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Description edit
On vacation from school, Denis goes to stay at Crome, an English country house inhabitated by several of Huxley's most outlandish characters--from Mr. Barbecue-Smith, who writes 1,500 publishable words an hour by "getting in touch" with his "subconscious," to Henry Wimbush, who is obsessed... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Denis: Add a description of this character.
- Denis Stone: Main character. Likes Anne. A writer.
- Mr. Scogan
- Anne
- Mary
- Henry Wimbush: obsessed with writing the definitive HISTORY OF CROME
- Gombauld
- Ferdinando
- Ivor
- Mr. Barbecue-smith: Writes 1,500 publishable words an hour by "getting in touch" with his "subconscious".
- Priscilla
- George
- Hercules
- Jenny
- Mr. Bodiham
- Emmeline
- Filomena
- Mr. Callamay
- Mrs. Budge
- Luther
- Rowley
- Georgiana
- Lapith
- Julius
- Lady Lapith
Quotes edit
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“It’s the fault of one’s education. Things somehow seem more real and vivid when one can apply somebody else’s ready-made phrase about them.”
Denis Stone -
“Books. One reads so many, and one sees so few people and so little of the world.”
Denis Stone -
“The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations; and Eros, beautifully and irresponsibly free, will flit like a gay butterfly from flower to flower through a sunlit world.”
Gombauld -
“In the world of ideas everything was clear; in life all was obscure, embroiled.”
Denis Stone -
“I have to say that art is the process by which one reconstructs the divine reality of chaos.”
Denis Stone -
“Greatness is nothing more nor less than the harmonious functioning of the faculties of the head and heart.”
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“I believe I enjoy scratching this pig as much as he enjoys being scratched.”
Denis Stone -
“You ask me what one should do if one hasn’t got Inspiration. I answer: you have Inspiration; everyone has Inspiration. It’s simply a question of getting it to function.”
Mr. Barbecue-Smith -
“All the great and splendid and divine things of life are wonderfully simple.”
Mr. Barbecue-Smith -
“The Mountain Road may be steep, but the air is pure up there, and it is from the Summit that one gets the view.”
Mr. Barbecue-Smith -
“Seeing is Believing. Yes but Believing is also Seeing. If I believe in God, I see God, even in the things that seem to be evil.”
Mr. Barbecue-Smith -
“Pessimism, on the other hand, is the contraction of the soul toward darkness; it is a focusing of the self upon a point in the Lower Plane; it is a spiritual slavery to mere facts; to gross physical phenomena.”
Mr. Barbecue-Smith -
“Eccentricity… It’s the justification of all aristocracies. It justifies leisured classes and inherited wealth and privilege and endowments and all the other injustices of that sort.”
Mr. Scogan
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Parallel straight lines, Denis reflected, meet only at infinity. He might talk for ever of care-charmer sleep and she of meteorology till the end of time. Did one ever establish contact with anyone? We are all parallel straight lines. Jenny was only a little more parallel than most.
Highlighted by 51 Kindle customers -
After all, what is reading but a vice, like drink or venery or any other form of excessive self-indulgence? One reads to tickle and amuse one's mind; one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking.
Highlighted by 44 Kindle customers -
''They are nothing. Vanity, fluff, dandelion seed in the wind, thin vapours of fever. The things that matter happen in the heart. Seen things are sweet, but those unseen are a thousand times more significant. It is the unseen that counts in Life.''
Highlighted by 43 Kindle customers -
One is always alone in suffering; the fact is depressing when one happens to be the sufferer, but it makes pleasure possible for the rest of the world.'
Highlighted by 38 Kindle customers -
'Ah, that's because you don't know what it's like to have faith. You've no idea how amusing and exciting life becomes when you do believe. All that happens means something; nothing you do is ever insignificant. It makes life so jolly, you know.
Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers -
One entered the world, Denis pursued, having ready-made ideas about everything. One had a philosophy and tried to make life fit into it. One should have lived first and then made one's philosophy to fit life...Life, facts, things were horribly complicated; ideas, even the most difficult of them, deceptively simple. In the world of ideas everything was clear; in life all was obscure, embroiled.
Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers -
An impersonal generation will take the place of Nature's hideous system. In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations; and Eros, beautifully and irresponsibly free, will flit like a gay butterfly from flower to flower through a sunlit world.'
Highlighted by 33 Kindle customers -
Dinted, dimpled, wimpled—his mind wandered down echoing corridors of assonance and alliteration ever further and further from the point. He was enamoured with the beauty of words.
Highlighted by 32 Kindle customers -
'If you want to get men to act reasonably, you must set about persuading them in a maniacal manner. The very sane precepts of the founders of religions are only made infectious by means of enthusiasms which to a sane man must appear deplorable. It is humiliating to find how impotent unadulterated sanity is.
Highlighted by 31 Kindle customers -
Wherever the choice has had to be made between the man of reason and the madman, the world has unhesitatingly followed the madman. For the madman appeals to what is fundamental, to passion and the instincts; the philosophers to what is superficial and supererogatory—reason.'
Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers
First Sentence edit
Along this particular stretch of line no express had ever passed.
Table of Contents edit
This book has 30 chapters.
Series & Lists edit
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This is book 727 of 1272 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
Preceded by The Fox.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Aldous Huxley (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: Add the language.
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: Add the publication date.
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 122
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: Add the publication date.
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 122
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 823.912
Subjects edit
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