After Many a Summer Dies the Swan [Hardcover]

Aldous Huxley (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: CHATTO and WINDUS (1950)
• ASIN: B000WS8VHY
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) is the author of the classic novels Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Devils of Loudun, The Doors of Perception, and The Perennial Philosophy. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lesser-known Huxley work that is well worth reading, June 22, 2001

By 

Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (Hardcover)

Most people read Huxley's Brave New World (under duress, maybe, in school) and possibly Chrome Yellow and Eyeless in Gaza, his two other popular novels. However, After Many a Summer is a wonderful, not-very-long novel that displays Huxley's superb sarcastic wit.

In this novel, Huxley plays on man's fear of death. He creates a somewhat W. R. Hearst-like rich businessman who wants to use his money and power to cheat Death, and a scientist who has no compunctions against using any means to lengthen life, without questioning what quality that extended life really has. The ending is a real surprise.

This is one of Huxley's most enjoyable novels to read. It is also a timely one that can be read in the light of the new genetic research pusing the boundaries of science. As in Brave New World, Huxley was frighteningly accurate in his prophesies.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars World-changing agenda, March 11, 2006

By 

Steven W. Cooper "Steve" (Perigueux, FRANCE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (Paperback)

A lot of the reviews here make valid points: the philosophical asides are brilliant but tedious for people who don't like philosophy. The characters (the entire plot in fact) do sometimes seem like an afterthought, employed to support the 'big' ideas, but that's not to say they're two-dimensional.

However, when reading a book like this it's important not to get too focused on only one of the many interesting ideas that fly like sparks from Huxley's mind. Explorations of mortality, eroticism, class struggle, mysticism, greed, ...etc. are all presented dispassionately enough. As such, they're like colors on Huxley's palette; and it's not rewarding to complain about a particular shade of green.

The thing that struck me was that Huxley is very specific about the character types he chooses to include here. His decision to pit the grasping Stoyte against the impossibly saint-like Propter elaborates an inner-dialogue one can imagine Huxley was having to reconcile his own idealized world-view with the reality he had encountered in America. In doing this Huxley provides justification and outlines a strategy for implementing his utopian vision.

For me; it's this attempt to reconcile the world of ideas with reality that, like with much of Hesse's work, seems to be the focal point of the book. I'm looking forward to reading Huxley's later books to see how he develops this attempted reconciliation.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hilarious black comedy, March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (Paperback)

This is Huxley's "American" novel, in which he manages to lampoon the more outrageous aspects of American popular culture- and in particular California culture- while still managing to get in a few digs at his own countrymen. It's hard to discuss in depth without disclosing too much, but suffice it to say that it's got plenty of Huxley's wit along with his social commentary and a hilarious ending. If you liked Waugh's "The Loved One" you'll find this much to your liking as well.