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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Huxley novel I've read so far,
This review is from: Time Must Have a Stop (British Literature) (Paperback)
This book is not for everyone. If you like and understand satirical views of Victorian society and you have a knowledge or interest in art, poetry, and theology then you'll find this book intellectually stimulating. If you don't appreciate any of these things you might find it presumptuous and at the very least boring. So I admit this book is very much intoned to a specific audience.
The book delves into discussions of just about everything under the sun. It goes through saintliness, theology, art, poetry, schooling, etiquette, and morals. The characters add further insight with their behaviors. I was particularly fond of Mrs. Thwale who perfectly embodies the female mystique and femme fatale. A lascivious woman of Victorian sensibilities and honor she flits from one man to the next, never giving herself up. The main character, probably the least well-rounded, seems to be a flawless embodiment of the stereotypical teenager who thinks he's the center of the universe. Certain points are just terribly cruel but absolutely hilarious in that twisted satirical way. At one point the elderly Queen Mother clutches her dead dog in mourning but almost as soon as a new puppy is handed over to her she lets the dog fall off her lap and flop to the ground. I believe there is a point to be made here. Though I admit I don't even remotely agree with the discussions of sainthood I did find it an interesting read. It proved Huxley is evermore a very complicated and perhaps conflicted character in and of himself. Though I give this book five stars I still think it bears repeating it's not for everyone.
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intermittently brilliant,
By A Customer
This review is from: Time Must Have a Stop (British Literature) (Paperback)
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.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly Recommended,
By A Customer
This review is from: Time Must Have a Stop (Hardcover)
Huxley explores the fickleness of mortality with his usual clever pen and knack for irony. This beautiful book examines materialism and morality through the eyes of a young man and contrasts this with the protagonist's reflections of years later.
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