Eyeless in Gaza (novel)
 Dust-jacket from the first edition | |
| Author | Aldous Huxley |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Chatto & Windus |
| Publication date | 1936 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 619 |
| ISBN | 978-0061724893 |
Eyeless in Gaza is a novel by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1936. It is an account of the life of an English socialite named Anthony Beavis between the 1890s and 1935.
Inspiration for title and story
The title is taken from a phrase in John Milton's Samson Agonistes:
- ... Promise was that I
- Should Israel from Philistian yoke deliver;
- Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him
- Eyeless in Gaza at the Mill with slaves ...
The title of the book, like Milton's poem, recalls the biblical story of Samson; he was captured by the Philistines, his eyes were burned out and he was taken to Gaza, where he was forced to work at grinding grain in a mill.
Huxley's biographer, Sybille Bedford, whom Huxley knew from being neighbors in the south of France, says in her fictional memoir Jigsaw that two of the novel's characters – Mary Amberley, a jaded drug addict with a taste for young men, and her daughter Helen – were partly inspired by Bedford and her mother, who was addicted to morphine. The subplot of Anthony as a boy dealing with the loss of his mother and the losses effect on his distraught father may also have been influenced by Huxley himself losing his mother at 14.[1]
Plot and style
The novel focuses on four periods in the life of an English socialite named Anthony Beavis (circa 1902, 1914, 1928, and 1934), but the chapters are not in chronological order; as a result, the reader experiences the events in a piecemeal way as they happen or are related non-sequentially. Some chapters resemble diary entries by Anthony, others are third-person narrations, and in some chapters the narrative viewpoint drifts. The story describes Anthony's experiences as he goes through private school, college, and various romantic affairs, and the meaninglessness of high society life with its materialism and shallow sexual liaisons. He then begins to seek a source of meaning, and seems to find it when he discovers pacifism and then a Buddhist-tinged mysticism.[2]
The story alternates between the different time periods as Anthony pursues a superficial affair with Helen Amberley in France as he writes a sociology textbook; during his childhood as he is mourning his mother's death and feeling lonely in a boy's boarding school; his affair as a young man with a sexually aggressive older woman, Mary Amberley, Helen's mother; his childhood friendship with kindly Brian Foxe who suffers from stuttering; and his charged friendship with boarding school alumnus Mark Staithes, a pugnacious and cynical Communist. Part of the story's action is motivated by Mary Amberley maliciously teasing young Anthony into seducing Brian's naïve fiancée Joan in 1914 and the guilt Anthony feels over betraying his best friend;
another part is Anthony's gradual evolution into disenchantment with upper-class amorality and the growing violence in 1930s political activism, and his embrace of altruistic pacifism.
Critical reception
Although Eyeless in Gaza is less well-known and has been adapted fewer times than Huxley's Brave New World, it was generally highly praised by contemporary critics.[3] The English journalist Simon Heffer has called the novel Huxley's best book and his only "great novel". According to Heffer, the book both harkens back to Huxley's early satires and links to the more serious and philosophical concerns of his later novels. Formally, the novel uses a modernist stream of consciousness but based in fact, unlike the novels of Woolf, Proust and Joyce, whose narrators' memories are unreliable. Heffer writes that the novel explores the tension between wartime and pacifism in a particularly productive way, that Huxley is a "sophisticated, original English man of letters" who deserves a reevaluation, and that this novel is a good place to start.[4] In Strictly English, Heffer's guide to writing clearly, he recommends Eyeless in Gaza as containing examples of what he considers to be Huxley's masterful use of parentheses (both brackets and dashes) and of the single dash.[5]
The blogger Josh Ronsen has created a table of the novel's events, rearranged in chronological order.[6]
Adaptation
- Eyeless in Gaza (1971), miniseries directed by James Cellan Jones
- adaptation by Robin Chapman as a BBC television mini-series in five episodes, which aired in 1971.[7]
References
- Miller, Katherine Toy (2008). "Deconstructing the Savage Reservation in Brave New World". In David Garrett Izzo and Kim Kirkpatrick (ed.). Huxley’s Brave New World: Essays. McFarland. pp. 145–60.
- Wasserman, Jerry (Winter 1980). "Huxley's Either/Or: The Case for "Eyeless in Gaza"". Novel: A Forum on Fiction. 13 (2): 188–203. doi:10.2307/1345309. JSTOR 1345309.
- Watt, Donald (1975). Aldous Huxley: The Critical Heritage. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Heffer, Simon, (20 October 2018). Aldous Huxley did write a great novel – but it was not Brave New World. The Daily Telegraph.
- Heffer, Simon (2011). Strictly English: The Correct Way to Write... and Why It Matters. Random House. pp. 33–34. ISBN 9780099537939
- Ronsen, Josh (August, 2010). LITERATURE: A Better Way to Read Aldous Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza. MonkMinkPinkPunk. Issue 17.
- "Eyeless in Gaza (TV series 1971– )". IMDb.
Further reading
- Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers. p. 156.
- Bedford, Sybille, Aldous Huxley: A biography, 1973; the standard, two-volume authorised biography of Huxley
External links
- Eyeless in Gaza at Faded Page (Canada)
==
EYELESS IN GAZA
2025 Bohni Books
CHAPTER ONE August 30th 1933
CHAPTER TWO April 4th 1934
CHAPTER THREE August 30th 1933
CHAPTER FOUR November 6th 1902
CHAPTER FIVE December 8th 1926
CHAPTER SIX November 6th 1902
CHAPTER SEVEN April 8th 1934
CHAPTER EIGHT August 30th 1933
CHAPTER NINE April 2nd 1903
CHAPTER TEN June 16th 1912
CHAPTER ELEVEN December 8th 1926
CHAPTER TWELVE August 30th 1933
CHAPTER THIRTEEN May 20th 1934
CHAPTER FOURTEEN December 8th 1926
CHAPTER FIFTEEN June 1903-January 1904
CHAPTER SIXTEEN June 17th 1912
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN May 26th 1934
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN December 8th 1926
CHAPTER NINETEEN July 7th 1912
CHAPTER TWENTY December 8th 1926
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE August 31st 1933
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO December 8th 1926
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE June 1st 1934
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR June 23rd and July 5th 1927
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE May 20th 1931
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX September 5th 1933
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN May 27th 1914
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT June 25th 1934
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE May 24th 1931
CHAPTER THIRTY July 2nd 1914
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE September 6th 1933
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO July 29th 1934
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE July 18th 1914
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR March 3rd 1928
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE August 4th 1934
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX July 19th 1914
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN Autumn 1933
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT August 10th 1934
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE March 25th 1928
CHAPTER FORTY September 11th 1934
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE December 1933
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO September 15th 1934
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE July 20th and 21st 1914
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR September 21st 1934
==
==
EYELESS IN GAZA
by ALDOUS HUXLEY (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (381)
Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley is a profound and experimental novel that explores the complexities of human experience, morality, and the search for meaning in the modern world. Told in a non-linear narrative, the novel traces the life of Anthony Beavis, a disillusioned and introspective man navigating the social, political, and personal upheavals of early 20th-century England. Through fragmented timelines, Huxley examines Beavis’s formative years, his relationships, moral dilemmas, and the intellectual and emotional crises that shape his journey.
==
by ALDOUS HUXLEY (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (381)
Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley is a profound and experimental novel that explores the complexities of human experience, morality, and the search for meaning in the modern world. Told in a non-linear narrative, the novel traces the life of Anthony Beavis, a disillusioned and introspective man navigating the social, political, and personal upheavals of early 20th-century England. Through fragmented timelines, Huxley examines Beavis’s formative years, his relationships, moral dilemmas, and the intellectual and emotional crises that shape his journey.
==
From other countries
Stephen J Ethier
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read.
Reviewed in Canada on 30 June 2015
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Good read.
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AnthonyParis
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Huxley
Reviewed in France on 19 September 2022
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As is usual with this author, intelligence and perception. Not a particularly easy read but well worth the effort required.
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A.
4.0 out of 5 stars Good content, poor material. Fast delivery, poor care for the product.
Reviewed in Brazil on 16 March 2026
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Great book. It was delivered to me with little damage on the cover. Also the book is made with the customary low quality pulp n paperback material. Sometimes I feel Americans just don't respect the book as an object deserving of good material.
However, the content is excellent. Good story, support content, good edition inside.
The delivery was fast, yet the lack of care for the book was unacceptable.
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Rita Gago da Câmara
5.0 out of 5 stars Maravilhoso
Reviewed in Spain on 8 November 2023
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❤️🖤🤍💚
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P. G. L. Gilmore
5.0 out of 5 stars Modern classic well worth reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2025
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Huxley's best novel, many think, & very readable, with strong, belivable characters, some quite unsympathetic, including the protagonist (or principal subject), who come across as a self-obsessed, humourless wimp. The narrator is scarcely heroic, either.
EiG is renowned for its fragmented timeline. Apparently, editions are available with the timeline reordered linearly, but that is entirely missing the point IMHO.
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Bill Sikes
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writing, brutal satire.
Reviewed in the United States on 29 October 2014
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Since there are already so many excellent reviews of this book, I will just add my two cents.
First, Huxley's writing is exquisite. Like James, Conrad, among others, and, yes, Shakespeare, he is able to craft language so adeptly to show his characters' beautiful and profoundly complex internal worlds and those separate worlds' couplings and collisions, and, in this case, setting those characters within an enthralling story. I can't give specifics, but many times as I read this book I thought to myself how I will need to reread it fully appreciate Huxley's better passages, of which there are many, many, many.
Second, Huxley's satire is brutal, reminding me a lot of Zola. All the characters are flawed to loathsome in their own special ways, and the main good, noble character, of course, dies. And, of course, he is flawed too. (Okay, Anthony's father and step-mother are cute in their late in life love.) This book also reminds me of a film like "La Notte," in which bored wealthy people lead empty, pointless lives and try in vain to fill that emptiness with art, philosophy, politics, making more money, adultery, substance abuse, etc. (I'm afraid that is a paltry synopsis.) The story is disturbing, scandalous, and engrossing.
I'll stop there. This book is great - please read it, and enjoy!
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Dr. DNA
3.0 out of 5 stars non-linear, dated, but with strokes of genius
Reviewed in Canada on 11 March 2024
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Great insight, lousy novel. Vision first, story second. Last major writer to use the semi-colon.
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Basso Profundo
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating book, but a demanding read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 August 2018
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A fascinating book, but not an easy read. It skips about in time and space, has untranslated foreign quotations, quite a lot of 'sociological musings', but it's an amazing story, with extraordinary characters, who get themselves into genuine moral dilemmas.
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Kiss
4.0 out of 5 stars Eyeless in Gaza
Reviewed in the United States on 3 September 2010
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The Title was a bit misleading. I thought it was a story a bout the Gaza strip. However, this book is written very eloquently. Lots of words that I did not know and had to look up in the dictionary. A rather strange story about years in England between the first and second World Wars. The young men and how they were affected by their experiences both in school and afterwards. An interesting study of people.
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Christina
3.0 out of 5 stars Seems very outdated now
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2026
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I read this in my twenties and remember enjoying it, so I read it again recently but was disappointed at how old-fashioned it seemed. Written in and of the 1930s, it describes mostly arrogant and unpleasant upper class people in whom I had little interest, including the main character who spends his time pontificating and is used as a vehicle for Huxley to lecture the reader on various abstruse intellectual subjects that didn't seem particularly interesting to me and generally have little bearing on the story. While I liked the apparently random sequencing of events, which was probably quite novel at the time, and is used reasonably cleverly to highlight certain developments, overall I'm amazed that I enjoyed the novel so much the first time.
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Ian Bonnell
5.0 out of 5 stars Great as always
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 September 2018
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After rereading this again, it is as great as when I read it at 21.
Highly recommended as are all of Huxley’s novels
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Anne T. Henderson
5.0 out of 5 stars into a life, a deep dive
Reviewed in the United States on 16 February 2025
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In this complex, fascinating and sometimes puzzling book, masquerading as the tale of a young man’s life, one finds that it is really a deep rumination on the human condition. How much is drawn from Aldous Huxley’s life and how much from his fertile imagination we will never know. The chapters are drawn randomly from various times in Anthony Beavis’s life, and alternate between episodes he experienced with his set of friends and family (out of chronological order) and extensive philosophical speculations, perhaps following the main character’s intellectual development. I loved it.
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JF
5.0 out of 5 stars Great in all ways
Reviewed in the United States on 9 June 2020
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I have read this three times and will probably do so again in the future. I simply love the way Aldous Huxley can portray such deep concepts that are light and airy. This story is interesting in many ways and to describe anything specific becomes hard to do without describing the entire story. As usual some may find it to be bland until the end philosophical point which is what Huxley seems to be a master at, drawing out the story to promote dedication to reading it and then slamming knowledge in your face if you make it to the end, which is like a sweet treat that is much anticipated.
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John Durrant
5.0 out of 5 stars Not read but it will be
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 January 2021
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A good gift.
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Timothy Gouldson
2.0 out of 5 stars Ponderous read.
Reviewed in Canada on 23 January 2021
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Thud.
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Phred
3.0 out of 5 stars Time is out of joint for a scholar seeking meaning in his life.
Reviewed in the United States on 3 September 2016
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Eyeless in Gaza has me frustrated. This is very high quality writing and some high level plotting. Evan so I am not a fan. Our central character, Anthony Beavis, is a scholar attuned to fining meaning in obscure scholarship. He is sufficiently well off that he can peruse a comfortable and self-centered life style. He and most of the people around him are more or less self-centered and un happy. There are several discontinuous time periods ranging from before WWI and some vague point past the European version of America’s depression. Time jumps are artfully used to give us a deep understanding of Anthony, how he came to be who he is and why he has reason to be dissatisfied. We are given many chapters to come to dislike this person and then asked to care about his recognition that he does not like himself either. Having laid out a complex and unhappy persona, the resolution is too pat and for me unsatisfying. The added irony is that the book ends and was written just before World War II which could mock its resolution. Mine Is not the general opinion. I admire the writing but was not convinced by the plotting.
It has been decades since I last attempted an Aldus Huxley book. I remember being very happy with Brave New World, and Brave New World Revisited. After Many a Summer (Dies the Swan) was a warning that I probably missed much in all of 3 these books and should re-read them. I take up Eyeless in Gaza as a more mature and better read person. I do not believe I missed anything important, but I know I will not be re-reading this one.
Anthony Bevis is not a nice person. As a youth he was something of a victim to his father’s scholarly but boring and aesthetic preferamces. The mother to his future best and closest friend will provide for him holidays where the two boys can experience some of the good life but with constant urgings to lead spiritual lives. The friend, Brian Foxworthy becomes extreme about being exactly the perfect person his mother most wants and in so doing becomes the victim of Anthony’s casual disinterestedness and preference for compromise and accommodation.
By seeing Anthony in time slices assembled in thematic rather than temporal sequence Huxley maneuvers the reader from some level of sympathy to a full agreement with Anthony’s dissatisfaction with himself. This is the central conflict of the plot and upon its resolution hangs the pleasure in; or disappointment in the book.
There are some wonderfully deep thoughtful quotations and scholarly essays. These are 'heavy' thoughts on the human condition. For me these tended to be too long and to contribute to the heavy handed preachiness of this novel. The writer has an assumption that his reader is also well read and a deep thinker. Too much so. A lighter hand might have made this book more accessible and less like an extended sermon. I appreciate that this kind of writing is respectful towards the reader. I like being treated like an intelligent person, but this goes beyond that.
Having built the book on the assumption that we are thoughtful and well read, the resolution did not work for me. It approached the trivial and was almost predictable. We are asked to read a long pages in preparation for Anthony to squarely face himself only to be dropped into his life after an incomplete melodrama that is the climax of the book.
The question that Huxley may not have appreciated as he finished this book in 1936 was: Is the resolved Anthony Bevis ready for what is about to happen two years later?
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David Kade
5.0 out of 5 stars Eyeless in Gaza Review
Reviewed in the United States on 10 February 2019
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This is Huxley’s most sensitive book. It is deeply touching, sad, funny and a harsh social satire of the idle rich in between the first and Second World War. Huxley’s unparalleled vocabulary will leave even the most avid reader keeping a dictionary near by. However, he reminds me of Evelyn Waugh, Kingsley Aimes or Somerset Maugham here in his beautiful ruminations of life, love, friendship and the passage of time. I also thought Eyeless in Gaza was more hopeful and the story was well crafted, something Huxley hasn’t always been the best at. Huxley will remain the preeminent 20th century intellectual for me. I’d love to hear him read this.
DTK
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chris
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 August 2017
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great book
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Dr M Clement
3.0 out of 5 stars LONG!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2024
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I found this a difficult book to read but am aware the it is regarded as a classic
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T. Moran
4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to navigate but rewarding
Reviewed in the United States on 22 January 2024
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The structure is chronologically shuffled which makes the narrative hard to follow but in the end it seems the author has been trying to make sense out of life and made peace with his fate.
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Pete
2.0 out of 5 stars A challenging read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 May 2024
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Many years ago, I read Huxley's 'Brave New World' during my school GCE studies in English Literature. So I chose to revisit Huxley by reading 'Eyeless in Gaza'.
The novel begins quite conventionally by way of character descriptions, settings etc, but then seems to go off-piste into long alternate chapters of 'stream of consciousness' - which I found almost unreadable; these chapters did nothing to progress the narrative or add to any remnant of plot. Also, the text meandered back and forth over a period of years, which further alienated the reader's grasp of the story's development.
I gave up on the novel in just over a quarter of the way through.
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars You can find something better
Reviewed in the United States on 26 March 2016
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I read this novel only because it was one of Huxley's few I had not read and because it manages to show up after all these years in various articles and essays. I expect this is mostly because of its unusual and potentially provocative title. To immediately clear things for the uninitiated, it has nothing whatever to do with twentieth century political and social history in what is sometimes still called Palestine. The title is taken from the fate of the biblical Sampson, who after losing his strength to a deceitful woman (Delilah), is blinded and forced to spend the rest of his life mindlessly walking in a circle to turn a grinding stone. Huxley, with his usual apparently effortless style, proceeds at leisure to excoriate the entire human race by describing life as a blind, thoughtless, repetitive sequence of pointless actions metaphorically like Sampson's fate. Why this should take 473 self-indulgent pages is unknown. The writing is completely flat; every character sounds exactly like every other. This may have been intentional, but I doubt it because it is characteristic of all his novels. The narrative is not in linear time sequence. This must have been unusual at the time because it caused a great stir, but I have become so used to it in post modern writing that I didn't even notice until I read a review of it. You can find something better to do with your time than this. If you want to read Huxley, try his essays. They are seriously dated, but some are still quite good.
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Conestoga
2.0 out of 5 stars Brutal read
Reviewed in the United States on 20 August 2025
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Supposedly written “at the height of his [Huxley’s] powers”, this book is readable but excruciating. I can appreciate the cleverness of the non-sequential timeline, but it takes 4/5ths of the book to arrive at the dénouement. Only read this if you are a true devotee of Huxley.
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Meaning, Love and Spirituality
4.0 out of 5 stars Not Huxleys greatest
Reviewed in the United States on 19 October 2023
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Compared to the average novel it is good, but just average compared to his others. How people end up with the beliefs they do.
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Michael J. Melton
2.0 out of 5 stars Uninviting challenge does not pull you in.
Reviewed in the United States on 13 February 2025
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I’m of the opinion that a novel should do more to make you want to read more. There were some interesting ideas and lovely phrases, but after a couple of chapters it became a stream of consciousness slog. I wasn’t expecting a page-turner but this makes Crime and Punishment seem like a Clive Cussler in comparison. Too bad. I enjoyed Brave New World and After Many A Summer Dies The Swan.
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Rollin O. Russell
5.0 out of 5 stars I still regard it as one of the best and best crafted novels I know
Reviewed in the United States on 5 July 2014
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I first read "Eyeless in Gaza": when I was in graduate school in the '60s, and I decided to reread it now in retirement. I still regard it as one of the best and best crafted novels I know. The introduction to this edition is very helpful in keeping focus as Huxley skips back and forth between five stages of his protagonist's life. Confusing at first, though engaging from page one, this approach creates a momentum that makes his concluding segments all the more poignant. He gets deeply into the thinking, feelings and motivation of his characters in ways that ring true to any self aware reader's own experience. A great novel!.
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Placeholder
5.0 out of 5 stars The best work of fiction ever written
Reviewed in the United States on 23 June 2015
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This is, by far, the greatest novel ever written (in my opinion). I have no reason to read any other fiction book. In fact, since I've read this book (over a year ago) I have not been able to find anything worth reading. Indeed, this book has spoiled me. This book is extremely intelligent and mature. It is beautiful, yet self-aware. I highly recommend this book - though a younger audience may not understand the maturity and wisdom behind the words.
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kathy mckechnie
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Reviewed in the United States on 8 June 2023
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One of my favorite authors! This has gained the spot of one of my favorite books. I read about 1 book every 3 days, and this has to be in my top ten
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Stephen John Hill
2.0 out of 5 stars DULL AND THE ENDING IS GIVEN AWAY ON THE BACK COVER
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2020
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The only good thing going for this very confusing novel which jumps around in time all the time is the "surprise ending" which is given away on the back cover summary. Don't waste your time ploughing through 700 pages.
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James A. Schmitz
3.0 out of 5 stars The story is compelling, but the actual paperback, ...
Reviewed in the United States on 11 July 2018
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The story is compelling, but the actual paperback, which was supposed to be new at $11.95, consists of loose pages that are falling out every two-three pages. And this is in the first 130 pages, meaning there isn't likely to be any improvement until the book ends three-hundred pages later.
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Kelly Burns
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book
Reviewed in the United States on 30 December 2020
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Aldous Huxley is one of my favorite authors. His writing is so beautiful and this work does not disappoint. Books from his time have some of the best context.
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Mr. Dino Bressan
1.0 out of 5 stars and keeps churning out half-baked theories on how to best rule the world (I would start by banning such ...
Reviewed in the United States on 1 August 2014
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This book is a real dog. Huxley writes in an elegant style, but he displays a rather naive outlook on life, and keeps churning out half-baked theories on how to best rule the world (I would start by banning such works of literature as "Eyeless in Gaza"). The structure of the novel, which is arranged in 50+ jumbled-up chapters in random chronological order makes it virtually incomprehensible. I suggest "Eyeless in Gaza" might be used by the military as an alternative to waterboarding.
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mirrakidz
5.0 out of 5 stars Books
Reviewed in the United States on 12 October 2015
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I bought the book for my son who was in Jail, these were at his request which helped since I am a Prime Member with free shipping and the books he requested are at decent price.
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Barbara Baron Rubin
1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
Reviewed in the United States on 5 June 2015
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Had no idea the book would be so old & moldy-smelling. Had to get rid of it
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Columbia
5.0 out of 5 stars Prompt service
Reviewed in the United States on 14 May 2019
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Book was as described. Good value. Good service.
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jah
1.0 out of 5 stars I expect much better
Reviewed in the United States on 21 April 2020
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Completely crap copy. Ancient, discolored, barely readable in places!
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the briz
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
Reviewed in the United States on 12 October 2017
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A brilliant novel. In my opinion one of Huxley's finest.
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Paul N. Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars Marvelous if you put in the efort to really read it!
Reviewed in the United States on 24 August 2017
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Great Huxley! Very involved read, but well worth the effort!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great buy
Reviewed in the United States on 12 October 2018
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Great quality
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Xing Chi
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 April 2016
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Gift well received
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GOS03
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2014
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LOVE this book!
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Eugene
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2015
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Brilliant
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 287 reviews
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Vit Babenco
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May 9, 2022
The past and the present are psychologically and physically bound…
The snapshots had become almost as dim as memories. This young woman who had stood in a garden at the turn of the century was like a ghost at cock-crow. His mother, Anthony Beavis recognized. A year or two, perhaps only a month or two, before she died. But fashion, as he peered at the brown phantom, fashion is a topiary art.
On the whole Eyeless in Gaza is about the power of memory… You wish to forget your past errors but your memory doesn’t let you go… You desire to turn your back on the faux pas of your youth but your memory keeps torturing you and you remain in thrall to the past…
The richly vibrant voice spoke on, and, with every word it uttered, Anthony felt more guilty – more guilty, and at the same time more completely and hopelessly committed to his guilt. The longer he delayed and the more she said in this strain of resignation, the harder it was going to be to undeceive her with the truth.
And in the end your recollections of the past make you change your ways in the present.
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Anita
13 reviews
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August 20, 2011
Eyeless in Gaza was one of the most profound books I've ever read. After reading it I immediately wanted to read it again. I wanted to sleep with the book under my pillow...but it was a book I checked out of the library, so naturally I was concerned with it being a health risk so close to my face.
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Jonfaith
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November 23, 2016
That was the chief difference between literature and life. In books, the proportion of exceptional to commonplace people is high; in reality, very low.
Practically bed ridden, incapacitated and unable to sleep I completed this chewy hulk of a novel in 24 hours. Overflowing with ideas, Eyeless asks about Action: what is one to do? Anthony, one of the novels chief characters remains preoccupied with freedom throughout his life. The narrative rotates between 5 or so timelines and flips back to each periodically, like Moloch gleefully dealing Texas Hold'em. Others are debauched or likewise stalwarts in various ideologies. Huxley asserts through the fog of politics and history that a point might be, just keep it simple. Take it easy on your colon. Don't try to fuck people over. Make amends. There are no overt references to gardens, but I accept that such is implied. This was published in 1936 and with Spain and the Dark Times on the horizon, this is penned in a certain panic. I wondered whether our own anxiety will crystalize in such a masterful experiment.
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Bram De Vriese
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April 8, 2023
Huxely never disappoints. Sometimes this is more philosophy than fiction.
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Ivana Books Are Magic
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April 23, 2021
Published in 1936, Eyeless in Gaza is, at times, referred to as the most personal of Huxley’s works. Whether this is true, I can’t say for sure, but supposedly the protagonist of the novel is based on the Huxley himself and that is what makes this novel ‘more personal’. But aren’t all novels personal? What I can say, having read this novel and all, is that the protagonist Anthony is quite engaging. The novel does focus on the life of the protagonist- socialite Anthony Beavis, but don’t expect the typical life story told in a chronological way. The narrative is not exactly chronological and the novel isn't plot driven. Eyeless in Gaza is, among other things, a novel of ideas.
“I used to think I had no will to power. Now I perceive that I vented it on thoughts, rather than people. Conquering an unknown province of knowledge. Getting the better of a problem. Forcing ideas to associate or come apart. Bullying recalcitrant words to assume a certain pattern. All the fun of being a dictator without any risks and responsibilities.”
― Aldous Huxley, Eyeless in Gaza
Much like the Point Counter Point, Eyeless in Gaza is quite a successful novel. The novel’s title is a symbolical reference to a biblical event, Samsung losing his eyes and thus becoming –eyeless in Gaza. The writing is, most of the time, quite brilliant. Huxley does know how to write good philosophical prose. What impressed me the most was the fact that this book manages to be so many things at once. Eyeless in Gaza is at the same time a novel of ideas and a novel with developed characters and a story. A narrative that is fragmented and hard to follow but still makes sense. Philosophical ideas that suffer from some repetition but don't lose their charm and freshness.
“The world was their love, and their love the world; and the world was significant, charged with depth beyond depth of mysterious meaning. The proof of God's goodness floated in those clouds, crept in those grazing sheep, shone from every burning bush of incandescent blossom – and, in himself and Joan, walked hand in hand across the grass and was manifest in their happiness. His love, it seemed to him, in that apocalyptic moment, was more than merely his; it was in some mysterious way the equivalent of this wind and sunshine, these white gleams against the green and blue of spring. His feeling for Joan was somehow implicit in the world, had a divine and universal significance. He loved her infinitely, and for that reason was able to love everything in the world as much as he loved her.”
There are many things I liked about this novel, and even (at times) almost absurd interruptions in the narrative didn't bothered me. I don’t mind when the narrative is not chronological. As long as the writer can keep my interest, I’m fine with numerous interruptions. Although, Huxley perhaps takes it a bit too far at times. To be honest, while I was reading it did sometimes seem that the pages got somehow mixed up and the author didn't care or couldn’t put them back in order. Still, I suppose that makes this book quite unique.
Don’t get me wrong, it is not that I had problems following the story. I didn't mind the fact that the chapters of the book are not ordered chronologically. It is just that at times, it felt like a bit too much. This novel doesn’t have any major flaws but it bothered me a little how Eyeless in Gaza was sometimes a bit sentimental and cynic. These two emotions that the author masterfully makes fun of and yet doesn't succeed in completely avoiding himself sometimes felt out of place! To be fair, perhaps one cannot entirely avoid these emotions. The contrast between the two made them stand out a bit more, but in a way that also makes this novel seem more human, so I can't hold it against the author.
What else? As I said, the novel functions well as a whole. It is true, that reading this novel required concentration, but not in a bad way if you understand what I mean. It required concentration and a bit of effort, not because the story was difficult to follow, but because of all the philosophical parts, all those ideas that take pages and pages to develop. As I already stressed, I loved reading all those philosophical passages, but maybe this novel would have profited by being just a little bit shorter? Not a lot, just a bit shorter. Something like minus 50 pages and Eyeless in Gaza would perhaps have been much easier to read. Nevertheless, taken as it is, this book is very very good and it can teach us something about the author himself. On the second thought, I really wouldn't have like it to be shorter.
I do hope I’ll have the chance to reread Eyeless in Gaza. I remember that when I wrote down my first review I noted that: ‘It is definitely not the book to read in small print, so try to avoid it if you can.’ As I’m thinking of rereading this book, perhaps I should purchase a nicer copy? I do enjoy reading Huxley and it's been to long since I read him last. To sum up, Eyeless in Gaza is not my favourite work of his, but it is a great novel. Huxley is always such an unique and interesting thinker and I enjoyed reading this one. I can honestly recommend it to everyone. It is a must read for fans of Huxley!
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Ant
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March 5, 2014
It's a shame that Huxley is almost solely noted for his rather simplistic Brave New World, when the brilliance of half forgotten works like Point Counter Point & Eyeless in Gaza are covered by their years as though stone locked into the times they were written, away from todays readers. Both employ brilliant structures to tie in various storylines, albeit in entirely different ways, but Eyeless in Gaza was probably one of the most personal & introspective novels of his to date. So much so that I was mistaken in believing it was based on memoirs in the first few chapters. The central character, Anthony, was a not so thinly disguised Huxley & the entire novel seemed to be a type of purging of the self as he took it to criticize this characters flaws liberally. But back to the intriguing structure. The opening chapter has the main character randomly shuffling through old photographs, some taken thirty years ago, some ten. With each photo a character in his past, some dead, others still alive, and as each photo is picked up & studied, he is briefly taken back to a place in time. This I believe, gives hint at the seemingly random blocks of experience forming the chapters of small stories and giving insights into the characters as each new random time frame is relived. Some go back into the past, some are shot forth to near where the story had begun, & beyond, from Anthony at the age of around thirty four to when he was around seven, to when he was in his early twenties, and a little later. The characters around him are given parts of their personality, their faults, their ultimate outcomes and the roots of their predicaments but only in the ebb and flow of the story. For indeed this story does not follow a chronological begin that reaches an end, but like a tide, in its ebbs and flows does reach a high mark eventually but only after all the missing pieces have been satisfied more or less to the whole.
The unusual structure of the book gives the reader the vantage point of seeing clearly cause and effect, of how our natural character deepens and hardens to a potential self destruction unless we choose the path of change. It is not sermon like, never patronizing, but very cleverly juxtaposed, almost to the point of a science.
In the kind of writing that you come to expect from Huxley, it is a story of ideas, but not quite so much as in his earlier novels. If Point Counter Point had hinted of the mystical at the end, this story builds definitely towards an end of pacifism and mysticism. It appears to be the turning point of Huxley from cynic to mystic and while there is much cynicism in the book, (every character is an ugly caricature) there is self awareness of this cynicism as shown as yet another useless ugliness as it detaches itself from the egotistical intellectualism which would otherwise give it a self righteous excuse to feel pride. The writing style follows the evolution we see of Huxley's from the wordy verbose beginnings we see in Chrome Yellow & Antic Hay to where it stands in this novel; quiet, relatively sparse and inward.
It very much felt as thought he was talking of his own experience when discussing much of the books content. From the moment the pages are opened as he looks upon the photos, to when he is finally transformed spiritually by Miller and of course his own life's experiences, you feel Aldous Huxley is there behind the words.
There were various themes carried over from other novels. The suicide of the ascetic; the worthlessness of class and indulgence and the artificiality of persona. And again, his predictions of the rise of the Fascists in Hitler and Mussolini are chillingly close. One thing I have to say he missed big time though; his spiritual inspiration Miller, speaks at length as to the benefits of vegetarianism to prevent the rise of destructive revolutionaries, and not that I don’t see the absolute benefit of such a meat free diet, however Hitler, it must be known, was a vegetarian.
It was refreshing to see Huxley bring in his friend and respected contemporary, D.H Lawrence into mention as he considered Lawrence's philosophy against his own and, brings into question whether Lawrence's praise of the physical, the sexual really went far enough, almost painted him as a prude for not looking further into the primordial, past the obvious and towards the within. I could only imagine the debates they had in real life.
This really is a great work, one of searching, of a subtle, subliminal, but very real dissatisfaction, and of making terrible human mistakes in the midst of many others making terrible human mistakes, a book filled with passionate pondering, with sharp reflections of 'us', as always, and finally with a message that eventually finds its fruition in his much later essays and works. This is the beginning of his wanderings, with the erudite edge which separates Huxley from most all novelists then and now. This is Huxley.
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Bob Newman
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January 1, 2018
"Finding Anthony Beavis"
Just because I'd read "Brave New World" when I was in high school didn't mean I knew Aldous Huxley's work, so I recently read EYELESS IN GAZA. Strangely enough, over four decades later, I came out with a different impression ! Though I had no idea what the title meant, I found a strong character study of an indecisive man, a flawed character whose weaknesses lead directly to the demise of his best friend. His courage continually gives out at crucial moments and he tends to get involved in activities that he cannot sustain. It is a novel of betrayal, of failure as a man, and of disillusionment leading to final enlightenment. From a dog falling out of an airplane and splashing two naked lovers on a rooftop with blood, to a grim ride with an injured friend in the mountains of Mexico, the images are vivid, the symbolism striking. Anthony Beavis is an intellectual, but his knowledge and erudition ultimately do not mean much, they do not give him strength, rather scholarship is more of an excuse for his existence. Huxley decries such a chasm between real life and cloistered academicism, a split viewed in several characters. "Eyeless" would refer to the innate blindness of such people; their inability to distinguish basic human values and responsibilities from the bookish froth around them. In the end, influenced by a doctor with the values of positive pacifism and humanity, perhaps akin to Buddhist ideas, Anthony comes to enlightenment.
EYELESS IN GAZA is above all a book of philosophy, masquerading quite successfully as fiction. If you just want an enjoyable novel, an interesting plot, this is not your cup of tea---it is not a book to read on the plane to Miami. Huxley asks numerous deep questions and answers them, either in his own monologue as author, or in the dialogues of his characters. He sets out his answers as to `the meaning of life' on the last pages. It is a serious book written brilliantly. Preferring my philosophy in a more emotional style, I found Huxley's ruminations a bit too much at times. They made me impatient and I felt relieved, rather than sorry, to reach the end of the 423 pp. book. Yet, as a book with something to say, it has to be considered as one of English literature's important works.
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Pete daPixie
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March 13, 2012
It was Samson who fought the Philistines, whose 'nazirite' locks were lost due to female duplicity and resulting in his enslavement and his condition of being 'eyeless in Gaza'.
Along with Hesse, Huxley was required reading back in my teenage years, after all, there he was on the cover of Sgt Pepper. Having read 'The Doors of Perception-Heaven and Hell', 'Brave New World' and 'Island' all those years ago, it has been a joy to return to this masters writing and still find it exquisite.
'Eyeless in Gaza' was published in 1936. Huxley's highly intellectual narrative is supremely erudite and flows across the pages like honey. Even so, I have to admit that I was hanging on to this story by the barest of threads for a while. Each chapter hops backwards and forwards across the first few decades of the twentieth century, continually introducing characters, school friends, family and lovers.
There are echoes of autobiographical detail written into some characters, the suicide of Brian Foxe seems to be an exorcism of Huxley's own brother Trevenan, and the main character Anthony Beavis suffers his mother's death, like Huxley himself. Written in the inter war years the author expounds his concerns and ideas in terms of twentieth century human relationships, socio-politics and religions. Perhaps not an easy read, over four hundred pages of a steep incline, but certainly, the view from the top is magnificent.
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Issicratea
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June 24, 2018
I read this as a follow-up to Huxley’s first novel, Crome Yellow, written in 1921, when he was in his mid-twenties. I found it fascinating to see how much he had developed as a novelist by 1936, when he published Eyeless in Gaza. The later novel is far richer and far more ambitious than the earlier. It does not content itself with skimming wittily across the surface of life, but attempts (successfully, in my view) to go deep.
Eyeless in Gaza is not a novel for those readers who complain when they can’t find anyone to like or admire in a work of fiction. Most of the characters are more or less morally reprehensible; and those few that aren’t, like the kind, hapless, vulnerable Brian Foxe, the protagonist’s boyhood friend, don’t prosper in the novel’s cruel world. Everyone is more or less damaged, propping themselves up with drugs or alcohol or sex or intellectual speculation. (As an intellectual himself, Huxley is funny and perceptive on the ways in which ideas and reading can serve as ways of hiding from the world.)
Huxley once stated that his aim in his fictional works was to “arrive, technically, at a perfect fusion of the novel and the essay,” and Eyeless in Gaza is pretty unashamedly a novel of ideas. The novel is complex in its structure, threading together different chronological moments in the life of its semi-autobiographical protagonist, Anthony Beavis, from his boyhood at the turn of the twentieth century, through to his early forties, in 1933-34. Together with the third-person narrative, we have extracts from Anthony’s diary, which allow us to see him in first person, cogitating furiously away in an attempt to dig himself out of his spiritual impasse. We also have a few episodes narrated through different focalizers, such as Brian Foxe and Anthony’s on-off love interest, the angry, mercurial Helen Ledwidge, née Amberley, who was, for me, the standout character of the novel. (I was interested to read that the character was based in part on the German-Jewish novelist Sybille Bedford, whom Huxley and his wife befriended in the 1930s in the South of France).
I was quite surprised at how visceral some of the episodes in this novel are, despite the generally cerebral character of Huxley’s narration. The scene in which Helen and Anthony’s moment of post-coital reflection on a roof terrace in the South of France is interrupted when a dog splatters to its death on them, dropped from a passing plane has probably left an indelible mark on my memory, as has that in which a young, rebellious Helen concludes an afternoon’s serial shoplifting, intended to shock her more conventional sister, by stealing a kidney from a slab in a butcher’s shop.
I puzzled for a while over the title of the novel, Eyeless in Gaza, which comes from Milton’s Samson Agonistes, where the blinded Samson bitterly portrays himself as the former predicted “deliverer of Israel”, now to be found “eyeless in Gaza, at the mill with slaves”. I think the point of it is to try to capture Anthony’s state as the novel closes, morally abject and blind in some ways, but at the beginning of an upwards curve (into Huxley’s own mysticism and pacifism). I found it poignant, though, in the way in which it likened the partially sighted Huxley to the blind Milton and, beyond them, the blind archetype of Samson. From abjection and blindness come the possibility of redemptive insight—that was, perhaps, ultimately, what I saw as Huxley's message in this book.
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Mj
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April 28, 2011
I read Eyeless in Gaza when I was 18 and again in my 20's. In my opinion this is Huxley's best novel. Early on Huxley's main character, who is no doubt based on himself, states:
"Like all other human beings, I know what I ought to do, but continue to do what I know I oughtn't to do"
And that sums up his quest for transformation. The novel simultaneously weaves together 3 separate story timelines showing how his childhood shapes the mistakes of his adolescents and the cushion his sardonic personality provides in adulthood.
Ultimately I think this is a novel about one trying to engage their real self and transcend their mistakes and fears by finding meaning in a higher power. For Huxley that was mysticism and pacifism right before WWII broke out.
The text is quite often cerebral and cynical but other times is beautifully poetic and optimistic. I can hardly believe this is same author who wrote Brave New World.
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Lavinia
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March 13, 2009
Roman de idei, foarte concentrat dpdv intelectual, nu foarte lejer pentru neuronii mei. Nu e greu, dar nu e totusi o lectura de vacanta, ca sa zic asa. Motiv pentru care am luat si retetele Babettei pe linga, ca suport :)
Ma bucur ca nu i-am dat pace si m-am tot caznit cu el, putin cite putin. Ceea ce a fost foarte bine, pentru ca finalul, sa zicem ultimele 150 de pagini, dupa ce m-am prins eu cum sta toata treaba, a fost excelent.
Pe linga faptul ca e asa mai intelectuala de felul ei, cartea e scrisa sub forma unui puzzle. Cele 50 si ceva de capitole se intind pe vreo 30 de ani, dar din fericire se concentreaza pe citeva evenimente (disparate) mai importante, iar cititorul nu are decit sa faca legaturile de rigoare pentru a stabili continuitatea. Si odata ce te obisnuiesti cu stilul, povestea e intr-adevar captivanta. Cum spuneam, pe mine m-a prins mai mult in partea a doua, cind deja am reusit sa fac multe dintre legaturi.
Romanul se concentreaza pe viata lui Anthony Beavis si a cercului sau de prieteni din scoala generala, trecuti prin Eton si apoi Oxford, deci intelectuali din stratul superior al societatii: Brian, Hugh,Mark. In plus, Mary Amberley, care devine la un moment dat un soi de marchiza de Merteuil si din jocurile si pariurile careia se naste unul dintre cele mai dramatice momente ale romanului - sinuciderea lui Brian. Dramatic e si destinul ei, pentru ca dintr-o doamna sofisticata ajunge o mizerabila dependenta de morfina. Fiica ei, Helen, cu care Anthony are o relatie esuata, e unul din personajele cele mai interesante si consistente.
Am un singur regret, ca nu am citit-o in engleza; tatal lui Anthony e lingvist si face tot timpul jocuri de cuvinte amuzante, unele dificil sau imposibil de tradus, imi dau seama.
Cartea e in pregatire la Polirom, ceea ce e bine, editia pe care eu o am, cumparata de la anticariat, e aparuta in ’74, iar de atunci nu cred sa se mai fi republicat la noi.
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John Anthony
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July 29, 2022
Through apparently random journal entries (1902-1935) we follow the life of Anthony Beavis and his circle of friends, lovers, family and acquaintances. What a time to be ‘growing up’ (something of a misnomer when applied to Anthony) . It takes in WW1 and the palpable lead up to WW2. It feels very autobiographical: is the author Anthony? If so, he is far from easy on himself. We are in Anthony’s /Huxley’s mind for the duration. An outsider/voyeur afraid to get ‘involved’ with the dirty business of ‘Life’, keen therefore to avoid the pain which must inevitably accompany it.
In choosing such a course he weaves a tangled web for himself and others and ultimately must change direction. I felt to be there with him, looking through his eyes. The death and destruction of the Great War, consequent revenge on Germany, a General Strike in the land fit for heroes. The rise of Hitler and the Beast in the East. Communism v Fascism, Old world v new.
Superb writing and so quotable. But this little snip will have to do: “...she suffered herself to be kissed and, her face still set and stony, stepped across the threshold into the horribly familiar nightmare of her mother’s life.”
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Phrodrick
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July 3, 2017
Eyeless in Gaza has me frustrated. This is very high quality writing and some high level plotting. Evan so I am not a fan. Our central character, Anthony Beavis, is a scholar attuned to fining meaning in obscure scholarship. He is sufficiently well off that he can peruse a comfortable and self-centered life style. He and most of the people around him are more or less self-centered and un happy. There are several discontinuous time periods ranging from before WWI and some vague point past the European version of America’s depression. Time jumps are artfully used to give us a deep understanding of Anthony, how he came to be who he is and why he has reason to be dissatisfied. We are given many chapters to come to dislike this person and then asked to care about his recognition that he does not like himself either. Having laid out a complex and unhappy persona, the resolution is too pat and for me unsatisfying. The added irony is that the book ends and was written just before World War II which could mock its resolution. Mine Is not the general opinion. I admire the writing but was not convinced by the plotting.
It has been decades since I last attempted an Aldus Huxley book. I remember being very happy with Brave New World, and Brave New World Revisited. After Many a Summer (Dies the Swan) was a warning that I probably missed much in all of 3 these books and should re-read them. I take up Eyeless in Gaza as a more mature and better read person. I do not believe I missed anything important, but I know I will not be re-reading this one.
Anthony Bevis is not a nice person. As a youth he was something of a victim to his father’s scholarly but boring and aesthetic preferamces. The mother to his future best and closest friend will provide for him holidays where the two boys can experience some of the good life but with constant urgings to lead spiritual lives. The friend, Brian Foxworthy becomes extreme about being exactly the perfect person his mother most wants and in so doing becomes the victim of Anthony’s casual disinterestedness and preference for compromise and accommodation.
By seeing Anthony in time slices assembled in thematic rather than temporal sequence Huxley maneuvers the reader from some level of sympathy to a full agreement with Anthony’s dissatisfaction with himself. This is the central conflict of the plot and upon its resolution hangs the pleasure in; or disappointment in the book.
There are some wonderfully deep thoughtful quotations and scholarly essays. These are 'heavy' thoughts on the human condition. For me these tended to be too long and to contribute to the heavy handed preachiness of this novel. The writer has an assumption that his reader is also well read and a deep thinker. Too much so. A lighter hand might have made this book more accessible and less like an extended sermon. I appreciate that this kind of writing is respectful towards the reader. I like being treated like an intelligent person, but this goes beyond that.
Having built the book on the assumption that we are thoughtful and well read, the resolution did not work for me. It approached the trivial and was almost predictable. We are asked to read a long pages in preparation for Anthony to squarely face himself only to be dropped into his life after an incomplete melodrama that is the climax of the book.
The question that Huxley may not have appreciated as he finished this book in 1936 was: Is the resolved Anthony Bevis ready for what is about to happen two years later?
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Sara
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September 16, 2007
on speech-giving:
"It's easy enough, once you've made up your mind that it doesn't matter if you make a fool of yourself. But it's depressing. There's a sense in which 500 people in a hall aren't concrete. One's talking to a collective non, an abstraction, not to a set of individuals. Only those already partially or completely convinced of what you're saying even want to understand you."
on marriage:
only boring people stay married.
Empirical facts:
1. We are all capable of love.
2. We impose limitations.
3. We can transcend self-imposed limitations.
4. Love breeds love. Hate breeds hate.
Anthony on his celibacy:
"Mark's asceticism was undertaken for its own sake and above all, for HIS, that he might feel himself more separate, more intensely himself in a better position to look down on other people. Whereas what I was trying to do was to avoid occasions for emphasizing individual separateness through sensuality. Hate, anger, ambition explicitly deny human unity; lust and greed do the same indirectly and by implication - by insisting exclusively on particular individual experiences and in the case of lust, using other people merely as a means for obtaining such experiences... lust is still incompatible with pacifism; be made compatible only when it ceases to be an end in itself and becomes a means towards the unification through love of two separate individuals. Such a particular union, a paradigm of union in general."
On God:
"God may or may not exist. But there is the empirical fact that contemplation of the divinity - of goodness in the its most unqualified form - is a method of realizing that goodness to some degree in one's own life."
There is a stormy base to all life, then darkness/peace connected at one point, at the end is light, the final peace.
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David Stephens
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August 25, 2012
There is a Latin phrase used early in Aldous Huxley’s Eyeless in Gaza that reads, “Video meliora, proboque, deteriora sequor,” which, near as I can tell, means, “I see better things, and approve, but I follow worse.” This saying does a good job tying together the events in the novel. Many of the characters know how they should behave, and yet, they do just the opposite. They act foolishly or callously when it is more convenient, amusing, or less painful—both for themselves and the others in their lives—to do so. On top of these often unlikable decisions they make, many of the characters are intellectuals who are divorced from reality. They are capable of analytically dissecting their peers, but they have no skills or desire to interact; they prefer to know but not experience.
The chief example of this is Anthony Beavis, the protagonist who is based heavily on Huxley himself. His erudition is unmatched by most of the other intellectuals in the novel, yet he can’t grasp the emotions of those around him. He often finds himself knowing what to do but resists because it is simply easier to remain passive. His one true friend, Brian Foxe, similarly realizes the problematic nature of the gap between his knowledge and actions. He so believes in a pure, ideal version of love that he thinks any physical expressions of that love will tarnish it. It is his inability to express this love which prevents him from achieving happiness in his only relationship.
Outside of these two, there is an interesting, if not greatly flawed, array of characters who pop in and out of the story. They are easily able to do this because of the structure Huxley establishes. The narrative jumps back and forth from Anthony’s early childhood to his middle age after he has made numerous mistakes throughout his life. This method not only allows for easily changeable views of the characters when readers learn about their earlier lives, but helps build the story to a more emotional climax than it otherwise would have done. Several outcomes are mentioned early on in the novel, but readers don’t find out the intimate details or what decisions the characters made until the very end.
If there is a central plot in the novel, then it is one of Anthony overcoming his shyness and aversion to an involvement with reality. He slowly recognizes his need to work with others and put his theories in to practice, no matter what the consequences. Huxley periodically inserts journal entries from Anthony in his forties that describe his transition from arrogant intellectual to selfless mystic. These entries cover a range of topics that are largely still relevant today: the tug of war between institutionalists and insurrectionists, how much effect art can really have on people, individual desires that drive military aggression, and the heightening of political divisions to Manichean levels. What Anthony ultimately discovers, though, is that he must “cultivate the difficult art of loving people” to achieve the true pacifism he advocates. It takes him the entire course of the novel to get to this realization and manage to go through with it. While this may seem like a simple process, the “art of loving people” means not only acknowledging that others should be treated well but working tirelessly to ensure that they are. This is a notion most people probably realize and strive towards but few ever attain.
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Ben Weeks
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January 24, 2011
I was very surprised by Eyeless in Gaza. From the books that Huxley is well know for, I was expecting a dystopian commentary involving various chemical mind-states. What I got was a deep inquiry into the nature of man through the telling of various social circumstances of a fictional British bourgeois circle in the early 1900s. His criticisms of the idle rich are quite endearing, and seem to warn of the sort of dystopic future that he paints in his other novels. Huxley treads the line of being moralistic without being overbearing quite well. While he clearly has an agenda which settles in a Buddhist inspired active pacifism, he tells the story quite well, with well written and contrasting characters that made me inquisitive and inspired until the very end.
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Simon Mcleish
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August 14, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in August 2000.
The title of this novel refers to the Biblical story of Samson. Having told Delilah the secret of his strength - that it depended on his hair remaining uncut - Samson was betrayed to his enemies the Philistines, and taken with a shorn head to be a slave in their city of Gaza. Blinded to make him harmless, he was forgotten until brought before the crowd on a feast day. By then his hair had regrown, and even blind he was able to pull down the temple on the heads of the celebrating Philistines (and kill himself at the same time).
This story may not seem immediately relevant to Huxley's novel, which is about the confused arguments of thirties intellectuals, mainly left wing, and the events which shaped their ideas. This is particularly the case when we remember that the novel was published several years before the Second World War broke out, so that the war cannot be seen as the bringing down of the temple unless we credit Huxley with an uncanny gift for accurate prophecy. (Additionally, Samson deliberately brought down the building to destroy others, and this cannot be said of the origins of the Second World War in the political debates of the thirties.)
The real meaning of the title must be a pointer to the way in which the characters in the novel think that they are doing something new and revolutionary, something that will destroy the outdated society around them. This would of course give it an ironic twist, since Huxley must have been aware that this feeling was shared by the radical intellectuals of every generation and of every political viewpoint.
The novel is centred around Anthony Beavis, and tells the story of his life by picking out the important events in the development of his personality, from the death of his mother during his childhood onwards. The arrangement of these events is not chronological, but parallel - dated chapters, like entries in a diary, are arranged so that the significant events are revealed together, alternating between the different periods of Beavis' life. Some days have several chapters - a description of a party in 1926 occupies six of them - and the main concentration is on the period from autumn 1932 to spring 1935, which sees Beavis involved in an uprising in Central America and in public speaking for the pacifist movement.
An oblique connection is made between the events of the novel and the First World War. One of the most important sequences of events, which leads up to the suicide of one of Beavis' closest friends, takes place in July 1914 between the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the declaration of war on Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This war was of course the one which entailed the self-destruction of the former world order, as the major colonial powers tore themselves apart. The War itself is hardly mentioned directly; Beavis' part in it was minor and overshadowed by the suicide.
The clear symbolic nature of this event leads one to look for connections between historical events and other important turning points in the novel. The most prominent of these are accompanied by two of the most repulsive descriptions in modern literature. The end of an affair between Beavis and Helen Elberley is caused by her repulsion when a dog falls from an aeroplane onto the house where they are staying, covering them in blood; and the revolution in Latin Anerica causes another old friend of Beavis', Mark Staithes, to lose a leg when a wound becomes gangrenous. (Other important moments are the abduction of Helen's later lover, the Communist agitator Ekki Giesebrecht, by Nazi agents in Switzerland, and the final event of the novel, in which Beavis goes to speak at a pacifist meeting in the fact of death threats.)
None of these events actually coincides with important dates in the history of the thirties, as far as I can tell, but they certainly have a symbolic air about them, particularly the dead dog. Whatever the meaning of these events individually, taken together they symbolise the ferment of the thirties, the opposition between political extremes (communism/fascism, pacifism/militarism) that was eventually resolved by the war.
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Jonathan
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March 13, 2017
I almost didn't read this, looking through unread books that I thought I might never start. It had been on my shelf for a few years, a nice old copy from 1938, thick paper making it look even longer than it was. Then I read the first page and was thankful that I had just finished my last book. The plot revolved around the life of Anthony Beavis, moving back and forth between 1904, when he was a child, attending the funeral of his mother, to the mid-1930s, watching the world on the brink of another war. Central to his adult life is an early love affair with an older woman, an affair that has consequences in the lives of his friends as much as in his own. School, university, love and loss, mistakes and adventures all play their part in the novel. Occasional philosophical asides reminded me of Iris Murdoch in part, and just like her books, showed that novels which on the surface are about human relationships, can also make us think about the bigger things in life. A very good book, if slightly of its time.
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James
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February 13, 2014
A difficult read which attempts to examine the whole of human behavior with an ever-present underlying theme: The only outcome of violence is more violence and even though love often causes confusion, disorientation, heart-break, and endless guilt, it is the only possible way to move forward.
For those thinking they might want to dive in to this, I'd highly recommend noting the dates of each chapter. The non-linear presentation was very confusing before I started actively paying attention to what time period in which each chapter took place. Also, there may be times when a seemingly pointless exchange between characters brings you to tears of boredom, but hang on, there are so many worthwhile descriptions, so many thoughtful observations that by the time you reach the last page, enlightenment will be the strongest lingering emotion, leaving the brief frustration a faded memory.
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Kristin
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March 22, 2018
Some books can be read in large chunks and some cannot. Wanting to meet a book club deadline, I read this in daily 50 page chunks. Disadvantaged also by not knowing 4 additional languages (including Latin) and philosophical schools of thought and certain artists, I may have missed some of the salient points. Add in a non-chronological time sequence and I have to conclude this is a challenge to read. The sections of the book I enjoyed most were when the characters actually did something or at least talked about doing something versus the parts of the book that were so much "washing machine" cycles with trains of thought going round and round.
The book club discussion added some context so that I had a better grasp of what the author was trying to accomplish and I award him an "A" for effort. In the end, this will probably be the last of this author I read as I also did not enjoy Brave New World for different reasons.
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Andreea
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March 16, 2011
...although the last chapter seems somehow from another book (something like "I do not truly believe this, but this is where the writing brought me")... It is about how people change, how they turn to be totally and unexpectedly different from what they considered their true nature... It is very intelligently built, bringing past events in the present, there are no corny characters, archetypes are absent (I wouldn't think of the doctor as archetype, as long as one may trace down his evolution), the charaters are alive and kicking...
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Agne Zainyte
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March 29, 2019
This book will leave you broken into thousand pieces and it will be up to you to decide how do you want to "glue" yourself back. But make no mistake, you will be broken afterward.
Absolute masterpiece! I found myself lucky to read this book in my early 20's as I could relate to young Anthony so much (we happen to share the same cynical worldview as well as similar philosophies).
I could not grasp the impact of this book until I finished it. Then all I wanted is to read it again, recycle all that material, analyse it as now I know the consequences. Jumping between timelines works brilliantly in this type of storytelling.
In one of the chapters Mark complains about written novels not being real enough, characters are never flawed enough to resemble real people (and then he gives an example that empty cigarette box sometimes can upset more than lost loved one) and that is what Huxley did in this book. He presented characters, flawed and real, there were no protagonists or antagonists, there were only people.
Ending of the book was the most visual experience I have ever read, but then I realised that it felt so not because of the visual written scenery but because of extensively written character emotional landscape.
That is why this book is so powerful: there are no good guys, no bad guys. The reader equally finds oneself empathising with the protagonists and antagonists (although there is no line separating them). All characters are charming and witty and at the same time broken and filthy. What is it like to be human? There is no one answer, or as it is said in the book "knowledge and experience are two separate things", knowing what is it to be human and experiencing it are two different things.
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George
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March 21, 2021
3.5 star. An interesting, thought provoking, character based, long novel about Anthony Beavis and his close friends and associates, covering the significant events in Anthony’s life during the period 1903 to 1935. The novel moves backwards and forwards in time. Anthony is a lost soul, finding it difficult to make firm decisions and commit fully to relationships. He tends to go with the flow. He seeks enlightenment. During the course of the novel there are a number of intellectual meditations on topics including sociology, democracy and authoritarianism. Where does individualism fit in civilised societies.
Here are some examples of the author’s writing style:
‘Certain memories, certain trains of thought are like the aching tooth one must always be touching just to make sure it still hurts.’
‘That was the chief difference between literature and life. In books, the proportion of exceptional to commonplace people is high; in reality, very low.’
‘Leaving you defenceless against the full consciousness of the fact that you can’t do without your fellow humans, and that, when you’re with them, they make you sick.’
The novel was first published in 1936.
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Zainab
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December 17, 2015
"I've had a queer feeling that I'm not really there..."
Huxley has some things to communicate to us about pacifism and human nature and some other stuff. But by the end he does so with such vehemence it's as if you're reading a different book altogether. Or more likely I only woke up to the message closer to the end. Anyways, his embarrassing descriptive precision makes for a sumptuous read. It's terribly interesting how Brian, Anthony, and Helen all change dramatically as they grow older and yet somehow stay the same, or become more of themselves.
'That was the chief difference between literature and life. In books, the proportion of exceptional to commonplace people is high; in reality, very low.
"Books are opium," said Mark.
"Precisely."'
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Jens Personius
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January 20, 2017
This book delves into and dissects both social issues and conflicts of the human psyche through engaging dialogue and monologues. Reading Eyeless in Gaza feels like peering into the genius mind of Huxley himself. This book is not one which you can easily pick up, read a few pages, then set down and come back to a couple of days later. Certainly this book is not for everyone, but if you are an active and involved reader who can enjoy a book more for its intellectual content rather than just its storyline, then I'm sure you will very much enjoy this read.
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Горана Ђурић
September 5, 2023
После Врлог новог света, била сам убеђена да више нећу читати Хакслија, каква је то грешка могла да буде!!!!!
Одличан роман, инспирисан делом животом писца, радња не тече линеарно, већ се иде напред и назад кроз године са причом о губитку и издаји и кукавичлуку и кривици и љубави и недостатку љубави, о пацифизму и социјализму и капитализму и бесмиселености свега тога. Све ово звучи сувопарно, а има и делова за умирање од смеха, или бар прилично комичних ситуација. Браво, Хаксли, не одустајем од тебе!
『멋진 신세계』를 읽고 나서는 헉슬리의 책은 다시는 읽지 않겠다고 다짐했었는데, 정말 큰 착각이었어요! 작가의 삶에서 영감을 얻은 이 훌륭한 소설은 줄거리가 순차적으로 흘러가지 않고, 상실과 배신, 비겁함과 죄책감, 사랑과 사랑의 부재, 평화주의와 사회주의, 자본주의, 그리고 이 모든 것의 무의미함에 대한 이야기를 과거와 현재를 오가며 풀어냅니다. 이런 설명들이 다소 딱딱하게 들릴 수도 있지만, 배꼽 빠지게 웃게 만드는 부분도 있고, 적어도 아주 유쾌한 상황들도 있습니다. 헉슬리, 정말 훌륭해요! 저는 당신을 포기하지 않을 겁니다!
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세진님, 질문하신 올더스 헉슬리의 <가자에서 눈이 멀어 (Eyeless in Gaza)>는 결론부터 말씀드리면 오늘날 뉴스에 나오는 팔레스타인의 가자 지구 분쟁을 다룬 역사·정치 소설이 아닙니다.
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이 소설의 제목은 구약성경에 나오는 영웅 삼손의 이야기에서 유래했습니다. 블레셋 사람들에게 붙잡혀 두 눈이 뽑힌 채 '가자(Gaza)'의 맷돌을 돌리는 노예가 되었던 삼손의 절망적인 상태를 묘사한 존 밀턴의 시 <투사 삼손 (Samson Agonistes)>의 한 구절("Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves")을 인용한 것입니다. 즉, 헉슬리는 20세기 초반 영국 상류층 지식인들이 물질주의와 쾌락, 이념의 과잉 속에서 영적·도덕적으로 '눈이 먼 채' 무의미한 일상을 반복하는 모습을 삼손에 비유하여 제목으로 삼았습니다.
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가자에서 눈이 멀어 (Eyeless in Gaza) 요약과 평론
1. 요약: 분절된 시간 속에서 방황하는 지식인의 초상
올더스 헉슬리의 1936년작 소설 <가자에서 눈이 멀어>는 주인공 앤서니 비비스(Anthony Beavis)라는 영국의 상류 중산층 지식인이 도덕적 냉소주의와 개인주의에서 벗어나 보편적 사랑과 평화주의라는 영적 각성에 이르는 과정을 그린 작품이다. 이 소설의 가장 큰 특징은 연대기적 순서를 완전히 뒤흔든 비선형적(Non-linear) 구성에 있다. 작품은 1902년부터 1935년까지 약 30여 년의 세월을 다루며, 앤서니의 유년 시절, 대학 시절, 청년기, 그리고 중년기의 이야기가 총 54개의 장 속에서 무작위처럼 섞여 교차된다. 헉슬리는 인간의 기억이 흘러가는 방식 그대로 독자에게 파편화된 스냅숏을 제시하며, 앤서니라는 인물의 정신적 성장을 추적한다.
유년기와 청년기: 상실과 도덕적 회피 1902년, 앤서니는 어머니의 죽음을 겪으며 깊은 상실감 속에서 성장한다. 속물적이고 나약한 아버지 밑에서 자란 그는 타인과 깊은 감정적 유대를 맺는 것을 두려워하게 된다. 에드워드 시대의 명문 사립학교와 옥스퍼드 대학을 거치면서 그는 똑똑하지만 냉소적인 지식인으로 성장한다. 그에게는 성실하고 도덕적인 친구 브라이언 폭스(Brian Foxe)가 있었다. 하지만 앤서니는 냉소적이고 매혹적인 여성 메리 앰벌리(Mary Amberley)의 유혹과 충동질에 넘어가, 브라이언의 약혼녀인 조안을 유혹하는 배신을 저지른다. 이 사실을 알게 된 순결한 도덕주의자 브라이언은 투신자살을 선택한다. 이 비극은 앤서니의 마음에 평생 지울 수 없는 부채감과 죄책감을 남기지만, 그는 이를 직면하는 대신 타인과의 관계를 끊고 학문과 지적 유희 뒤로 숨는 '감정적 고립'을 택한다.
중년기: 쾌락의 허무와 파시즘의 도래 1930년대에 이른 앤서니는 사회학자로서 명성을 얻었지만, 삶의 의미를 찾지 못한 채 메리 앰벌리의 딸인 헬렌(Helen)과 공허한 육체적 관계를 이어간다. 헬렌 역시 불행한 결혼 생활과 어머니의 몰락을 지켜보며 냉소주의에 빠진 인물이다. 두 사람이 프랑스의 한 옥상에서 햇볕을 쬐며 누워 있을 때, 상공을 지나던 비행기에서 떨어진 개 한 마리가 그들의 몸 바로 옆에서 폭발하듯 추락하는 사건이 발생한다. 이 기괴하고 충격적인 사건은 앤서니에게 육체적 쾌락과 지적 초연함이 얼마나 허망하고 유약한 것인지를 단번에 깨닫게 하는 계기가 된다. [?] 한편, 시대는 바야흐로 공산주의와 파시즘이라는 극단적 이념이 대립하며 제2차 세계대전의 전조를 풍기던 폭력의 시대였다. 앤서니의 대학 동창인 마크 스태이츠(Mark Staithes)는 마르크스주의 혁명가로 변신하여 폭력적 투쟁 속에서 삶의 의미를 찾으려 한다.
멕시코 여정과 영적 각성 앤서니는 마크의 권유로 멕시코의 혁명 운동에 동참하기 위해 길을 떠난다. 그러나 그곳에서 마크는 다리를 다쳐 부패해가는 고통을 겪고, 혁명의 실상은 환멸로 가득 차 있을 뿐이었다. 폭력의 한복판에서 앤서니는 스코틀랜드 출신의 의사이자 인류학자인 제임스 밀러(James Miller)를 만난다. 밀러는 불교적 명상과 기독교적 박애주의가 결합한 독자적인 평화주의 철학을 실천하는 인물이었다. 밀러와의 만남을 통해 앤서니는 마침내 자신의 냉소주의가 지적 고결함이 아니라 도덕적 겁쟁이의 도피처였음을 깨닫는다. 그는 인간 개개인이 내면의 변화를 통하지 않고서는 그 어떤 정치적 이념이나 제도 개혁으로도 세계의 폭력을 멈출 수 없다는 결론에 도달한다.
결말: 평화주의자로의 재탄생 영국으로 돌아온 앤서니는 완전히 다른 사람이 된다. 그는 명상을 통해 내면의 평화를 수행하고, 밀러가 이끄는 평화주의 운동 단체에 가입하여 대중 강연을 시작한다. 1935년 2월, 소설의 마지막 장에서 앤서니는 자신의 강연회에 폭력적인 국수주의 단체가 난입하여 자신을 암살하거나 폭행할 것이라는 경고를 받는다. 과거의 앤서니였다면 도망쳤겠지만, 각성한 그는 죽음의 공포를 극복하고 진정한 내면의 자유와 보편적 인류애를 느끼며 강연장으로 향한다. 두 눈을 멀게 했던 에고(Ego)의 감옥에서 벗어나 진정한 '빛'을 마주하는 것으로 소설은 끝을 맺는다.
2. 평론: 이념의 시대, 내면의 구원을 향한 헉슬리의 실험
올더스 헉슬리의 <가자에서 눈이 멀어>는 그의 가장 유명한 디스토피아 SF <멋진 신세계 (Brave New World)>(1932)와 문학적 궤적을 같이하면서도, 헉슬리 개인의 사상적 전환점을 가장 극명하게 보여주는 기념비적인 '관념 소설(Novel of Ideas)'이다. 1930년대 유럽은 대공황의 여파와 파시즘의 대두, 그리고 스페인 내전의 발발 등으로 인해 지식인들에게 극단적인 선택을 강요하던 시기였다. 지식인들은 마르크스주의자가 되거나, 혹은 파시즘에 맞서 무기를 들 것을 요구받았다. 이러한 시대적 배경 속에서 헉슬리는 정치적 집단주의가 아닌 '개인의 영적 구원과 절대적 평화주의'라는 제3의 길을 제시한다.
시간의 분절이 가지는 문학적 효과
이 소설의 서사 구조는 당대 모더니즘 문학의 시간 실험 중에서도 매우 과감하다. 헉슬리는 연대기적 순서를 완전히 파괴하여, 주인공이 지적으로 성숙한 중년의 일기 바로 뒤에 유년 시절의 미성숙한 에피소드를 배치하는 식의 구성을 취한다. 이러한 비선형적 배치는 인간의 정체성이란 고정되거나 직선적으로 발전하는 것이 아니라, 끊임없이 과거의 기억과 현재의 행동이 상호작용하는 '상태들의 집합'이라는 작가의 철학을 형식적으로 구현한 것이다. 독자는 앤서니의 부끄러운 과거와 영적으로 각성한 미래를 동시에 목격하면서, 그가 왜 냉소주의자가 될 수밖에 없었는지, 그리고 그 냉소를 깨뜨리기 위해 얼마나 거대한 도덕적 충격이 필요했는지를 입체적으로 이해하게 된다.
지식인의 냉소주의에 대한 자성적 비판
주인공 앤서니 비비스는 작가 올더스 헉슬리 자신의 자조적인 자화상이다. 헉슬리는 당대 영국 상류층 지식인들이 누리던 '초연함(Detachment)'을 날카롭게 해부한다. 타인의 고통이나 사회적 모순을 관찰하고 분석할 뿐, 스스로 책임지거나 상처받지 않으려는 태도는 지적 정직함이 아니라 사실상 '이기적인 맹목(Eyelessness)'에 불과하다는 것이다. 소설 속에서 앤서니가 친구 브라이언을 파멸로 몰고 간 사건이나, 헬렌과의 관계에서 보여준 무책임함은 모두 이러한 도덕적 맹목의 결과물이다. 헉슬리는 삼손이 눈이 먼 채 맷돌을 돌렸듯, 현대 지식인들 역시 지적 유희와 성적 쾌락이라는 맷돌에 갇힌 노예라고 꼬집는다.
정치적 이념에 대한 환멸과 평화주의
작품 내에서 마크 스태이츠로 대표되는 마르크스주의적 폭력 혁명 노선은 철저한 실패와 환멸로 귀결된다. 헉슬리는 세상을 바꾸겠다는 거대한 이념들이 정작 인간 개개인의 증오와 권력욕을 정당화하는 수단으로 전락하기 쉽다고 보았다. 외적인 제도나 정치 체제를 바꾸는 것으로는 인간의 근본적인 폭력성을 치료할 수 없다는 진단이다. 그렇기에 앤서니가 멕시코에서 밀러를 만나 불교적 명상과 신비주의에 경도되는 과정은 당대 평론가들에게 '나약한 도피주의'라는 비판을 받기도 했다. 다가오는 나치즘의 위협 앞에서 비폭력 평화주의를 외치는 것은 현실성 없는 공상이라는 지적이었다.
그러나 헉슬리의 메시지는 단순한 방관적 도피가 아니다. 마지막 장에서 앤서니가 폭력의 위협을 인지하고도 강연장으로 걸어 들어가는 장면은, 그가 선택한 평화주의가 도망이 아닌 가장 적극적이고 용기 있는 형태의 도덕적 투쟁임을 보여준다. 증오를 증오로 갚지 않고, 내면의 신성한 일체감(Unity)을 통해 외계의 분열을 극복하려는 태도는 헉슬리 후기 사상의 핵심이 되는 '영원한 철학(The Perennial Philosophy)'의 출발점이다.
총평 <가자에서 눈이 멀어>는 구조의 복잡함과 지나친 관념적 토론으로 인해 대중적인 재미는 덜할지 모른다. 그러나 시대의 광기와 폭력 앞에서 지식인이 취해야 할 진정한 책임이 무엇인가를 묻는다는 점에서 이 소설의 울림은 깊다. 헉슬리는 인간이 스스로의 이기심과 냉소라는 눈꺼풀을 벗겨내고 보편적 유대감을 마주할 때만, 비로소 시대가 강요하는 맷돌의 사슬을 끊고 진정한 자유를 얻을 수 있음을 앤서니의 고통스러운 여정을 통해 증명해 냈다.
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혹시 작품의 비선형적 구조나 헉슬리가 주장한 평화주의 철학에 대해 더 궁금한 점이 있으십니까?
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아닙니다. Aldous Huxley의 <Eyeless in Gaza>는 <팔레스타인 가자지구 이야기>가 아닙니다.
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제목의 “Gaza”는 성서 <사사기>의 삼손 이야기에서 온 것입니다. 삼손은 눈이 뽑힌 뒤 가자에서 블레셋 사람들에게 조롱당하다가 마지막 힘으로 신전을 무너뜨리지요. “Eyeless in Gaza”는 존 밀턴의 시 <Samson Agonistes>에도 나오는 표현입니다. 그러므로 제목은 지리적·정치적 가자라기보다, <눈먼 인간>, <도덕적 방향을 잃은 현대인>, <자기 파괴와 깨달음>을 상징합니다.
요약+평론
올더스 헉슬리의 <Eyeless in Gaza>는 1936년에 발표된 장편소설로, 그의 대표작 <Brave New World>와는 성격이 상당히 다르다. <Brave New World>가 미래 사회를 풍자한 디스토피아라면, <Eyeless in Gaza>는 한 개인의 내면 변화와 도덕적 각성을 추적하는 철학적·심리적 소설이다. 중심 인물은 앤서니 비비스다. 그는 지적이고 예민하지만, 자기 삶에 대해 깊은 책임감을 느끼지 못하는 영국 상류 중산층 남성이다. 소설은 그의 어린 시절, 청년기, 중년기의 장면들을 시간 순서대로 배열하지 않고, 파편적으로 제시한다. 이 비연대기적 구성 때문에 독자는 앤서니가 어떤 사건을 통해 지금의 인물이 되었는지 조각들을 맞추듯 읽어야 한다.
소설 초반의 앤서니는 냉소적인 지식인이다. 그는 세상을 관찰하고 분석하는 능력은 뛰어나지만, 사랑하거나 헌신하거나 책임지는 능력은 부족하다. 그는 인간관계를 진지한 윤리적 관계로 받아들이기보다, 지적 유희나 감각적 경험의 대상으로 대한다. 헉슬리는 이런 앤서니를 통해 20세기 초 영국 지식인 계층의 공허함을 그린다. 그들은 종교적 확신은 잃었고, 전통 도덕도 믿지 않으며, 정치적 이념에도 쉽게 냉소를 보낸다. 그러나 그 냉소는 자유가 아니라 무력감으로 귀결된다.
앤서니의 삶에서 중요한 인물은 여러 명이다. 브라이언 폭스는 앤서니의 친구로, 순수하고 진지한 성격을 지녔다. 그는 앤서니와 달리 감정적으로 깊고, 도덕적 진실성을 가진 인물이다. 그러나 그는 앤서니 주변의 복잡한 인간관계와 배신, 사랑의 실패 속에서 비극적 죽음을 맞는다. 브라이언의 죽음은 앤서니에게 오래도록 죄책감으로 남는다. 앤서니가 겉으로는 냉정한 지식인처럼 행동하지만, 내면 깊은 곳에서는 자신이 타인의 삶을 망가뜨리는 데 기여했다는 사실을 피하지 못한다.
또 다른 중요한 인물은 헬렌이다. 그녀는 앤서니의 연인이지만, 이 관계 역시 안정된 사랑으로 발전하지 않는다. 앤서니는 사랑을 원하면서도 사랑에 자신을 맡기지 못한다. 그는 타인을 진심으로 받아들이기보다, 자기 의식 속에서 해석하고 거리 두는 습관을 가진다. 이 점에서 그는 현대 지식인의 전형이다. 많이 알고, 많이 분석하지만, 정작 삶 속에서는 제대로 사랑하지 못하고 책임지지 못한다.
소설의 후반으로 갈수록 앤서니는 점차 변화한다. 중요한 계기는 마크 스테이트와의 만남이다. 마크는 평화주의자이며, 도덕적 실천을 중시하는 인물이다. 그는 폭력과 전쟁을 거부하고, 인간이 자기중심적 욕망을 넘어서야 한다고 본다. 앤서니는 처음에는 이런 태도를 순진하거나 비현실적인 것으로 여긴다. 그러나 점차 그는 자신의 냉소가 사실은 지혜가 아니라 회피였음을 깨닫는다. 헉슬리가 이 소설에서 말하고자 하는 핵심은 바로 여기에 있다. 지적 회의주의만으로는 인간이 구원받을 수 없다. 삶에는 어떤 형태로든 헌신, 사랑, 자기 초월, 비폭력적 실천이 필요하다.
이 소설의 제목 <Eyeless in Gaza>는 매우 중요하다. 앞서 말했듯, 이는 팔레스타인의 가자지구를 다룬 제목이 아니다. 삼손은 힘은 있었지만 눈을 잃었고, 결국 가자에서 죽음을 맞는다. 헉슬리에게 “눈먼 삼손”은 현대 인간의 상징이다. 현대인은 지식, 기술, 감각, 권력은 가지고 있지만, 정작 보아야 할 것을 보지 못한다. 앤서니도 마찬가지다. 그는 똑똑하지만 눈멀었다. 타인의 고통을 보지 못하고, 자기 행동의 윤리적 결과를 보지 못하며, 사랑의 요구를 보지 못한다. 따라서 소설은 앤서니가 “눈을 뜨는” 과정이다.
형식적으로 이 작품은 쉽지 않다. 시간 순서가 뒤섞여 있고, 장면과 장면 사이의 연결이 즉각적으로 설명되지 않는다. 그러나 이 구조는 단순한 실험이 아니다. 인간의 삶은 언제나 현재에서 과거를 다시 해석하는 방식으로 이해된다. 앤서니의 현재를 이해하려면 그의 과거를 알아야 하지만, 그 과거는 직선적으로 주어지지 않는다. 기억처럼, 죄책감처럼, 후회처럼, 과거는 불쑥불쑥 현재 속으로 침입한다. 이 점에서 소설의 파편적 구성은 주제와 잘 어울린다.
평론적으로 볼 때, 이 작품의 가장 큰 장점은 헉슬리가 지식인의 허무주의를 매우 정직하게 해부한다는 점이다. 앤서니는 악인이 아니다. 오히려 세련되고, 교양 있고, 감수성도 있다. 그러나 바로 그런 사람이 타인에게 상처를 줄 수 있다는 것이 헉슬리의 통찰이다. 교양은 윤리를 보장하지 않는다. 지성은 사랑을 대신하지 못한다. 냉소는 진실의 증거가 아니라, 때로는 책임 회피의 방식이다.
다만 약점도 있다. 후반부의 평화주의적·신비주의적 전환은 독자에 따라 설득력이 약하게 느껴질 수 있다. 헉슬리는 앤서니가 냉소에서 비폭력과 영적 각성으로 나아가는 과정을 그리고 싶어 하지만, 그 전환이 때로는 소설적 필연성보다 사상적 선언처럼 보인다. 즉 인물의 변화라기보다 작가의 사상적 결론이 인물에게 부여된 듯한 느낌이 있다. 특히 오늘의 독자에게는 이 평화주의가 현실 정치의 폭력성과 구조적 억압을 충분히 다루지 못하는 개인 윤리 중심의 해결책처럼 보일 수도 있다.
그럼에도 <Eyeless in Gaza>는 헉슬리 문학에서 중요한 작품이다. 이 소설은 인간이 어떻게 지적으로는 성숙하면서도 도덕적으로는 미성숙할 수 있는지를 보여준다. 또한 냉소, 성적 자유, 지적 유희, 정치적 회의주의가 인간을 자동으로 자유롭게 만들지는 않는다는 사실을 말한다. 헉슬리는 결국 인간에게 필요한 것은 더 많은 정보가 아니라 더 깊은 시야라고 본다.
한 문장으로 정리하면, <Eyeless in Gaza>는 팔레스타인 가자의 이야기가 아니라, <눈먼 현대 지식인이 자기 삶의 죄책감과 공허를 통과해 도덕적 시야를 회복하려는 이야기>다. 제목의 가자는 실제 정치 지명이 아니라 성서적 상징이며, 삼손처럼 힘은 있으나 눈먼 인간의 운명을 비추는 거울이다.
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이 책은 헉슬리의 자전적인 이야기일까요?
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<상당히 자전적입니다.> 다만 그대로의 자서전은 아닙니다.
주인공 앤서니 비비스는 헉슬리 자신을 강하게 반영한 인물로 보는 것이 일반적입니다. 일본 <코토뱅크/일본대백과전서> 항목도 이 작품을 “자서전적 요소가 농후한 소설”이라고 설명합니다.
자전적 요소는 특히 네 가지입니다.
첫째, <어머니의 죽음>입니다. 헉슬리는 14세 때 어머니를 잃었습니다. 소설 속 앤서니도 어린 시절 어머니의 죽음을 겪고, 그 경험이 인생 전체의 허무감과 죽음 의식에 깊게 남습니다. 헉슬리 연구 자료도 <Eyeless in Gaza>에서 주인공 어머니의 죽음 처리가 헉슬리 자신의 상처와 연결된다고 설명합니다.
둘째, <친구의 죽음>입니다. 원작의 브라이언 폭스는 헉슬리의 실제 친구이자 가까운 인물이었던 “Trev”의 기억을 반영한다고 설명됩니다. 브라이언은 소설에서 앤서니의 죄책감과 도덕적 각성의 핵심 인물입니다.
셋째, <냉소적 지식인에서 평화주의자로의 변화>입니다. 앤서니는 처음에는 관찰자, 회의주의자, 감정적으로 거리 두는 지식인입니다. 하지만 나중에는 자기의 냉소가 지혜가 아니라 도덕적 비겁함이었다는 것을 깨닫고 평화주의 쪽으로 갑니다. 현대판 소개문도 앤서니가 “삶에서 물러나려는 사람”이며, 자기의 분리가 “지적 정직성”이 아니라 “도덕적 비겁함”이었음을 깨닫는다고 요약합니다.
넷째, <헉슬리 자신의 사상적 전환>입니다. 1920년대의 헉슬리는 냉소와 풍자의 작가였지만, 1930년대 중반 이후에는 평화주의, 신비주의, 영적 훈련, 비폭력 쪽으로 이동합니다. 1936년 당시 <뉴요커> 평도 이 작품을 헉슬리가 냉소적 세계관에서 “영적 이상주의”로 이동한 전환점으로 읽었습니다.
그러므로 이 책은 <사실 그대로의 자서전>이 아니라, <헉슬리 자신의 상처, 지적 방황, 죄책감, 평화주의적 회심을 소설 형식으로 변형한 자전적 소설>이라고 보는 것이 정확합니다.
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안토니는 사회학자라고 나오는데, 어떤 학자였나 더 정보가 있는가요?
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소설 속 안토니 비비스(Anthony Beavis)가 추구한 사회학은 당대의 주류 학문과는 완전히 궤를 달리하는 독특한 성격을 지니고 있다. 작가인 올도스 헉슬리가 안토니라는 인물을 통해 지식인의 한계와 사상적 전환을 보여주려고 했기 때문이다.
안토니 비비스가 어떤 학자였는지에 대한 구체적인 특징은 다음과 같다.
1. 파편화된 사실만을 수집하는 냉소적 학자
소설 초반부의 안토니는 인간 사회의 본질을 거시적으로 탐구하는 학자가 아니다. 그는 세계를 의미 있는 하나의 전체로 보기를 거부하고, 무수한 역사적 사실과 사회학적 데이터를 그저 파편적으로 수집하여 분류하는 일에만 몰두한다. 이러한 태도는 그가 삶에서 마주하는 감정적 고통이나 책임감으로부터 도피하기 위한 일종의 방어기제이다. 그는 사회학적 연구를 통해 인간의 행동을 냉소적으로 관찰할 뿐, 그 안에서 어떠한 도덕적 가치나 의미도 찾으려 하지 않는다.
2. 과학적 유토피아주의에 대한 회의
안토니는 헉슬리의 이전 작가적 성향을 대변하는 인물이다. 헉슬리는 초기 작가 시절에 과학 기술이나 합리주의가 인간을 구원할 수 없다고 보았다. 소설 속 안토니의 사회학 역시 마찬가지이다. 그는 통계와 제도를 통해 사회를 완벽하게 개혁할 수 있다는 당대 유토피아주의적 사회학을 신뢰하지 않는다. 오히려 인간 본성의 복잡함과 이기심 때문에 제도적 접근만으로는 사회적 모순을 해결할 수 없음을 간파한 회의주의적 시선을 유지한다.
3. 지적 오만과 감정적 단절의 도구
안토니에게 사회학은 타인과 거리를 두기 위한 완벽한 도구이다. 그는 인간의 관계와 감정을 연구 대상으로만 삼을 뿐, 스스로는 누구에게도 깊이 몰입하거나 책임지려 하지 않는다. 타인의 고통을 보면서도 이를 관찰 가능한 사회학적 현상으로 치부해 버리는 그의 모습은, 지식인이 빠지기 쉬운 전형적인 지적 오만과 감정적 단절을 상징적으로 보여준다.
4. 멕시코 여행을 통한 사상적 전향
소설의 후반부에서 안토니는 전환점을 맞이한다. 친구인 마크 스태틀스(Mark Staithes)와 함께 떠난 멕시코 여행에서 혁명주의자이자 의사인 제임스 밀러(James Miller)를 만나게 된다. 밀러는 안토니의 냉소적이고 이론적이기만 한 사회학을 강하게 비판하며, 인간에 대한 실천적 사랑과 비폭력 평화주의를 제시한다.
이 만남을 계기로 안토니는 단순한 학문적 관찰자에서 벗어나기 시작한다. 그는 동양 철학과 불교적 명상, 그리고 전체론적(holistic) 시각을 수용하면서, 인간 개개인의 내면적 변화가 선행되어야만 진정한 사회적 개혁과 평화가 가능하다는 결론에 이르게 된다.
<가자에서 눈이 없이>는 안토니라는 냉소적인 사회학자가 지식인의 상아탑을 깨고 나와, 인류의 고통에 책임감을 느끼는 평화주의 사상가로 거듭나는 정신적 순례기라고 할 수 있다.
세진님, 헉슬리가 안토니의 직업을 사회학자로 설정한 것은 당대 유럽 지식인 사회의 메마른 주지주의를 비판하기 위함이었습니다. 혹시 안토니의 사상적 변화를 이끈 계기나, 그와 대조적인 가치관을 가졌던 주변 인물들과의 관계에 대해 더 알고 싶으신 부분이 있으신가요?
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네. 더 말할 수 있습니다. 다만 중요한 점은, 앤서니 비비스가 <전문적 의미의 사회학자>라기보다는 <사회학을 쓰는 문필가형 지식인>에 가깝다는 것입니다.
소설 속 앤서니는 옥스퍼드 교육을 받은 상류 중산층 지식인으로 제시되고, 1930년대 현재 시점에서는 프랑스에서 헬렌 앰벌리와 관계를 지속하면서 <사회학 교과서 혹은 사회학 책>을 쓰고 있는 인물로 나옵니다. 작품 개요들도 그를 “sociologist”라고 부르지만, 실제 대학 교수, 현장조사자, 통계사회학자 같은 직업적 사회학자로 세밀하게 설정하지는 않습니다. 오히려 그는 헉슬리 자신처럼 문학, 철학, 심리학, 정치, 종교를 넘나드는 백과전서적 지식인입니다.
앤서니의 사회학은 대략 이런 성격으로 볼 수 있습니다.
<첫째, 관찰자의 사회학>입니다. 그는 사회를 살지만 사회에 깊이 참여하지 않습니다. 사람들을 사랑하거나 책임지기보다 관찰하고 분류하고 해석합니다. 그래서 그의 사회학은 학문이라기보다 그의 성격을 드러내는 장치입니다. 그는 인간을 너무 잘 분석하지만, 정작 인간과 함께 사는 능력은 부족합니다.
<둘째, 냉소적 상류층 사회학>입니다. 앤서니가 관찰하는 세계는 노동자 계급의 현실이나 제국주의 식민지의 현장이 아니라, 영국 상류층·지식인·문학 살롱·성적 자유·정치적 냉소의 세계입니다. 그는 사회 구조를 연구한다기보다, 자기가 속한 계급의 공허함을 내부에서 체험합니다. 그래서 그의 사회학은 “현장사회학”이 아니라 “자기 계급의 도덕적 해부”에 가깝습니다.
<셋째, 참여 없는 지성의 상징>입니다. 이 점이 가장 중요합니다. 앤서니는 “사회학자”인데도 사회적 책임을 지지 않습니다. 그는 전쟁, 빈곤, 정치적 폭력, 사랑의 실패를 모두 지적으로 설명할 수 있지만, 행동하지 않습니다. <뉴요커>의 1936년 평도 앤서니를 “인생의 목적과 자리를 찾으려는 인물”로 보면서, 그가 책·성·모험을 통한 현실도피를 넘어서야 한다고 설명했습니다.
그러므로 헉슬리가 앤서니를 사회학자로 설정한 것은 우연이 아닙니다. 사회학자는 원래 사회를 보아야 하는 사람입니다. 그런데 앤서니는 “보는 사람”이면서도 “눈먼 사람”입니다. 이것이 제목 <Eyeless in Gaza>와 연결됩니다. 그는 사회를 분석하지만 인간의 고통을 보지 못하고, 타인의 마음을 해석하지만 타인에게 책임지지 못합니다. 즉 <사회학자이지만 사회적 인간이 되지 못한 사람>입니다.
헉슬리 자신의 모습도 여기에 들어 있습니다. 헉슬리는 사회학자가 아니었지만, 과학·문학·철학·심리학·종교·정치·사회비평을 두루 읽고 쓰던 “종합 지식인”이었습니다. 한 후기 평론도 헉슬리가 과학, 역사, 정치, 사회학, 심리학, 종교를 폭넓게 읽었다고 설명합니다. 앤서니의 사회학자 설정은 이런 헉슬리 자신의 지식인적 자화상을 소설 속에서 조금 비틀어 넣은 것으로 볼 수 있습니다.
좀 더 비판적으로 말하면, 앤서니는 <좋은 사회학자>가 아닙니다. 그는 사회를 연구하지만 사회적 고통의 현장으로 내려가지 않습니다. 그는 계급, 전쟁, 폭력, 성, 가족, 우정의 문제를 알고 있지만, 그것을 자기 삶의 윤리로 바꾸지 못합니다. 그래서 소설의 핵심 변화는 “사회학자 앤서니가 더 훌륭한 이론가가 되는 것”이 아니라, “관찰자 앤서니가 실천적 평화주의자가 되는 것”입니다.
한 줄로 정리하면 이렇습니다.
<앤서니 비비스는 직업적 사회학자라기보다, 사회를 분석할 줄은 알지만 사회적 책임을 회피하는 헉슬리식 지식인의 초상이다. 그의 ‘사회학’은 학문 분야라기보다 도덕적 실명의 상징이다.>
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