Background on the Author• Aldous Huxley was born in Surrey, England in

1894. • He intended to become a doctor, but was

prevented from doing so by an eye disease that almost blinded him.

“There's only one corner of the universeyou can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.”

Aldous Huxley

• Huxley’s principal concern with the deteriorating state of society led him toward mysticism and the use of hallucinogenic drugs.

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley

He moved to the U.S. in 1937 and lived in Taos, New Mexico. In 1947, he moved to Los Angeles.

He died on November 22, 1963.(same day JFK was assassinated)

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.” Aldous Huxley

Background on Novel

• Published in 1932• Huxley’s most famous novel, a satire

describing a spiritually bankrupt world rigidly controlled by technology and materialism.

• Critics called Brave New World a “novel of ideas” in which Huxley had more interest in ideas than he had in plot or characters.

“Facts do not cease to exist just because they are ignored.”

Aldous Huxley

•Characters are used to voice opinions on …

*the way progress in science affects people

*pursuit of happiness

*religion

Characters are used to voice opinions on …

*division of labor in society*love, passion, freedom*erosion of values and the resultant lessening of human dignity

In a 1961 interview, Huxley expressed

concern that emerging technology, scientific

progress, and social conditioning had the

potential to destroy human individuality,

particularly if a government was

“unscrupulous enough” (immoral) to

experiment with genetic engineering.

• Huxley explores a world that enjoys an external, materialistic, and sensual happiness but has lost the sense of internal happiness that comes from passions, intellectual interest, and spirituality.

• He uses his creation of this future world to comment on the potential dangers he saw in early 20th century thought and practice.

• Written before the rise of dictators Hitler and Stalin, the novel didn’t include the dark and grim totalitarian aspect later found in Orwell’s 1984 (published in 1948).

• In 1958, Huxley published Brave New World Revisited, a collection of essays which addressed the ideas and themes of BNW in light of historical events.

Historical Context• American stock market crash (1929)

• Effects of crash reach England

• People long for the kind of economic security that Huxley gives to the citizens of his fictional world

• In 1920s technology rapidly replacing many workers, but politicians promised that progress would solve unemployment and economic problems

• In order to increase consumer demand for the products being produced, manufacturers turned to advertising in order to convince people to spend their money

• Henry Ford (“Model T”) – in order to pay for new autos, many people who did not have enough money needed to stretch out payments over time, and thus buying on credit became acceptable

• Soon people were buying other items on credit, fueling the economy by engaging in overspending and taking on debt

• 1920s generation rejected puritanical Victorian values of their parents’ generations

• “Victorian values” = refers to moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria (1837-1901)

• contradiction between appearances and reality – espoused a social ethic but in reality there child labor, an imperialistic colonizing economy, prostitution, adventurous and plural sexualities, pornographic pictures and texts, and peep shows

• Stereotype of Victorian family (remember the image of womanhood/motherhood discussed earlier) as opposed to reality

• William Gladstone (1809-1898), four-time prime minister engaged in self-flagellation

• Flirtation with communism, questioning of rigid attitudes about social class, and embracing idea of “free love”

(advocated by Gertrude Stein, 1874-1946)

• Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Frederick Engels’ analysis was a reaction to Victorian Britain