Point Counterpoint

Point Counter Point, the most complex and longest of Aldous Huxley's novels, was first published in 1928. Modern Library ranked Point Counter Point 44th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century in 1998.The novel's title is a reference to the musical technique of counterpoint, and the story is on the fashion of a work of music with a number of interlinked storylines and recurring themes. Many of the characters are based on real people, most of whom Huxley...
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Point Counter Point, the most complex and longest of Aldous Huxley's novels, was first published in 1928. Modern Library ranked Point Counter Point 44th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century in 1998.The novel's title is a reference to the musical technique of counterpoint, and the story is on the fashion of a work of music with a number of interlinked storylines and recurring themes. Many of the characters are based on real people, most of whom Huxley knew personally snd spares none of these characters: Rampion and Burlap obsessed with Life, Marjorie, Elinor and Walter Bidlake romanticising in love, Bidlake Senior and Lord Edward detached from real life, the cynicism of Spandreth, the politics of Webley and the stupidity of Sidney Quarles. None of the discussions on art, life and science goes well and seems to be shrouded by excellent mocking. Walter Bidlake, a young journalist lives with Marjorie Carling, a married woman whose husband refuses to grant her a divorce. Marjorie becomes pregnant with a weak and ineffectual Walter's child, but their relationship is disintegrating because Walter has fallen desperately in love with the sexually aggressive and independent Lucy Tantamount (based on Nancy Cunard, with whom Huxley had a similarly unsatisfactory affair). Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 - 22 November 1963) was an English writer and a prominent member of the Huxley family. He was the third son of the writer and schoolmaster Leonard Huxley and his first wife, Julia Arnold, who founded Prior's Field School. In 1911, he suffered an illness which "left him practically blind for two to three years and weak sighted for his whole life. His teacher was his mother, who supervised him for several years until she became terminally ill. In 1921, Huxley married the Belgian refugee Maria Nys. They lived with their young son in Italy part of the time in the 1920s, where Huxley would visit his friend D. H. Lawrence. Following Lawrence's death in 1930, Huxley edited Lawrence's letters in 1933 and moved to USA in 1937. From 1939, and continuing until his death in 1963, Huxley had an extensive association with the Vedanta Society of Southern California. In 1944, Huxley wrote the introduction to the "Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God", translated by Swami Prabhavanada and Christopher Isherwood. From 1941 until 1960, Huxley contributed 48 articles to Vedanta and the West, published by the Society. He also served on the editorial board with Isherwood, Heard, and playwright John van Druten from 1951 through 1962.Huxley is best known for his novels including Brave New World, set in a dystopian London and The Doors of Perception which recalls experiences when taking a psychedelic drug. Huxley also wrote a essays on a wide-ranging topics, edited the magazine Oxford Poetry and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, film stories and scripts. He spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.Huxley was a humanist, pacifist, and satirist. He became deeply concerned that humans might become subjugated through the sophisticated use of the mass media or mood-altering drugs, or tragically impacted by misunderstanding or the misapplication of increasingly sophisticated technology. Later, he became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, in particular, Universalism. He is also well known for his use of psychedelic drugs. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time. Following the death of his first wife Maria Nys in 1955, Huxley married Laura Archera (1911-2007) in 1956. In 1960, Huxley was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer and suffered health deterioration. Huxley, who was denied the US citizenship by the government of USA, died as a UK citizen at 5:20 pm on 22 November 1963.