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COMPLETE ESSAYS

VOL. III, 1930-1935

For serious fans only.

The third of a projected six-volume set of Huxley’s essays.

In addition to authoring the classic Brave New World, Huxley was also a prolific essayist; most of the pieces here are short, editorial-style columns that originally appeared (with the exception of those taken from a collection published in 1930 titled Music at Night) in periodicals such as the Evening Standard, Nash’s Pall Mall Magazine, and Hearst. Written during “the Slump” and during the early rumblings of Nazism, Fascism, and the launching of Stalin’s “Five-Year Plan,” they provide a window into the social and political climate of the times. Huxley covers a wide range of topics. His commentaries on the value of technology and industry are still interesting, and his uninhibited musings on the different political systems evolving during the period are sharp; critical of American political democracy, Huxley was intrigued early on by authoritarian social planning and even Fascism. The primary value of this collection, however, will be to chart the evolution of Huxley’s ideas. Frequently diffuse and surprisingly insubstantial, many essays are also dated—ranging from his amusing pronouncement that “the energy set free” in splitting the atom “is too small, for practical purposes, to matter” to his disappointingly short-sighted optimism about the possibilities offered by eugenics (especially as regards the loathsome prospect of “sterilization of the unfit”) to his ironic call for state funding of “bio-chemical researches for the purpose of discovering the ideal substitute for alcohol, cocaine, and opium.” He also placed great hope in parapsychology training programs, given that research had “definitely established” in the 1880s “the reality of telepathic communication.”

For serious fans only.

Pub Date: June 22, 2001

ISBN: 1-56663-347-8

Page Count: 640

Publisher: Ivan Dee/Rowman & Littlefield

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...

Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.

Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").

Pub Date: May 15, 1972

ISBN: 0205632645

Page Count: 105

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972

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