Brief Candles

by Aldous Huxley

This collection of Huxley stories contains 'After the Fireworks' which is the length of a short novel and deals with the predicament of a well-known writer who finds himself approached as an oldish man, by an importunate female admirer who aspires at all costs to be his mistress. Three more stories - 'Chawdron', 'The Rest Cure' and 'The Claxtons' complete the volume.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, British Literature, Literature

213 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.

Reviews

[Bram De Vriese · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection of stories. Wit and insightfulness are abundant.

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four really good short stories. The one I think of most often is "Chawdron", one of the best examples I have ever seen of how to use an unreliable narrator.

The framing device is that a charming, witty, extremely cynical friend is telling the story after breakfast at a country house. With evident disgust, he describes how a wealthy industrialist, Chawdron, falls for a young woman, Maggie Spindell. Well, "falls" is maybe the wrong word. It's not clear that anything sexual happens. He becomes enamored of her soul, and finds her a remarkable, unique person, who opens his eyes to things he things he has never experienced before. The narrator encourages us to groan along with him at Chawdron's naive sentimentality, and the transparent subterfuges that Maggie uses to manipulate him. He knows she is just a cheap con-artist playing her mark, and also that she is terrified he will unmask her.

As the scene at the breakfast table progresses, it however becomes clear that the narrator is not a very nice person either, and that he may well have his own reasons for presenting the story the way he does. Some details don't quite ring true. After a while, you start to wonder if Chawdron could be right. Perhaps Maggie really is an exceptional person, and the narrator, eaten up with envy, is refusing to admit what he actually knows very well.

Huxley succeeds perfectly at keeping both views of the story plausible; at the end, I was uncertain which one to believe. It's a great technical achievement, and nonstop entertaining.

[Alyssa Mcleod · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection is fantastic (if you're a fan of two-dimensional female characters).

[Gabrielle Brihn · Rating 4 out of 5]

My attempt to be a reading on the Paris metro girlie!! I really enjoyed this. The four shorter stories echoed each other thematically without feeling repetitive, and you could see Huxley (in all his insanity) shining through. I liked these because they were experiments with philosophy; the philosophies weren't fleshed out, but they were just enjoyable and interesting and I am okay with that. I was not expecting Huxley to be an avid feminist, nor do I go to Huxley for feminism, but unfortunately he did not have the best portrayal of women, for which I am docking a star.

[Saya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought Aldous Huxley was meant to be, like, way out.

[Michael Zwiauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not his best, by a long stretch. The four stories in Brief Candles read like writing exercises and the methodical execution of some very astute observations.

Huxley only really gets to his full potential when he brings the world of ideas into his social satires - the characters themselves are never enough.

[Peter Howell · Rating 3 out of 5]

“… it’s rather humiliating not to be able to do anything but be. I mean, even a cow can be.”

Just kinda eh

[Julia Langnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection I'll read for several years I'm sure. Are the stories groundbreaking and snappy? Probably not, but they are a reflection of life. A little tidbit of wise words at times. They are of course beautifully written, and have complexities I'll only catch on the third read I'm sure. They feel rather political and philosophical somehow. I'm sure they were slightly controversial and highly current when they were written. I think I'd have to read more about the politics of when they came out in order to fully understand how.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eu amo Huxley, ele é um dos meus autores favoritos, e ainda me surpreendo com absolutamente tudo que ele escreveu! Gostei demais desses contos, eu amo como ele consegue transmitir a melancolia, todos tem um ar e um final meio trágicos, porém incrível como ele conseguiu desenvolver tanto os personagens e suas complexidades nesses contos, todos extremamente intimistas e voltadas pra diversas reflexões sobre vida, relacionamentos, etc.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diverting collection of stories, the better of which are the shorter ones. Huxley was a matchless observer of behaviour, and these stories, while less substantial than his novels are very readable. As he was primarily a novelist of ideas, perhaps this form is not his best milieu. But I enjoyed them.

[Becky C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank god that’s over.

[Don M · Rating 3 out of 5]

A British author writes about flawed love stories

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book (first published in 1930) is a collection of four short stories, including a longer novella-like piece which makes up roughly half the book. Although the four stories revolve around quite different plot structures, there is a common thread to most of their personae. Huxley uses these characters to portray the lack of emotional and spiritual depth that he was so concerned with and something he would expand upon so brilliantly - and famously - in his later books like "Brave New World" and "Brave New World Revisited". "Brief Candles" is an excellent example of Huxley's keen and satirical observation of society's fads, fears and foibles.

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the four short stories I most enjoyed "The Claxtons" and the wonderful "After the Fireworks."

In that tale our would-be heroine states:

"For the moment," she went on, writing very fast, as though she was trying to get away from the sad, disagreeable thoughts that had intruded upon her, "I thought I was going to faint when he touched me, like one's coming to after chloroform, which I have certainly never felt like with anyone else."

Delicious.

Perhaps not all of the writing is five star, here I am touching on the boredom "Cure for Rest" but still, very entertaining social satire.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly stimulating; although there is very little plot involved, and the characters are shallow, the language is addictive, and moreish. Four short stories on romance, bringing up children, and relationships.

[kunkku · Rating 5 out of 5]

the mostdelightful book of short stories written in his inimmitable style...

[marília · Rating 2 out of 5]

só vale a pena pelo primeiro conto, chawdron.

[A Yilmaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huxley is clearly a towering intellect, and masterful writer. But dude, chill out you’re really harshing my vibe here.

[Denis Soroka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Только “Клакстоны”.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty, sarcastic and wonderfully ironic. A lovely snack to pass the time