Product Description

The dilettantes who frequent Lady Tantamount's society parties are determined to push forward the moral frontiers of the age. Marjorie has left her family to live with Walter; Walter is in love with the luscious but cold-hearted Lucy who devours every man in sight; the repulsive Spandrell deflowers young girls for the sake of entertainment and all the while everyone is engaged in dazzling and witty conversation. Often described as a Vanity Fair for the Twenties, Point Counter Point contains wickedly accurate portraits of D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Ottoline Morrell and Huxley himself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #189390 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From the Publisher
Some reviews of Point Counter Point
'Huxley's style is at once dry and rich, intellectual and sensuous, scholarly and romantic. Point Counter Point is extremely funny with passages of rich and gorgeous farce.' Observer

'As a piece of satire, often brilliant, sometimes wise, Point Counter Point is a monstrous exposure of a society which confuses pleasure with happiness, sensation with sensibility, mood with opinion, opinion with conviction and self with God.' Guardian

Often described as a Vanity Fair for the Twenties, Point Counter Point contains wickedly accurate portraits of D.H.Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, Ottoline Morrell and Huxley himself.

About the Author
Aldous Huxley was born on 26th July 1894 near Godalming, Surrey. He began writing poetry and short stories in his early twenties, but it was his first novel, 'Crome Yellow' (1921), which established his literary reputation. This was swiftly followed by 'Antic Hay' (1923), 'Those Barren Leaves' (1925) and 'Point Counter Point' (1928) - bright, brilliant satires in which Huxley wittily but ruthlessly passed judgement on the shortcomings of contemporary society. For most of the 1920s Huxley lived in Italy and an account of his experiences there can be found in 'Along The Road' (1925). The great novels of ideas, including his most famous work 'Brave New World' (published in 1932 this warned against the dehumanising aspects of scientific and material 'progress') and the pacifist novel 'Eyeless in Gaza' (1936) were accompanied by a series of wise and brilliant essays, collected in volume form under titles such as 'Music at Night' (1931) and 'Enda and Means' (1937). In 1937, at the height of his fame, Huxley left Europe to live in California, working for a time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. As the West braced itself for war, Huxley came increasingly to believe that the key to solving the world's problems lay in changing the individual through mystical enlightenment. The exploration of the inner life through mysticism and hallucinogenic drugs was to dominate his work for the rest of his life. His beliefs found expression in both fiction ('Time Must Have a Stop', 1944 and 'Island', 1962) and non-fiction ('The Perennial Philosophy', 1945, 'Grey Eminence', 1941 and the famous account of his first mescalin experience, 'The Doors of Perception', 1954. Huxley died in California on 22nd November 1963.

Customer Reviews

Monumental egos and moral emptiness among the privileged classes
When I was young the mantra of the resource-poor when talking about those more financially endowed was always `they have more money than sense'. That is certainly the case in Huxley's cynical sneer at the manners and mores of the upper-classes and intellectuals of the 1920s, of which he was one of course. Sacrificing plot for content and detailed character development, Point Counter Point is a complexly woven, satirical take on what was effectively England's `Jazz Age' where monumental egos and moral emptiness reign among the privileged classes. The Tantamount family, rich since the dissolution of the monasteries, throw regular parties for the intellectuals and dilettantes of the day, and indeed the atmosphere is rather like being led around and being invited to listen in to the conversations en route. However, much of the book revolves around an elaborate series of relationships and affairs. Among others, Lady Edward Tantamount is having an affair with the painter and womaniser John Bidlake, and man-eating Lucy Tantamount is pursued by Bidlake's son Walter. Walter is living with pregnant Marjorie Carling, who has left her family to be with him and who realises that she is already `old hat'. In the meantime, his sister Elinor is returning from India with her husband Philip Quarles, locked in a marriage that has lost all passion and meaning. The intellectuals are represented chiefly by Mark Rampion and Maurice Spandrell, men of wildly differing characters. The happily married Rampion is one of the few people in the book with a shred of integrity whereas Spandrell is an odious, pompous debaucher of young women. The pain of each unlikeable character is built upon brick by brick and it is difficult to feel sympathy for any of them, even when tragedy occurs, their self-induced agonies resulting from grasping selfishness and duplicity. Sexual shenanigans aside, Point Counter Point is at heart a book of ideas with the characters acting as mouthpieces for some fierce polemic on politics and religion, art, music and literature, physics and biology, sex and morality. Huxley betrays his own particular concern about the effects of industrialisation and rapid technological progress, overuse of the world's resources, and his fear of creeping Americanisation. Great writing, but a perhaps a little heavy going for much of today's readership.

Hilarious and quite relevant
I found this book to be very humorous. The interaction between the characters is a work of genius.

One thing that could put people off readng this is the fact it is set in the 1920's. Dont let that put you off - the story itself is very relevant in this day and age and goes to show that some of the things taking place in our society now are not new.

The political message is very well balanced and in our high speed world, it may serve to give people reason to pause for thought.