Subject
Re: VN and Aldous Huxley? (fwd)
Date
Body
Just an aside:
I find Huxley's "Antic Hay" and "After Many A Summer" his most enjoyable
novels. The first has some felicitous neologisms. During a lexicographical
investigation many years ago I discovered that Huxley had a predilection for
the word "callipygous", which he used on at least five occasions, including
the very charming adverbial form "callipygously" in the first chapter of
"After Many A Summer" (The OED has taken due notice of this fact and quotes
him at least twice). High frequency for a word that one seldom finds outside
the pages of Nabokov (LOLITA, ADA) and Burgess, as Lubin noted many, many
years ago re another word (borborygm).
Abdellah Bouazza
The Netherlands.
t 02:14 PM 1/19/99 -0800, you wrote:
>>From sweeney@holycross.edu Tue Jan 19 14:03:16 1999
>
> Does anyone have any information about VN's possible
>familiarity with Aldous Huxley, and especially with BRAVE NEW WORLD?
>Edmund Wilson mentioned AH in a letter to VN, but VN did not address the
>matter in his reply. Thanks for any help you can give me.
>
>
>Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
>ssweeney@holycross.edu
>------------------------------
>EDITOR's NOTE.
>
> I've pondered the same question without getting very far with it.
>Exactly a year ago, lying in a hammock in the Cost Rica jungle, I
>(re-)read an early Huxley novel someone has left lying about. _Chrome
>Yellow_, I think. The date (1921) was such that VN might have read it when
>at Cambridge. I didn't come up with anything startling. My suspicion is
>that VN would not have been a Huxley fan since AH's novels are "novels of
>ideas" clothed in conversation -- although the satiric element might have
>had some appeal for him. Also respect for Thomas Huxley's name. The book
>was also useful for giving the flavor of England in the 20s.
> As for _Brave New World_, my guess is VN read it. The late Ed
>Brown wrote an short book on Zamyatin's WE and Huxley's book. Might be
>worth a look. I don't recall if he mentioned VN. VN admired the Zamyatin
>work.
> What do you think? I'll be interested in seeing if your query
>turns up anything
>
>D. Barton Johnson
>Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
>Phelps Hall
>University of California at Santa Barbara
>Santa Barbara, CA 93106
>Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
>Home Phone: (805) 682-4618
>
>
I find Huxley's "Antic Hay" and "After Many A Summer" his most enjoyable
novels. The first has some felicitous neologisms. During a lexicographical
investigation many years ago I discovered that Huxley had a predilection for
the word "callipygous", which he used on at least five occasions, including
the very charming adverbial form "callipygously" in the first chapter of
"After Many A Summer" (The OED has taken due notice of this fact and quotes
him at least twice). High frequency for a word that one seldom finds outside
the pages of Nabokov (LOLITA, ADA) and Burgess, as Lubin noted many, many
years ago re another word (borborygm).
Abdellah Bouazza
The Netherlands.
t 02:14 PM 1/19/99 -0800, you wrote:
>>From sweeney@holycross.edu Tue Jan 19 14:03:16 1999
>
> Does anyone have any information about VN's possible
>familiarity with Aldous Huxley, and especially with BRAVE NEW WORLD?
>Edmund Wilson mentioned AH in a letter to VN, but VN did not address the
>matter in his reply. Thanks for any help you can give me.
>
>
>Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
>ssweeney@holycross.edu
>------------------------------
>EDITOR's NOTE.
>
> I've pondered the same question without getting very far with it.
>Exactly a year ago, lying in a hammock in the Cost Rica jungle, I
>(re-)read an early Huxley novel someone has left lying about. _Chrome
>Yellow_, I think. The date (1921) was such that VN might have read it when
>at Cambridge. I didn't come up with anything startling. My suspicion is
>that VN would not have been a Huxley fan since AH's novels are "novels of
>ideas" clothed in conversation -- although the satiric element might have
>had some appeal for him. Also respect for Thomas Huxley's name. The book
>was also useful for giving the flavor of England in the 20s.
> As for _Brave New World_, my guess is VN read it. The late Ed
>Brown wrote an short book on Zamyatin's WE and Huxley's book. Might be
>worth a look. I don't recall if he mentioned VN. VN admired the Zamyatin
>work.
> What do you think? I'll be interested in seeing if your query
>turns up anything
>
>D. Barton Johnson
>Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
>Phelps Hall
>University of California at Santa Barbara
>Santa Barbara, CA 93106
>Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
>Home Phone: (805) 682-4618
>
>