Antic Hay
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Antic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the turbulent times following the end of World War I.
The book follows the lives of a diverse cast of characters in bohemian, artistic and intellectual circles. It clearly demonstrates Huxley's ability to dramatise intellectual debate in fiction and has been called a "novel of ideas" rather than people.
It expresses a mood of disenchantment and reinforced Huxley's reputation as an iconoclast. The book was condemned for its cynicism and for its immorality because of its open debate on sex. The novel was banned for a while in Australia and burned in Cairo.
Superficially the story follows one Theodore Gumbril in his invention of Gumbril's Patent Small-Clothes, trousers which contain a pneumatic cushion in the seat.
It was written just after Huxley and his wife moved to Italy where they lived from 1923 to 1927.
The title is from the play Edward II by Christopher Marlowe c1593. Act One, Scene One, "My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawn, shall with their goat feet dance an antic hay" which is quoted on the frontispiece. "Antic hay", here, refers to a playful dance.
The manuscripts for the novel are part of the collection of the University of Houston Library .
[edit] References
- As a Seminar topic at Flinders University , Australia
- Huxley Bio at Valencia University, Spain
| Works by Aldous Huxley |
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| Novels: Crome Yellow ǀ Antic Hay ǀ Those Barren Leaves ǀ Point Counter Point ǀ Brave New World ǀ Eyeless in Gaza ǀ After Many a Summer ǀ Time Must Have a Stop ǀ Ape and Essence ǀ The Genius and the Goddess ǀ Island ǀ The Crows of Pearblossom Short Stories : Limbo ǀ Mortal Coils ǀ Little Mexican ǀ Two or Three Graces ǀ Brief Candles ǀ The Young Arquimedes ǀ Jacob's Hands; A Fable ǀ Collected Short Stories |
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