Aldous Huxley: A Biography

by Sybille Bedford

In this dazzling conjunction of subject and author, the great English novelist Aldous Huxley, the “wholly civilized man,” is brought wholly alive in a magnificent full-scale biography by the brilliant English novelist Sybille Bedford, an intimate friend of the Huxleys through four decades. With a pointillistic richness of moment, place, and talk, she re-creates not only the private Huxley and the literary Huxley but the entire intellectual and social era to which he was central. Despite the almost total loss of his sight at age sixteen, Huxley became a titan and cultural hero of the decades after World War I, on terms with the outstanding writers and artists of his day, from D. H. Lawrence to Stravinksy and Auden. He had two separate and large careers as Crome Yellow and Point Counter Point , flag-bearer of England's Bright Young People through the 1920s, and romancer of glittering women; and later, in America, as the increasingly philosophical and utopian thinker, and a pioneering explorer of the frontiers of the human mind. Drawing on his letters and diaries, the memories of his intimates, and her own sharp and sensitive comprehension of Huxley's writings, Mrs. Bedford has written a masterful biography. "Her novelist's eye," writes V. S. Pritchett, "brings the writer to life. Huxley becomes a living, deeply attractive presence, while his great contemporaries flash through these pages in memorable and moving encounters. Mrs. Bedford's biography stands as the major work on a major figure in the literary and intellectual history of the twentieth century."

Genres: Biography, British Literature, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

820 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Sybille Bedford, OBE (16 March 1911 – 17 February 2006) was a German-born English writer. Many of her works are partly autobiographical. Julia Neuberger proclaimed her "the finest woman writer of the 20th century" while Bruce Chatwin saw her as "one of the most dazzling practitioners of modern English prose.

Works

The Sudden View: a Mexican Journey - 1953 - (republished as A Visit to Don Otavio: a Traveller's Tale from Mexico, a travelogue)
A Legacy: A Novel - 1956 - her first novel, a work inspired by the early life of the author's father, which focuses on the brutality and anti-Semitism in the cadet schools of the German officer class.
The Best We Can Do: (The Trial of Dr Adams) - 1958 - an account of the murder trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams
The Faces of Justice: A Traveller's report - 1961 - a description of the legal systems of England, Germany, Switzerland, and France.
A Favourite of the Gods - 1963 - a novel about an American heiress who marries a Roman Prince
A Compass Error - 1968 - a sequel to the above, describing the love affairs of the granddaughter of that work's protagonist
Aldous Huxley: A biography - 1973 - the standard, authorized biography of Huxley
Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education - 1989 - a sort of followup to A Legacy, this novel was inspired by the author's experiences living in Italy and France with her mother
As It Was: Pleasures, Landscapes and Justice - 1990 - a collection of magazine pieces on various trials, including the censorship of Lady Chatterley's Lover, the trial of Jack Ruby, and the Auschwitz trial, as well as pieces on food and travel.
Pleasures and Landscapes: A Traveller's Tales from Europe - a reissue of the above, removing the legal writings, and including two additional travel essays.
Quicksands: A Memoir - 2005 - A memoir of the author's life, from her childhood in Berlin to her experiences in postwar Europe.

Reviews

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know if this is the best or most objective bio of Huxley, since the author was a friend and doesn’t have much bad to say about him, but it was certainly interesting. He was an interesting guy. I’d read and loved Island and Brave New World, and knew he’d taken LSD. I hadn’t known he’d had such a hard childhood (he lost his mother and eyesight in the same year) or that he was interested in Dianetics, or was such a committed pacifist. It was time well spent.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I will personally dispense with reading the early part of this, simply because Woodcock's book covered it very well, and this is more a hagiography albeit by a personal friend. But already one thing I never knew, and I am sure most of you did not, either, is that Huxley's famous "grey flannel trousers" seen as "miraculous" beneath the expansion valve of the mescaline experience, were actually blue jeans. Just think how many more pairs of Levi's they could have sold! (yuk, yuk.) Were it not for Mrs. Huxley's editorial primness, hoping to reach a more highbrow audience. Well it's just one of the fascinating trivia available in this version of the man's biography. But I'd put the emphasis here more on the trivia, as, unlike Woodcock, she focuses on the human being and his trials, than on the literature and the message. Not that they were few, nor un-noteworthy. Her insights as to the message of his book Island (a culmination of the better part of his life's work) is off a little, but perhaps only because she had no particular part to play in the psychedelic movement- which would have given the author a wider range of understanding, as well, for some of Huxley's conclusions regarding the proper social role of these substances. And yes, he was very annoyed with Tim Leary's "marketing schemes"- as in retrospect I am myself. Some things just aren't for everyone, and if such interesting and "out of self" experiences can be induced naturally in certain people, it might do them a world more good than tripping. (There's lots more I could say about that, but, I like keeping reviews to the point...)

[Dexter Boniface · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a tedious book that will probably only be enjoyed by diehard fans of Aldous Huxley. As other reviewers note, the book has a slow pace and bland style and Bedford’s writing is sometimes hard to follow. For those that are willing to overlook these significant shortcomings, the book does offer an exhaustive and intimate portrait of Aldous Huxley’s life and work.

In terms of the writing style, Bedford’s biography has a ‘one thing after another’ quality that begins with Huxley’s birth and ends with his death. In other words, the book is devoid of a central theme, arc or interpretation of Huxley’s life that might help to carry the book from start to finish. The question of who Aldous Huxley was is answered, but only indirectly. Furthermore, Bedford’s writing is confusing since she relies on a patchwork of letters to construct her narrative. An added frustration (for me anyway) is that Bedford often quotes passages in their original French but rarely offers a translation (Huxley’s first wife, Maria, was from Belgium and she and Aldous often spoke to one another in French).

In terms of the book’s content, readers will of course learn a lot about Huxley’s life and work: his charmed but tragic childhood; his peculiar marriage to Maria; his prolific writing habits (including insights into his entire cannon of work); his forays abroad and long stints in the French Mediterranean and Hollywood; the constant ups and downs of his health; the evolution of his ideas about war, pacificism, the environment, and spirituality; his experimentation with psychedelic drugs and hypnosis (among other esoteric pursuits).

[Sam Schulman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to remain interested in Aldous Huxley through this long, respectful biography, but it must be read because - shyly revealed in the course of the telling - Sybille Bedford was a troubled teenager taken in by the Huxleys in the 30s - and she actually make the reader (or at least this reader) fall completely and actually in love with Laura Huxley as you read. It's a completely unique experience - perhaps unique to me - to have this experience with a real person (I certainly had it with Tess Darbyfield of Tess of the D'Urbervilles but that's different). Bedford wrote "A Legacy," which is another of the great fictional reconstructions of what it's like to be a German - so truthful-to-life that for a long time I thought it must have been a translation. But the fact is that Bedford can do things with prose that no one else can do.

[katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exhaustive. Not the most amazing writing style, but CERTAINLY packed full of info on Aldous and anyone he was close with. I enjoyed it to the very end. But then again, I am a die hard Huxley fan (read : loser). haha.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big Huxley fan, so for me it was a must

[. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was generally well written for its time. Would've been a 4* if not for 2 major complaints.

1 - Brevity. The author seemed to have no concept of what deserved to be left out. She'd go on and on for pages describing what was eaten, with whom, where, and what the weather was like. These occasions were often littered with countless names of figures who have since disappeared into history, never to achieve relevance again. The only proper way to handle such passages is to skip them.

2 - Intentional inaccuracy. Aldous Huxley was very involved, both with Timothy Leary and the Timothy Leary project. He was an avid participant and correspondent with Leary, plus he and Laura were regular friends of Leary's. In fact, Timothy Leary was a houseguest of the Huxleys both before and AFTER Aldous died. Laura even provided the amount of Aldous's deathbed trip to Leary herself. There's no way the author didn't know about this; instead she let her own bias determine how the end of Aldous Huxley's life was portrayed. I find it to be rather unfortunate that the least accurate portrayal of Aldous occurred at his end.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

an altogether good book, it had much first hand information as well as info that was directly heard from family and friends of Aldous... my only complaint was how "polite" Sybille was because she was a direct friend of the family and was very close to Maria (Aldous' wife)... to the extent that it was a surprise to hear that Maria was sick because her symptoms weren't directly described, just hinted at..... still, a good read.

[Laura]

5* Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education
TR A Legacy
TR Aldous Huxley: A Biography
TR A Favourite of the Gods and a Compass Error

[Dewayne Stark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting the author is

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half more than the second. There's lots of interesting trivia. The book is as much about Huxley's first wife Maria as it is with Huxley. The author had a long and close friendship with them. The narrative is often confusing when quoting from letters from various people, (mostly by Maria), Bedford dropping in brief passages of her own. When describing Huxley's final illness and taking LSD as he was dying, the author didn't explain or mention why Huxley took LSD as he was exiting this world. He thought the state of mind and being one is experiencing, i.e, higher spiritual state and at peace with no fear, determines the spiritual state one enters in the next life.

The book is a wealth of interesting information and facts, but clearly needed an editor. Far too long and tedious in parts but a good description of the long life of one of the great minds of the twentieth century. A mind that seemed to know no bounds of interest or subject.

[Andy Rendell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a mixture of a contemporaneous detailed diary, and a form of personal loving memorial to Aldous and Maria Huxley.

The degree of fly-on - the wall daily detail about domestic life is revealing,and charming in small doses but tends to exces overall.

I did not glean much about the thought going into the works, as the book concentrates more on the functional detail of their being written and published.

The book struck me as an effectionate personal tribute to life- long friends by a younger person almost adopted by the Huxleys, and there is a wealth of backround bonus material on people such as DH Lawrence, but it was too long because the method of working sequentially through the diary overcame critical focus.

[Frater · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really interested in the life of Huxley. However I did not like the style of this biography.

[Alethea Hammer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting person who lived in interesting times and knew lots of other interesting people. These are some of the ingredients for a great biography. Unfortunately, a great biography also needs a good writer who is objective about the character of the book's subject.
Sybille Bedford seems to have been too close a friend of both Aldous and Maria Huxley to be truly objective. Further, the book is 755 pages of sometimes fascinating, sometimes tedious detail about their lives. It is as much a biography of Maria as Aldous and of their unorthodox, but very devoted marriage.
The book quotes at length from Maria's letters and in several passages laments the fact that her journals and boxes of other letters were lost in a fire.
I liked the subject, but the writing style of Sybille Bedford was difficult to follow. I have always disliked the 'condensed version' of any book. However, I think perhaps this one could actually benefit from the Reader's Digest treatment.