“A LIVING MYTH… THE QUESTIONS THAT RACKED HIS BRAIN ARE STILL WITH US”

HUXLEY, Aldous. Eyeless in Gaza. London: Chatto & Windus, 1936. Octavo, original half cloth, beveled decorated boards, top edge gilt, uncut. $1250.

Signed limited first edition of Huxley’s first novel after Brave New World (1932), number 118 of only 200 copies, signed by Huxley.

"Godlike in his height, aquiline in features and omnidirectional intelligence, Huxley was a living myth… The questions that racked his brain are still with us" (Clive James, The New Yorker). In 1936 Huxley followed his 1932 masterpiece Brave New World with Eyeless in Gaza, signaling "a conversion to more spiritual interests" that characterized much of the work written after his 1938 emigration to California. The novel confirmed Huxley's reputation as a novelist of ideas, described by Isaiah Berlin as "one of the major intellectual emancipators" of his time. Along with Eyeless in Gaza, "the books produced up to 1939 assure Huxley of a place amongst the major English social satirists" (Stringer, 326). Eschelbach & Shober 27.

Inner paper hinges starting but sound. A near-fine copy.