trends of the years between the world wars. These essays register his growing ambivalence about the role of technocracy and science in an era of experimentation in the concentration of executive and legislative power. He was among the few writers who...played with ideas so freely, so gaily, with such virtuosity, that the responsive reader...was dazzled and excited. --Isaiah Berlin. Commendable. --Times Literary Supplement. A remarkable publishing event...beautifully produced and authoritatively edited. --Jeffrey Hart, Washington Times. Edited with Commentary by Robert S. Baker and James Sexton.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #480393 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 653 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"The scientific specialist uses words artificially fabricated from Greek roots.... The sailor's technical terms have grown up with the language and seem to palpitate with its strong and ancient life," writes Aldous Huxley in "Words, Words, Words," a brief essay on linguistic pleasures. His prodigious output ranges so far that he appears to touch on most significant topics in his Complete Essays: Volume III, 1930-1935 (of six planned volumes). But while his writings on the arts some relevant, some quaint still charm, some of his sociopolitical commentary will dismay students today, e.g., "Miscegenation should be prevented, because there is evidence to show cross-breeding between individuals of widely different race is biologically unsound." Such ideas, if stomached, could aid explorations of prewar social attitudes.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
He writes with an easy assurance and a command of classical and modern cross-references. -- Christopher Hitchens, Los Angeles Times

Huxley’s political writing is often deliberately perverse. -- New Yorker

Much to enjoy in these volumes. -- The Economist

The editors have done their job with commendable thoroughness. -- P. N. Furbank, Times Literary Supplement

These exceptionally edited and organized books...display a wide-ranging intellect unmatched among twentieth-century men of letters. -- Atlantic Monthly

To read all the essays in sequence is like being enrolled at the college of your dreams. -- New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Rich, seasoned commentary on history and modern times
This third volume of Huxley's complete essays will appeal to a college collection which already has the first two volumes and anticipates collecting the entire six: this volume covers 1930-35 and collects his observations of the social and political trends of those years. Important essays and articles provide rich, seasoned commentary on history and modern times.