paperbacks – Huxley, Wells, Hesse

Posted on | November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments

Quality paperbacks in fair condition:

Aldous Huxley – Those Barren Leaves

Those Barren Leaves is a satirical novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1925. The title is derived from the poem The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth which ends -

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

Amazon review:

Not many novelists have been cleverer than Aldous Huxley. Like a surgeon peeling away the layers of skin to get at the bare bones beneath, Huxley peels away the layers of character to leave them open to our view. A disparate group of characters assembles at the Italian villa of Mrs Aldwinkle, an ageing hostess who fears the passing of the years, knowing that in the normal course of events she will be ever less alluring to the people passing through her life. One of those people is Francis Chellifer, poet and editor of the Rabbit Fancier’s Gazette. Another is Mrs Aldwinkle’s put-upon niece, Irene. Through a succession of incidents, Huxley presents his story with a calm dispassion, a wry, casually amusing authorial voice that opens his characters to our view while keeping their motives closed to each other. A charming slice of life and an endlessly fascinating novel.

Stripping away the pretensions of those who claim a spot among the culturally elite, it is the story of Mrs. Aldwinkle and her entourage, who are gathered in an Italian palace to relive the glories of the Renaissance. For all their supposed sophistication, they are nothing but sad and superficial individuals.

H.G.Wells – The Invisible Man

In this tale of psychological terror, a young scientist must live in the personal hell created by his own experiments. Using himself as the subject, the scientist discovers the key to invisibility; yet, he is unable to reverse the results. Wells had created a gripping masterpiece on the destructive effects the invisibility has on the scientist and the insane and murderous chaos left in his malicious wake.

Herman Hesse – Steppenwolf

teppenwolf is a novel on what it means to be alive, albeit the character of life in this book often finds itself the recipient of harsh criticism and hatred.

Hesse claimed that this work was written to portray some of the feelings of alienation and isolation that the author was feeling around the time of his fiftieth year. Despite being broken into three parts Steppenwolf essentially deals with one theme – that of the main protagonist Harry, and the struggle between his animal instincts and society.

Although Harry is somewhat alien to most of us in his utter and almost innate sadness, he does share with us a great deal. He in essence shares the struggle we all have – the one between instinct and decorum, between sensation and society. Harry is trapped because he is living as a wolf and as a man. The wolf part his base desires and the man the part of him that seeks solace in the music of Beethoven. However in reality both parts of Harry are human in nature. We all live as sensuous beings and at the same time as members of a working society, in which there are rules of conduct that will curtail the beast in us.

Steppenwolf was taken up by sixties counter-culturists as a brick to break down the walls of society around them, finding in its pages a bleak portrait of the world in which we live. The beast within lashed out, ripped the pictures from the walls and called in a new decorator! Necessary as this may have been at the time, this was not the message Hesse intended. Indeed his message was far more universal and timeless. He told us that we should enjoy the fullness of life, soak ourselves in its reveries, mine the pleasures of the intellect, but also learn how to dance and make love, to duck and dive in and out of its many forms of existence. And to do this we must not dispel the man or the beast, but we must let them lie together in an embrace, tumbling through the tides of life

readers opinion from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steppenwolf-Essential-Penguin-Hermann-Hesse/dp/0140282580
A must read for anyone tortured with themselves, who think they are alone in their views of existence. Mr. Hesse offers incredible perspective into the mind’s own enemy; it’s want for conformity juxtaposed to it’s need to antagonize. Hesse doesn’t stop there, as he gives solutions to what most people question but ultimately surrender, read this and surrender no more. A must have classic !

Grantchester Grind – Tom SharpeGrantchester Grind Brilliant satire by Tom Sharpe A novel..., Determinants and Matrices – A C Aitken Determinants and Matrices A C Aitken A paperback..., Psychedelic Drugs – Brian WellsPsychedelic Drugs – Brian Wells A study of the...,

Comments

-->