Aldous Huxley's lifelong concern with the dichotomy between passion and
reason finds its fullest expression both thematically and formally in
his masterpiece Point Counter Point. By presenting a vision of life in
which diverse aspects of experience are observed simultaneously, Huxley
characterizes the symptoms of "the disease of modern man' in the manner
of a composer--themes and characters are repeated, altered slightly, and
played off one another in a tone that is at once critical and
sympathetic.
First published in 1928, Huxley's satiric view of intellectual life in
the '20s is populated with characters based on such celebrities of the
time as D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Sir Oswald Mosley, Nancy
Cunard, and John Middleton Murray, as well as Huxley himself. A major
work of the twentieth century and a monument of literary modernism, this
edition includes an introduction by acclaimed novelist Nicholas Mosley
(author of Hopeful Monsters and the son of Sir Oswald Mosley).
Along with Brave New World (written a few years later), Point Counter
Point is Huxley's most concentrated attack on the scientific attitude
and its effect on modern culture.
