One of Brave New World author Aldous Huxley’s finest and most personal novels, now back in print in a Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition, Eyeless in Gaza is the story of one man’s quest to find a meaningful life, which leads him from blind hedonism to political revolution to spiritual enlightenment.
“A genius . . . a writer who spent his lifetime decrying the onward march of the Machine.” — The New Yorker
First published in 1936--and hailed as his best work--EYELESS IN GAZA is Aldous Huxley's loosely autobiographical novel of one man’s search for an alternative to the moral disillusionment of the modern world. Anthony Beavis, a cynical libertine Oxford graduate, comes of age in the vacuum left by World War I. His life, loves, and foreign adventures leave him unfulfilled, until he meets a charismatic doctor who inspires Anthony to become a Marxist and join the Mexican revolution—a disastrous embrace of violence that leaves the doctor with one leg. Shattered by the experience, Anthony forges a new, quasi-Buddhist philosophy that embraces pacifism. EYELESS IN GAZA remains one of Huxley’s most enduring novels, a testament to the challenges and rewards of bold, vigorous thinking.
Author Info
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) is the author of the classic novels Brave New World, Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles, California.
Reviews
“An important book . . . Without parallel in our contemporary literature.” — New York Times Book Review
“We are, it is safe to say, on the eve of a Huxley revival.” — Los Angeles Times
“His best work.” — The Economist
“Of Huxley’s 11 novels only Eyeless in Gaza (1936) is a complete artistic success. — Washington Post Book World
“Huxley’s finest novel.” — New Statesman
“A genius . . . a writer who spent his lifetime decrying the onward march of the Machine.” — The New Yorker
