cover image Complete Essays: Volume III: 1930-1935

Complete Essays: Volume III: 1930-1935

Aldous Huxley. Ivan R. Dee Publisher, $35 (653pp) ISBN 978-1-56663-347-5

""The scientific specialist uses words artificially fabricated from Greek roots.... The sailor's technical terms have grown up with the language and seem to palpitate with its strong and ancient life,"" writes Aldous Huxley in ""Words, Words, Words,"" a brief essay on linguistic pleasures. His prodigious output ranges so far that he appears to touch on most significant topics in his Complete Essays: Volume III, 1930-1935 (of six planned volumes). But while his writings on the arts some relevant, some quaint still charm, some of his sociopolitical commentary will dismay students today, e.g., ""Miscegenation should be prevented, because there is evidence to show cross-breeding between individuals of widely different race is biologically unsound."" Such ideas, if stomached, could aid explorations of prewar social attitudes. ( June 22)