Witty and intelligent

Particularly interesting if you are into the Garsington/Bloomsbury thing. Genuinely funny, and often absurd, and extremely well read by a perfect narrator.

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1 person found this helpful

great narration

I laughed out loud several times. Excellent narration and story, a lot sillier than the other Huxley books I've read (Eyeless in Gaza and Brave New World) but still profound. You could even say it was "carminative"! That's an inside joke for thsoe who've listened to this gem. Also, Mr Barbecue-Smith is a very good name for a character. This audiobook really has cheered me up. I'm going to read The Island on my Kindle immediately or quite soon.

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8 people found this helpful

Witty and amusing insight into post Great War attitudes and intellectual fashions. No plot, but very funny dialogue. A series of characters put forward their views and theories, many very similar to ideas of today. Wodehouse and Waugh fans can compare and contrast this depiction of a country house weekend. On my reading list for years, I'm so glad I caught up with it at last. The large number of clips I took out of it for later savouring indicates how much I enjoyed it.

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Makes a change

Witty, humerous and sharp edged. The kind of thing that benefits from being read aloud particularly by a fast reader like me, as it made pay proper attention to all the lovely lines

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6 people found this helpful

Glorious Crome!

Thoroughly enjoyable! The characters, the mark of the time on thought and life, depicted, now playful, now melancholic? but always with full colour, honesty and depth? and with such delightfully vivacious narration, it was a joy.

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5 people found this helpful

He do the intellectuals in different voices

This is Huxley’s first novel. Set in a country house party after the Great War and read here expressively by Robert Whitfield. The plot is episodic and comic, satirical and sometimes touching. Denis is a would be writer in love with Anne who becomes involved with an artist Gombauld. Denis himself ignores the attentions of Mary, who is seduced by Ivor Lombard, who abandons her. In truth the plot is not much. This is a comedy of manners, which depicts the artists and intellectuals who stayed at Garsington. The craze for the occult, and the sardonic views of Scogan a satire of Bertrand Russell are depicted. Jenny who is deaf is revealed to be writing a satire on the house party. She plays the drums at the village carnival. An earlier owner of the house turns the place into a haven for dwarves, before his world is destroyed by his normal sized son. This is described in heroic couplets. I found the novel diverting, perhaps because I was a specialist in the art and literature of Modernism.

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2 people found this helpful

A quaint little book

Nothing astonishing about it but a pleasant read none the less. also most will have read brave new world which part of is hinted at.

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2 people found this helpful

Excellent reading. All characters come to life

This is one Huxley’s most important books bearing all the hallmarks his telling wit and observations of life

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