Sybille Bedford: Aldous Huxley

A Biography    

Ivan R. Dee, 2002 (1973-4)     Amazon.com

Blurb:

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. 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. Huxley becomes a living, deeply attractive presence, while his great contemporaries flash through these pages in memorable and moving encounters. Aldous Huxley is a major work on a major figure in the literary and intellectual history of the twentieth century.

“”One of the great classic English biographies…unforgettably profound and unsparing…as forbidding to competitors as Boswell’s life of Johnson.” – Philip Hensher, Spectator

About the Author:

Sybille Bedford is the author of A Legacy, A Favorite of the Gods, Jigsaw, and A Compass Error, all novels published to international praise. Her nonfiction works include The Sudden View, The Trial of Dr Adams, and The Faces of Justice. She lives in London.

JOB’s Comment:

This is the most recent edition. A new biography, by Nicholas Murray, appeared in 2002 but does not replace Bedford’s.