Jacob's Hands; A Fable
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Written by Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, and Christopher Isherwood, author of Good-Bye to Berlin. Previously unpublished, Jacob's Hands was originally written for the screen. It lay hidden in a trunk on the Huxley estate for fifty years before being discovered by actress Sharon Stone in 1997.
[edit] Summary
Jacob Ericson is a shy, enigmatic, and somewhat inept ranch hand who works for crotchety Professor Carter and his crippled daughter Sharon, on a ranch in the California Mojave Desert in the 1920s. One day he learns that his hands possess the mysterious gift of healing, a gift he uses to cure animals, which he adores. Sharon, whom he also adores, then persuades him to heal her. When he successfully cures her, his gift is quickly exploited and the boundaries of his charm and naivete begin to stretch. First he offers his healing powers for free at a church in Los Angeles, where he has gone in pursuit of Sharon after she fled her father and the ranch to follow her dreams of stardom. Jacob and Sharon cross paths when they work for the same pair of exploitative showmen. Jacob stays with the seedy stage show only because Sharon is close by. It is when Jacob's gift is recruited to heal Earl Medwin, an eccentric, ailing young millionaire, that the love and security for which he has worked so hard begin to evaporate.
| 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 |
