Point Counter Point
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Point Counter Point, published in 1928, was Aldous Huxley's fourth novel. It is highly regarded: the Modern Library lists it in the top 100 novels of the 20th century. [1]
Consistent with Huxley's other novels, Point Counter Point has no overarching plot. Much of the novel consists of deeply penetrating personality sketches and long intellectual conversations. When actions are described, Huxley analyzes every motive and internal emotion in detail, sometimes even jumping into a character's past to provide context. His characters decry the dangers of sacrificing humanity for intellectualism, and express concern about the staggering progress of science and technology. Thus, Point Counter Point could be best described as a novel of ideas.
Comparisons have been made between character Everard Webley and his Brotherhood of British Freemen and Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists, established in 1932.
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[edit] Synopsis and characters
Set in 1920s London, the novel begins by detailing the misery of one Walter Bidlake, but quickly expands its reach through Walter's social sphere, which is a mix of British nobility and lower-class intellectuals. Walter's affair with Marjorie, a married woman, has gone sour, and he is off to a party at Tantamount House to doggedly chase Lucy Tantamount, a woman he finds logically abhorrent but irrationally attractive. Following Lucy to a restaurant, they meet up with Mark Rampion and Maurice Spandrell, intellectuals.
Meanwhile, Walter's sister Elinor is returning from India with her husband Philip. Their relationship is not going well: Philip lives in a world of intellectualism, and is uncomfortable with his humanity so far as to suppress it.
Back in London, Walter tries to ask his boss at a literary magazine for a raise. The man, Denis Burlap, is a facetious and hypocritical individual who idolizes (and thinks himself like) St. Francis.
All the while, the charismatic Everard Webley is building up his Brotherhood of British Freemen, a group with decidedly fascist politics.
[edit] Film and television adaptations
- 1968 BBC mini-series adapted by Simon Raven starring Tristram Jellinek; also broadcast on PBS television in 1972
[edit] External link
- Somaweb.org - a collection of links relating to Huxley's works in general
[edit] References
- ^ The Modern Library 100 Best Novels Accessed Dec 27, 2006
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| Novels | Crome Yellow • Antic Hay • Those Barren Leaves • Point Counter Point • Brave New World • Eyeless in Gaza • After Many a Summer • Time Must Have a Stop • Ape and Essence • The Genius and the Goddess • Island • The Crows of Pearblossom |
| Short Stories | Limbo • Mortal Coils • Little Mexican • Two or Three Graces • Brief Candles • The Young Arquimedes • Jacob's Hands; A Fable • Collected Short Stories |
| Poetry | The Burning Wheel • Jonah • The Defeat of Youth • Leda • Arabia Infelix • The Cicadias and Other Poems • First Philosopher's Song |
| Travel writing | Along The Road • Jesting Pilate • Beyond the Mexique Bay |
| Essays | On the Margin • Along the Road • Essays New and Old • Proper Studies • Do What You Will • Vulgarity in Literature • Music at Night • Texts and Pretexts • The Olive Tree • Ends and Means • Words and their Meanings • The Art of Seeing • Science, Liberty and Peace • Themes and Variations • Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow • The Doors of Perception • Heaven and Hell • Adonis and the Alphabet • Collected Essays • Brave New World Revisited • Literature and Science |
| Philosophy | Ends and Means • The Perennial Philosophy |
| Biography | Grey Eminence • The Devils of Loudun |
| Collections | Text and Pretext • Moksha: Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience • Collected Short Stories |
