Aldous Huxley's acclaimed and gripping account of one of the strangest occurrences in history

In 1643 an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier--accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge--was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft.

In this classic work by the legendary Aldous Huxley--a remarkable true story of religious and sexual obsession considered by many to be his nonfiction masterpiece--a compelling historical event is clarified and brought to vivid life.

Aldous Huxley's 1932 dystopian classic Brave New World predicts - with eerie clarity - a terrifying vision of the future, which feels ever closer to our own reality. 'The best science fiction book ever, definitely the most prescient...' Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus 'A masterpiece of speculation... As vibrant, fresh, and somehow shocking as it was when I first read it' Margaret Atwood Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress... Huxley's ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece. WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY MARGARET ATWOOD AND DAVID BRADSHAW A grave warning... Provoking, stimulating, shocking and dazzling' Observer

Brave New World predicts - with eerie clarity - a terrifying vision of the future. Read the dystopian classic. EVERYONE BELONGS TO EVERYONE ELSE Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here. Our perfect society achieved peace and stability through the prohibition of monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs. You can be happy too. All you need to do is take your Soma pills. Discover the brave new world of Aldous Huxley's classic novel, written in 1932, which prophesied a society which expects maximum pleasure and accepts complete surveillance - no matter what the cost. 'A masterpiece of speculation... As vibrant, fresh, and somehow shocking as it was when I first read it' Margaret Atwood, bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale 'A grave warning... Provoking, stimulating, shocking and dazzling' Observer **One of the BBC's 100 Novels That Shaped Our World**

Thirty years ago, ecstasy and torment took hold of John Rivers, shocking him out of "half-baked imbecility into something more nearly resembling the human form." He had an affair with the wife of his mentor, Henry Maartens--a pathbreaking physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize, and a figure of blinding brilliance--bringing the couple to ruin. Now, on Christmas Eve while a small grandson sleeps upstairs, John Rivers is moved to set the record straight about the great man and the radiant, elemental creature he married, who viewed the renowned genius through undazzled eyes.

When the novel "Brave New World" first appeared in 1932, its shocking analysis of a scientific dictatorship seemed a projection into the remote future. Here, in one of the most important and fascinating books of his career, Aldous Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with his prophetic fantasy. He scrutinizes threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion, and explains why we have found it virtually impossible to avoid them. "Brave New World Revisited" is a trenchant plea that humankind should educate itself for freedom before it is too late.

York Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

Among the most profound and influential explorations of mind-expanding psychedelic drugs ever written, here are two complete classic books—The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell—in which Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, reveals the mind's remote frontiers and the unmapped areas of human consciousness.

This edition also features an additional essay, "Drugs That Shape Men's Minds," now included for the first time.

Written at the height of his powers immediately after "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley's highly acclaimed "Eyeless in Gaza" is his most personal novel. Huxley's bold, nontraditional narrative tells the loosely autobiographical story of Anthony Beavis, a cynical libertine Oxford graduate who comes of age in the vacuum left by World War I. Unfulfilled by his life, loves, and adventures, Anthony is persuaded by a charismatic friend to become a Marxist and take up arms with Mexican revolutionaries. But when their disastrous embrace of violence nearly kills them, Anthony is left shattered--and is forced to find an alternative to the moral disillusionment of the modern world.

Crome Yellow (1921) is a novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Inspired by his stay at Garsington Manor with members of the Bloomsbury Group, Crome Yellow, Huxley's debut novel, satirizes the society of England's intellectual and political elite. In addition to its autobiographical content, the novel investigates such themes as spirituality, the nature and composition of art, and the fear of a dystopian future. Invited to spend part of the summer at Crome, a country estate owned by Priscilla and Henry Wimbush, Denis Stone arrives by train carrying a draft of his first novel, which he intends to complete during his stay. There, he is introduced as a poet, and quickly falls in love with the young Anne Wimbush, herself enthralled with the painter Gombauld. Faced with disillusionment and disappointment, Stone struggles to write while being subjected to pseudointellectual conversations, lengthy public readings, and devastating characterizations by the guests and hosts of Crome. Memorable characters include Mary Bracegirdle, an adventurous and amorous flapper; Mr. Barbecue-Smith, a hack writer; and Mr. Scogan, a doomsayer with an elaborate dystopian vision. Crome Yellow, a biting work of satire, has earned comparisons to The Great Gatsby continues to be recognized as an important early work from one of England's most visionary writers. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Aldous Huxley's Crome Yellow is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Aldous Huxley's tour de force, Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future&#8212where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.

Portraying the revolving clash between class ideals, Antic Hay is a stunning cultural critique on life in London circa 1923. With a sharp comedic edge, author Aldous Huxley delivers a novel of ideas aimed at characterizing the unsettling times following the end of World War I. With over-the-top characters, and ensuing brutish conversations, Antic Hay doesn't follow a typical narrative arc. Huxley's work portrays a world entirely fabricated on gossip, lies, and one man's yearning for societal approval. Dripping with prose that brandished Huxley as somewhat of an iconoclast, Antic Hay has been hailed as Huxley's first masterpiece, paving the way for books with even more controversial subject matter like that of his most popular novel, Brave New World. With an eye-catching cover that mirrors the complexities of Huxley's world and a professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Antic Hay is both modern and readable. Also included is a new note about the author.

Contemporary intellectuals still struggle over the relationship of ends to means, especially in political discourse. Pacifism is still an important topic today, as terrorism and dictatorial states abound. Many will find solace in Ends and Means, while others will find the book only a case study of the relationship of ethics to politics. Aldous Huxley examines common issues in a unique fashion. How can the regression in charity through which we are living, and for which each one of us is in some measure responsible, be halted and reversed? How can existing society be transformed into the ideal society described by the prophets? How can the average sensual man and the exceptional (and more dangerous) ambitious man be transformed into a non-attached being, one who can create a society significantly better than our own? Huxley discusses the relationship between the theories and the practices of reformers and the nature of the universe. He argues that our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality help us formulate conceptions of right and wrong, not only in our private life, but also in the sphere of politics and economics. Far from being irrelevant, our philosophical beliefs are the final determining factor in our actions. This provocative classic volume, now available in paperback, will continue to stimulate discussion and thought.

Mortal Coils (1921) is a collection of short fiction by English author Aldous Huxley. Focused on themes of love, taboo, disillusionment, and the writing process, these four stories and one play illuminate the young writer's abundant wit and critical vision of life in twentieth century England. In "The Gioconda Smile," a wealthy aristocrat named Henry Hutton invites the young Miss Janet Spence to dinner with him and his invalid wife Doris. After eating a dish against her doctor's orders, Doris falls ill and is escorted to her room by her husband, after which Miss Spence goes home for the night. Taking the opportunity to see his mistress, Hutton leaves his wife alone, unwittingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, welcoming disaster into his routinely dishonorable life. "The Tillotson Banquet" involves the unexpected rediscovery of a renowned artist who seemed to have disappeared without a trace in 1860 after painting his masterpiece at the age of twenty-six. Tasked with arranging an illustrious banquet for the man, Spode, the young man who at long last found Tillotson, scrambles to appease Lord Badgery, his illustrious benefactor. Mortal Coils compiles five short works of fiction by Aldous Huxley, a master-satirist and immensely gifted visionary whose work continues to astonish, humor, and terrify readers and critics alike. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Aldous Huxley's Mortal Coils is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Burning Wheel (1916) is a collection of poems by English author Aldous Huxley. Published when the poet was only twenty-two, The Burning Wheel captures the mind of an artist at its earliest fertile stage, enthralled with a world either blooming with change or wilting with all-out war. Although Huxley is known foremost as a novelist, his poetry exhibits a mastery of language and an uncommon sense of the music inherent to words. "The Burning Wheel" opens the collection with a kaleidoscopic vision of life and creation, illuminating the poet's debt to the French Symbolists. "Weary of its own turning," the burning wheel slows for a moment's rest. This wheel, both machine and pure, wild flame, is the poet compelled to create, the mind that "[w]akes from the sleep of its quiet brightness / And burns with a darkening passion and pain." In "Quotidian Vision," Huxley returns to earth to remark: "There is a sadness in the street / And sullenly the folk I meet / Droop their heads as they walk along." In these simple, rhyming couplets, the poet channels the verse and vision of William Blake to see, despite the "mist of cold and muffling grey," a "dead world move for him once more / With beauty for its living core." The Burning Wheel is a compelling collection from an artist whose poetry is no less remarkable for having gone mostly unnoticed. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Aldous Huxley's The Burning Wheel is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Limbo (1920) is a collection of short fiction by English author Aldous Huxley. Mostly satirical, Huxley's novella, play, and four short stories show a promising writer at the very beginning of his career. In the novella "The Farcical History of Richard Greenow," Huxley satirizes the lives of his friends and acquaintances at Eton and Oxford. Richard Greenow, a young writer, spends his days as a politically engaged academic. At night, however, he writes fiction for women, crafting stories and serialized novels he sells to a prominent women's magazine. Finding success, he realizes there is a woman inside him, a writer named Pearl Bellairs who is as much a part of his identity as Richard Greenow is. When war breaks out, however, he must choose between his principled pacifism and his fear of prison, a decision that pits his two unique identities against one another. "Happily Ever After," a story set during the First World War, follows Peter Jacobsen, " a man with no nationality and no prejudices," as he travels across the Atlantic to visit Pemberton, his old friend from Oxford and a renowned scholar of philosophy. As friends and family converge on the stately Petherton home, a classic comedy of manners ensues. Limbo is an early collection of fiction from Aldous Huxley, presaging his satirical and dystopian novels with their abundant wit and unsparing, unmatched ire. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Aldous Huxley's Limbo is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems (1918) is a collection of poems by English author Aldous Huxley. Although Huxley is known foremost as a novelist, his poetry exhibits a mastery of language and an uncommon sense of the music inherent to words. The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems is his third poetry collection. "The Defeat of Youth" is a moving sonnet sequence on the passage of innocence to experience, on familiar transformation of love into lust. Capturing the experience of youthful attraction, Huxley imagines the moment in which the beloved "leans, and there is laughter in the face / She turns toward him; and it seems a door / Suddenly opened on some desolate place / With a burst of light and music." As the young man awakens to the life of another, his vision turns tragically pure, molding an image of "immanence divine," a face "in a flash of laughter" and a "young body with an inward flame." As the poem unfolds, however, he feels only shame to have touched "things deadly to be desired." Throughout this collection, Huxley explores the poet's tendency to sing and to praise the world's fleeting beauty while "[o]ther young men have been battling with the days / And others have been kissing the beautiful women." The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems is the work of a poet uncertain of his visionary gift, doubtful of his art's worth or purpose, yet sure of the power of language. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Aldous Huxley's The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Limbo (1920) is a collection of short fiction by English author Aldous Huxley. Mostly satirical, Huxley’s novella, play, and four short stories show a promising writer at the very beginning of his career. In the novella “The Farcical History of Richard Greenow,� Huxley satirizes the lives of his friends and acquaintances at Eton and Oxford. Richard Greenow, a young writer, spends his days as a politically engaged academic. At night, however, he writes fiction for women, crafting stories and serialized novels he sells to a prominent women’s magazine. Finding success, he realizes there is a woman inside him, a writer named Pearl Bellairs who is as much a part of his identity as Richard Greenow is. When war breaks out, however, he must choose between his principled pacifism and his fear of prison, a decision that pits his two unique identities against one another. “Happily Ever After,� a story set during the First World War, follows Peter Jacobsen, “ a man with no nationality and no prejudices,� as he travels across the Atlantic to visit Pemberton, his old friend from Oxford and a renowned scholar of philosophy. As friends and family converge on the stately Petherton home, a classic comedy of manners ensues. Limbo is an early collection of fiction from Aldous Huxley, presaging his satirical and dystopian novels with their abundant wit and unsparing, unmatched ire. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Aldous Huxley’s Limbo is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Portraying the revolving clash between class ideals, Antic Hay is a stunning cultural critique on life in London circa 1923. With a sharp comedic edge, author Aldous Huxley delivers a novel of ideas aimed at characterizing the unsettling times following the end of World War I. With over-the-top characters, and ensuing brutish conversations, Antic Hay doesn't follow a typical narrative arc. Huxley's work portrays a world entirely fabricated on gossip, lies, and one man's yearning for societal approval. Dripping with prose that brandished Huxley as somewhat of an iconoclast, Antic Hay has been hailed as Huxley's first masterpiece, paving the way for books with even more controversial subject matter like that of his most popular novel, Brave New World. With an eye-catching cover that mirrors the complexities of Huxley's world and a professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Antic Hay is both modern and readable. Also included is a new note about the author.

"Miss Spence will be down directly, sir." "Thank you," said Mr. Hutton, without turning round. Janet Spence's parlourmaid was so ugly-ugly on purpose, it always seemed to him, malignantly, criminally ugly-that he could not bear to look at her more than was necessary. The door closed. Left to himself, Mr. Hutton got up and began to wander round the room, looking with meditative eyes at the familiar objects it contained.

Aldous Huxley's lifelong concern with the dichotomy between passion and reason finds its fullest expression both thematically and formally in his masterpiece Point Counter Point. By presenting a vision of life in which diverse aspects of experience are observed simultaneously, Huxley characterizes the symptoms of "the disease of modern man' in the manner of a composer—themes and characters are repeated, altered slightly, and played off one another in a tone that is at once critical and sympathetic.First published in 1928, Huxley's satiric view of intellectual life in the '20s is populated with characters based on such celebrities of the time as D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Sir Oswald Mosley, Nancy Cunard, and John Middleton Murray, as well as Huxley himself. A major work of the twentieth century and a monument of literary modernism, this edition includes an introduction by acclaimed novelist Nicholas Mosley (author of Hopeful Monsters and the son of Sir Oswald Mosley). Along with Brave New World (written a few years later), Point Counter Point is Huxley's most concentrated attack on the scientific attitude and its effect on modern culture. 

In his final novel, which he considered his most important, Aldous Huxley transports us to the remote Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal society has flourished for 120 years.

Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala, and events are set in motion when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and--to his amazement--give him hope.

In this fourth volume of a projected six, Huxley registers his deep misgivings about the course of history in the late 1930s as the world moved toward a second global war. Many of his essays reflect his continuing interest in the conventions of popular culture as well as the philosophy of science and history, particularly as they inform developments in art and politics. But his larger concerns oscillate between empirical science and the particulars of social history, on the one hand, and his need for a grounding of absolute truth that would transcend both. His critique of politics and the prevailing ideologies of fascism and capitalism overlaps with his attempt to locate a foundational truth in a world of change and diversity. He embraced a form of political pacifism that intersected with an increasing attraction to religious quietism and mysticism. And he made a sustained effort to reconcile mystical experience with contemporary theories of physics and the philosophy of science. At their best, Huxley's essays stand among the finest examples of the genre in modern literature. "A remarkable publishing event...beautifully produced and authoritatively edited." Jeffrey Hart.

These first two volumes of a projected five, in preparation for several years, begin a major publishing venture, collecting the complete essays of one of the giants of modern English prose and of social commentary in our time. The first two volumes span the most productive period of Huxley's career. "Volume I" begins with his essays for Gilbert Murray's Athenaeum and his music essays for the "New Westminster Gazette." "Volume II" continues through the 1920s and includes his controversial essays on India and the empire in "Jesting Pilate." The essays of both volumes range from nuanced assessments of art and architecture to political analyses, history, science, religion, and art, and a newly discovered series on music. Wide-ranging, allusive, and witty, they are informed by the probing skepticism of a highly educated and ironically incisive member of the English upper middle class. Huxley's fascination with the codes and conventions of European culture, his growing apprehensions about the menacing collapse of the European political order, and his awareness of the impact of science and technology on the post-Versailles world of England, France, Germany, and the United States form the basis for his critique. His subjects overlap with the satirical novels he wrote during the period between the wars, culminating in "Point Counter Point" and "Brave New World." At their best, these essays stand among the finest examples of the genre in modern literature.