Time Must Have a Stop
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Time Must Have a Stop
by Aldous Huxley, Douglas Dutton (Preface)
3.67 · Rating details · 1,312 ratings · 102 reviews
Sebastian Barnack, a handsome English schoolboy, goes to Italy for the summer, and there his real education begins. His teachers are two quite different men: Bruno Rontini, the saintly bookseller, who teaches him about things spiritual; and Uncle Eustace, who introduces him to life's profane pleasures.
The novel that Aldous Huxley himself thought was his most successful at "fusing idea with story," Time Must Have a Stop is part of Huxley's lifelong attempt to explore the dilemmas of twentieth-century man and to create characters who, though ill-equipped to solve the dilemmas, all go stumbling on in their painfully serious comedies (in this novel we have the dead atheist who returns in a seance to reveal what he has learned after death but is stuck with a second-rate medium who garbles his messages).
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Average rating3.67 · Rating details · 1,312 ratings · 102 reviews
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Paul
Sep 14, 2013Paul rated it it was amazing
Shelves: huxley-ideas-arguments
This is a difficult one to review. One of Huxley’s lesser known works; before Doors of Perception and after Brave New World and written as the Second World War finished. Difficult because it covers so much ground. It is a philosophical treatise, a critique of capitalism, fascism, socialism, especially of imperialism. It has a go at post-modernism and at Joyce, Woolf et al. It is a critique of religion in its traditional form; an exploration of Huxley’s attraction to Buddhism. It predates much existential thought and 60s radicalism and accurately predicts it. It talks about the trashing of the planet in a way that feels that it might have been written in the last ten years. It irritated and delighted me in equal measure. In the midst of that is a coming of age novel. It predicts the growing power of Russia and China; the collapse of Empire and at the same time preserves a lightness of touch and a sense of humour.
Sebastian Barnack is 17, with blond curly hair and is rather beautiful. His father John is a lawyer, anti-fascist and humanitarian. Unfortunately he does not understand Sebastian’s need for evening clothes and a social life because these are mere fripperies and totally unnecessary. Sebastian is an innocent (virgin) and a poet and does not understand his father’s asceticism. He is to spend the summer in Italy with his uncle Eustace. Eustace is a hedonist and sensualist, promising to teach Sebastian about life and love and buy him evening clothes! Bruno Rontini, a friend of Eustace will teach Sebastian about the spiritual side of life. The novel takes place over one summer, apart from an epilogue some 15 years later. Sebastian learns about life, loses his virginity, writes poetry, makes some mistakes; one of which (though simple and not too heinous) echoes through the years.
There are some startling moments. There is a death from a heart attack which Huxley describes with exceptional vividness and it feels all too real. I am not sure how Huxley does it, but he kills off a significant character (and I’m thinking No! You can’t do that) and at the same time the whole scene is hilarious; this is writing of a high order. The hilarity goes on as the character, who is an atheist discovers that death is not the end and the attempts to contact loved ones through a medium are very funny. The descriptions of life after death are irritating and unconvincing and a bit nirvanaish, but the point is made.
This novel for me is better than any of Huxley’s other work I have read. Sebastian is a typical 17 year old boy; hung up about girls, selfish, innocent and fancies himself as a poet. Sebastian grows up as he encounters goodness in the shape of Bruno Rontini and wickedness in the shape of fascism. There is even a type of reconciliation with his father by the end of the book. Embedded in the tale are the ideas; plenty to react to!
Suffering is not always ennobling. “Democracy is being able to say no to the boss, and you can’t say no unless you have enough property to enable you to eat when you have lost the bosses’ patronage.”
“For four and a half centuries white Europeans have been busily engaging in attacking, oppressing and exploiting the coloured people’s inhabiting the rest of the world. The catholic Spaniards and Portuguese began it; then came Protestant Dutch and Englishmen, Catholic French, Greek Orthodox, Russians, Lutheran Germans, Catholic Belgians. Trade and the Flag, exploitation and oppression, have always and everywhere followed or accompanied the proselytizing cross.
Victims have long memories – a fact which oppressors can never understand.”
It is powerful stuff and Huxley comprehensively dismantles western liberal ideas in a ruthless and pitiless way. The answers he gives are not convincing, but the demolition is spot on. There is much to argue with and Huxley is a little smug sometimes; but this is a thought provoking book. It foreshadows Fritz Fanon, Rachel Carson and the 60s radicals and it looks back on the post-modern movement. I like books that you can react to; I disagreed with a good deal, but it was a great ride!! (less)
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daniel
Apr 20, 2009daniel rated it it was amazing
'of course, you realize,' he added, 'that you'll always be disappointed?'
'with what?'
'with girls, with parties, with experience in general. nobody who has any kind of creative imagination can possibly be anything but disappointed with real life. when i was young i used to be miserable because i hadn't any talents - nothing but a little taste and cleverness. but now i'm not sure one isn't happier that way. people like you aren't really commensurable with the world they live in. whereas people like me are completely adapted to it.' he removed the [cigar:] from between his large damp lips to take another sip of brandy.
'your business isn't doing things,' he resumed. 'it isn't even living. it's writing poetry. vox et praeterea nihil, that's what you are and what you ought to be. or rather voces, not vox. all the voices in the world. like chaucer. like shakespeare. the miller's voice and the parson's voice, desdemona's and caliban's and kent's and polonius'. all of them impartially.'
'impartially,' sebastian repeated slowly.
yes, that was good; that was exactly what he'd been trying to think about himself, but had never quite succeeded, because such thoughts didn't fit into the ethical and philosophical patterns which he had been brought up to regard as axiomatic. voices, all the voices impartially. he was delighted by the thought.
'of course,' eustace was saying, 'you could always argue that you live more intensely in your mental world-substitute than we who only wallow in the real thing and i'd be inclined to admit it. but the trouble is that you can't be content to stick to your beautiful ersatz. you have to descend into evening clothes and ciro's and chorus girls - and perhaps even politics and committee meetings, god help us! with lamentable results. because you're not at home with these lumpy bits of matter. they depress you, they bewilder you, they shock you and sicken you and make a fool of you. and yet they still tempt you; and they'll go on tempting you, all our life. tempting you to embark on actions which you know in advance can only make you miserable and distract you from the one thing you can do properly, the one thing that people value you for.' (less)
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Jacob
Feb 03, 2008Jacob rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: everyone
Seriously one of the best books I've read in the last few years. It's a deceptive read in that the storyline is a facade for Huxley's philosophical messages. If you can get past the fact that it really isn't about a young man trying to procure formal evening wear, but instead a dialogue of morals, it becomes much easier to read and very enjoyable. Definitely worth finishing, and definitely worth reading again. (less)
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Ant
Sep 10, 2010Ant rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
This novel was written just prior to the publication of the Perennial philosophy, his essay on the mystical. Reading this leaves no doubt that the direction his writing was taking was very personal & closely following his own spiritual evolution. In fact, 'Time Must Have a Stop' could almost have been written as a prelude to where he was to take his audience with his future essays. While his last major novel, 'Eyeless In Gaza', if we are to jump frog 'After a many Summer', left the protagonist at the edge of this spiritual exploration, this book jumps right in with the first ever after death account of "the light" I've ever read in a book.
"The light", that supposed near death experience many have anecdotally gone through to live to tell about, was described, not entirely surprisingly from Huxley, as a very psychedelic state. As he describes it here, it mirrors exactly the bliss/anxiety/eternalness that LSD or other hallucinogens take the mind through, as a Self-aware, living, changing geometric Lattice of light. Which influenced which? His experiments with Hallucinogens or his association with Vedanta, it's hard to say, but there is no doubt that his experience of the psychedelic state played a major role in the formulation of his description of the post death state in this novel. The novel in itself is not one of his great works in a literary sense. It is not in the realms of 'Point Counter' Point or 'Eyeless in Gaza'. It however moved, to my mind in a much better direction than his previous novel, 'After a many summer', returning to his drier, more introspective English style.
While the book is not a monument or masterpiece, it is a very good book, and a good read. Set in Florence, he surrounds his characters with art, culture and the richness of life, while setting it all up to challenge the reader of its surrender (in the form of personal annihilation). The book is not about bringing culture to the reader, but the wisdom to treat it all as superficial and ultimately a distraction. There is no doubt this book was presented as nothing less than a modern sutra.
Having read many reviews here, I still feel Huxley was grossly misunderstood. The man was a cynic with a scientific dissection of reality. He was not a hopeful, was not a dreamer, if you were to understand his earlier works, so why would he break here? His mind was the fruit of the evolution of the ground of those traits. The word 'God' raises eyebrows and rightly so, but for want of a better linguistic bridge, Huxley, sparingly uses this term to identify with an ultimate ground; a ground which many have experienced and is held by no institution. We do not take it as accepted fact the stories humorous lines about the misadventures of a séance, but rather a vehicle to attempt to describe a deeper, ineffable state which goes beyond any descriptions a book may grant. Gathered from millenia of experience, Huxley has sifted through texts (and pretexts) to offer the most viable answer to a most impossible question. To say the atheist is the ultimate conveyor of truth is to put one's faith blindly in yet one more dogma. Yet Huxley ultimately does not explicitly even commit to any specific doctrine, settling on the final "Not this, not this" as the only description of truth.
This is a relatively minor novel for Huxley, but at the same time an important one. Well written, great fun in fact, but in order to understand it as more than mere point of View, to understand it as the Hero of the book, Bruno would have, one would have to extend oneself to read Huxley's next work, the 'Perennial Philosophy'.
Don't get me wrong, it is not a heavy book. It is well balanced with humor and interesting character sketches that he treats much more kindly than in his earlier works in spite of their flaws. He even treats himself a little more charitably if we are to imagine he is Sebastian. I loved this book. It returned him from that American novel style, back to where he belongs. It was warm, rich and thought provoking and enough to make me continue to follow his path had I not read this before his later works. An absolute must for any Huxley fan. Oh, and interestingly, Bruno, the spiritual inspiration, died of throat cancer, as did Huxley many years later. (less)
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Jake Danishevsky
Oct 03, 2015Jake Danishevsky rated it it was amazing
Shelves: read-fiction-non-politics, own
A coming of age book by Aldous Huxley. The most interesting part is transformation of Sebastian Barnack. I can completely relate to his character and I am sure, so as many who are able to reflect on their past, present and maybe even the future. I have the same values as I had when I was in my teens, twenties, thirties, but I have different beliefs and understanding of my surroundings and even those same values. That is how I saw Sebastian as I read this book.
Not to spoil the book for anyone who would like to read it themselves, here is just a tidbit about it. The story starts with description of a young man, who with his youthful charm and good looks is able to make people like him immediately, pay attention to anything he would request and even forgive him on anything that others might not be able to get away with. He makes mistakes, a few and many, but as any young person, he has a hard time dealing with telling the truth, owning up to them and at the same time trying to justify them. Sebastian is not a bad person, but he is young and scared, of his own doing and his own actions. Is he selfish? Yes, he might be and even cynical, but all and all, he is desperate to feel better about his actions by hoping that no one will find out or when they do, they will once again fall for his charm and a smile. Can someone blame him for his actions? Sure, of course he is wrong and he knows it, but yet he continues to fall deeper into his own desperate mental hole that he dug for himself of deceit and hence in a way hurting the ones who are trying to help him, the ones who love him. His priorities are not aligned with strong character, but yet he knows it and not able to get out of pitiful of his own actions.
Bruno changes Sebastian's life. Bruno is a distant relative and a man of virtue. He teaches Sebastian not by lecturing, not by talks, but by being. Bruno pays the price for Sebastian's actions, but yet he continues to display the virtue and higher level of character that eventually helps Sebastian in the long run.
Skip forward and we see a man, a man who has been through some good and bad of life, but a man nevertheless who was able to learn and evolve into a person that he was meant to be. He becomes a man of stronger character and therefore gains respect even from someone who doesn't always volunteer to display respect, his father. That man is Sebastian and his life has taken many terms, but he was able to learn humility from his experiences and from the man who stood by him through actions that others might have not supported, Bruno.
Huxley was an amazing psycho-analyst. He was able to create a character and then do analysis on his character, where you feel what the character feels and yet you are able to reflect on his actions that you would not agree with, worry about him doing the right thing and eventually praise the character for becoming a person of some greater value. Amazing book and work of fiction. It draws you in and makes you want to see what happens next. I have to admit, I am a huge Huxley fan, but I did not love every single one of his books. This one I liked a lot. Even though it has taken me a little longer than I expected to read it, it was not due to the book, but my constraints of time and whenever I had time to pick it up, I had a hard time putting it down. I was contemplating whether to give this one 4 or 5 stars and since there is no 4.5, then 5 it is. (less)
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David Zerangue
Aug 11, 2020David Zerangue rated it liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: literature
This would have been a 2.5 star rating if half stars were allowed.
I found this book to be very challenging to appreciate. Aldous Huxley was a highly intelligent individual and I have enjoyed other works of his. But this one really missed. There were elements of the novel that reminded me why I enjoy reading his works, but there were so many other aspects of this novel that I found overly difficult. I felt I needed to be a scholar to appreciate this novel. By the time the reader reaches the end of this novel, it is clear this is Mr. Huxley’s philosophy. Had he focused on telling the story so as to deliver the message, this would have been a more rewarding read. (less)
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Scott
Apr 07, 2018Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Huxley was deep into his mystical phase by the time he wrote this, 1945, and there’s a heavy didactic strain to the novel – while it starts as something of a social satire, by the ending it’s become pretty close to a straightforward essay, masquerading as the notebook of one of the characters. So it’s an excellent presentation of his views on religion and mysticism, though there’s no mention of psychedelics at this point, presumably he hadn’t yet begun his explorations there. And his biting sens ...more
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Troy Alexander
Dec 30, 2020Troy Alexander rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Extremely clever (above my head, in places) and wonderfully written. I did find myself thinking, at times, "just get on with it", as I do find Huxley rather verbose but, nevertheless, this is still a very engaging and thought-provoking book.
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Momina Masood
Mar 06, 2014Momina Masood rated it it was ok
Shelves: philosophy, brit-lit
And suddenly he knew these recovered figments of himself for what they so shamefully were; knew them for mere clots and disintegrations, for mere absences of light, mere untransparent privations, nothingness that had to be annihilated, had to be held up into incandescence, considered and understood and then repudiated, annihilated to make place for the beauty, the knowledge, the bliss.
I wasn’t at all prepared for Huxley and had no inkling what this book was going to be about. In my college library, I was looking instead for Brave New World but, since I failed to find it, I picked this one up, thinking that written by the same man who’s written a positively famous book, it must be good, as well. And it is, undoubtedly. But for the uninitiated, this book is kind of hard to get in to, to get properly adjusted, as the early pages completely knock you numb with their verbiage. Huxley, among other things, can get verbose as anything. The patient and inexorable reader might wade through the early few chapters and, though no Nirvana waits at the end of the endeavor, the reading experience will not prove to be completely futile, in my humble opinion, at least.
This book must not be read for the fiction, the story, the character development. It isn’t a traditional novel as it aims not to excite the fancy but to give a few philosophical nuggets to chew on. It is more of a philosophical treatise than a novel, actually. If Huxley wanted to tell a story, he could have done it in 5 pages as nothing much happens in this book. The characters are drawn as mouthpieces to explicate Huxley’s philosophy and his qualms regarding the world as he saw it. They are also drawn as embodiments and possible archetypes: you have a morally depraved atheist in Eustace whose end of life is pleasure; the spiritualist and the enlightener Bruno; the mother-figure and the sentimentalist in Mrs. Ockham, and the cynical, invulnerable, morally questionable adulteress in Mrs. Thwale. Oh, and you also have the political puritan in John Barnack, as well. In drawing such diverse characters, Huxley has, in a way, given a cross-sectional analysis of his world and in the midst of these characters is our protagonist, the seventeen-year old Sebastian Barnack who is precocious and annoying as hell! Experience and transformation await this seventeen-year old contradiction of a human being and, in this way, this novel can be seen as one of those coming-of-age thingies. In the Epilogue, the reader sees a more self-aware Sebastian who’s less wordy and specious, concerned about more important things in life and, finally, asking the right questions. It is said that the ideas in this book were further developed in The Perennial Philosophy and I’m looking forward to reading it to understand better Huxley’s take on the world. The little I’ve managed to gather is that Huxley, to his fortune, was a kind of a spiritualist. I knew before of his fascination with Hinduism and Buddhism and it is very much evident in this book.
All in all, I warn the reader that this is not a recreational book and definitely does not bear the enjoyable fruits of common fiction. It is heavy, can get a little dull, sometimes even difficult and you might ask yourself what is the bloody point of all of this?! As I happened to mention that I issued this book out of my college library, the page beginning the 16th chapter had a little pencilled squiggle saying: “Do not waste your valuable time with this dull book!” Further on, the squiggle reappeared saying: “Useless!” I wanted to place a squiggle of my own somewhere but then I decided otherwise. He or she, whoever wrote them, are kind of right as this book is not meant for everyone. Huxley was an intellectual, first and foremost, and this book is a proof of that. You do not have ordinary conversations between the characters but essay-length debates on art, culture and theology replete with the most fantastic of pedantic allusions. Well that’s Huxley for you. He does, however, manage to pull you in at some point and does well in his endeavor.
The 2 stars are, well, kind of personal. He disparages a few things that are very important to me and gets extremely blasphemous at times. I have been open-minded enough to review him pleasantly but I cannot be too much of a liberal in giving him a high rating. I apologize but I shall advise Muslim readers in being cautious whilst reading this book, if you do choose to pick it up. It gets offensive but then again, the stereotypes have gotten too old and clichéd to actually offend us. They kind of elicit a meh now. Meh for you, Huxley!
That said, I’m still open to reading Brave New World and I hope the next time I visit my library, I’ll find the right book.
And of course, he reflected, resurrection is optional. We are under no compulsion except to persist—to persist as we are, growing always a little worse and a little worse; indefinitely, until we wish to rise again as something other than ourselves; inexorably, unless we permit ourselves to be raised.
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Leoniepeonie
Oct 29, 2020Leoniepeonie added it
Finally putting this bad boi to bed. Big fat DNF.
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Michael Chance
Dec 12, 2017Michael Chance rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Huxley regarded this book as his most successful attempt at dealing with philosophical themes in the novel form. I would agree partially... It is quite astonishing the depth and breadth of ideas that he manages to discuss. Perhaps it would be a better novel if he’d held back a little, but we’d be poorer if that were the case.
This book is not really a novel; it sets out as a novel before disintegrating and deconstructing the form, and this is its great success. The book begins as a human comedy, and ends as a divine comedy. The novel - a bourgeois 19th-20thC form of prose fiction centred on the individual - gives way to something more cosmic; the individual perspective is dissolved.
This is not to say that the petty bourgeois concerns of young Sebastian are shown as silly and meaningless, merely that there are different levels of consciousness that are appropriate at different stages of life. Although he is fiercely intellectual, Sebastian is young, and therefore preoccupied with the distractions of youth; clothes, girls, social acceptance - and that’s ok, he’ll mature. As the book progresses, the conceptual elements come further to the fore: from the first fumblings, to grown up conversational dialectics, to enlightened, mysterious inner reckoning.
The political aspect is perhaps most immediately apparent. Huxley gives us characters which represent ways of being - such as the miserly but fair socialist father against the indulgent, lascivious capitalist uncle - and sets them against each other without moralising too much or too obviously toward one side - they both have flaws and boons.
The religious/spiritual aspect of the book is slightly harder to grasp and I feel like I need a second reading to do so.
This is a book which I’m sure would hold up to a third, fourth and fifth reading, and would yield ever more ideas with each visit. Huxley is one of the great comprehensive, syncretistic thinkers of the 20thC, and breaks boundaries not only in a progressive sense but in a lateral sense, opening up a wider scope for the inclusion of diverse intellectual disciplines within the novel form.
I must read The Perennial Philosophy, which I gather is basically the non-fiction equivalent to this, or vice versa - not sure which is better to start with though? (less)
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Gee
May 06, 2012Gee rated it liked it
Having once tried to commence Brave New World, which I found difficult to get into, I approached another Huxley novel with a little trepidation. But I found myself enjoying Time Must Have a Stop. It's setting, period and characters reminded me a little of Somerset Maugham which gave me some comfort and familiarity. But overall this was an engaging story of religious or spiritual belief, an impression of the afterlife and the nature of the system of life that was society between the wars (Time was published in 1944).
This is the story of Sebastian Barnack, a 17-year old budding poet who goes to stay with this larger than life uncle Eustace in Florence for a holiday. It's very much a story of Sebastian learning about life - from the point of view of his strict and socialist father, from the generosity of spirit of his uncle, from the experience he gains from Veronica, his uncle's mother-in-law's assistant companion, and Bruno, a friend of Eustace's he gets to know deeply after the death of his uncle.
There are plenty of more sophisticated reviews of this book on Goodreads, so I shall leave it to those who can do an in depth review far more effectively. I recommend this book if you want an engaging story told with a sense of poetry and fun, and if you want your view of life, and the afterlife, to be challenged with some fascinating insights. (less)
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Liza
Jul 19, 2010Liza rated it really liked it
Shelves: forced-or-unintentional-philosophy
As mentioned by others, this is not for those who are looking for a story or a plot to dive into. This is philosophy through and through. I expected that when I started it, which is probably why I was so satisfied with it.
With that in mind, Huxley let's you into his mind in a way very very few have the bravery or depth to do. Yes, he is verbose and he can't seem to bring his lingual genius down to the layman's level-- but I love that about him as well. If you can get through it, if you really take the time and effort to understand it-- it is likely that it will blow you away.
As for me, I don't doubt that I'll be reading passage after passage many many times over the course of my life, only to discover something new each time.
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Scott
Dec 31, 2012Scott rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: classics
This book is quite powerful; culminating, throughout all of Sebastian's learnings and goings-on, in the true essence of the results of actions. Through Bruno's teachings on the ancestors and descendants of an action, good or bad, and through the actual results of Sebastian's choices, what was seemingly trivial proved that nothing is truly trivial. Sebastian moved on from a "simple poet", albeit extremely gifted, to a true philosopher of his time, giving each action a thorough discourse of its existence. We should all aspire to put such deep thought into the everyday doings. (less)
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Clinton Smith
Dec 12, 2013Clinton Smith rated it really liked it
Huxley is now best known for his 'Brave New World' dystopia. And that is well. His other books are amusing, erudite fiction. Huxley, however had an abiding interest in arcane philosophies and 'Time Must Have a Stop' is one of his most interesting books. It is an attempt - imbued with Huxley's inevitable wit - to explore beyond death. An attempt that demonstrates insight and considerable philosophical inquiry. Highly recommended. (less)
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David
Oct 19, 2010David rated it really liked it
Shelves: ap-literature
The only Aldous Huxley novel I have read aside from Brave New World. Huxley manages to blend philosophy, theology, a novel of class, and a coming of age novel (with a dash of mysticism) into a provocative and engaging story.
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