Point Counter Point

by Aldous Huxley, Nicholas Mosley (Introduction)

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 the 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 as D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Nancy Cunard, and John Middleton Murry, as well as Huxley himself.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, Philosophy, Novels, British Literature, 20th Century

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.

Reviews

[Tijl Vandersteene]

Dat deed deugd. Nog eens topkwaliteit lezen. Huxley beschrijft de relaties tussen een groot aantal personen op een boeiende, licht humoristische manier en slaagt er ondertussen in aan te zetten tot nadenken over universele thema's. Meestal, zoals de titel aangeeft, worden verschillende overtuigingen of emoties tegenover elkaar geplaatst. Liefde, bedrog, verlangen, ziekte, dood, geloof, politiek... alles komt aan bod in deze (zeden)schets, die ondanks de eruditie en diepgang toch vlot leest. Huxley is zo goed dat je bijna niet merkt hoe sterk dit boek is. Zijn taal is rijk (regelmatig moest ik een woord opzoeken, altijd leuk) en zijn overdenkingen zijn waardevol (raker dan menig filosoof, econoom en consoorten). Memorabele personages en een verhaal dat prachtig blijft evolueren maken dat ik dit toch redelijk lijvige boek sneller gelezen heb dan verwacht.
"In the darkness the eternities prolonged themselves."