Huxley's 'lost' play, Now more than ever : a scholary edition
Date
2017-06-01
Authors
Sexton, James
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Abstract
Aldous Huxley completed a three-act play called Now More Than Ever in
the autumn of 1932. After trying unsuccessfully for over two years to persuade
theatre producers in both New York and London to stage the play, he abandoned
the project, turning his full attention to other work in progress, particularly the
novel Eyeless in Gaza, which he completed in 1936.
The core of this dissertation (Chapter Three) is an annotated edition of
Huxley's "lost" play, Now More Than Ever, based on the only extant script,
housed in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas,
Austin, and indexed as "An Unpublished Play, TMs, corrected. 92 pp."
The thesis argues that the play is an important document in Huxley's
intellectual and spiritual development and should not merely be regarded as a
minor and fruitless theatrical adventure. In fact, it is best understood as part of
the author's ongoing discussion of spiritual and social concerns to which he
consistently returned in his fiction and journalism of the inter-war period.
Written in 1932, midway between two major novels, Brave New World (1932) and
Eyeless in Gaza (1932-36), and resonating with ideas put forward in his volumes of linked philosophical essays—Do What You Will (1929) and Music at Night
(1931)— Now More Than Ever should be recognized as an important part of an
ongoing discussion with himself, which grew less and less provisional until his
arrival at the definitive outlook on life that amounts to a spiritual conversion in
1936. Like most of Huxley’s fiction and drama, Now More Than Ever is partly
autobiographical. Some o f the male characters embody, at least in part, Huxley’s
earlier positions before his spiritual conversion, specifically the sceptical/aesthete
and the extremist anti-democrat. Now More Than Ever takes the reader to the
threshold of that conversion.
Chapter One briefly summarizes the play then discusses the social, political
and economic background, with particular emphasis upon the historical events
surrounding the economic crisis which forms the backdrop for Huxley’s play.
Chapter Two discusses Huxley as drama critic as well as apprentice and
journeyman playwright. Although this aspect of Huxley’s career has received
scant attention from the critics, he left behind a significant body of dramatic
work—three full-length plays, The World of Light (1931), Now More Than Ever
(1932), and The Gioconda Smile (1948)— and co-authored stage adaptations of
his novels, The Genius and the Goddess (1957) and After Many a Summer (1958).
In addition, he published over eighty drama reviews and several short dramatic
pieces.
After discussing Huxley’s monetary and artistic goals as a dramatist, the
chapter describes his early, apprentice plays and his dramatic precepts as revealed in the reviews. Next, I examine his full-length plays within a context of the post-Ibsen "drama of ideas" in Britain, pointing to technical and thematic analogues in the dramatic works of Shaw, Munro, and Galsworthy, especially as
these authors treat what Galsworthy termed "the parlous state of England". The
chapter concludes with an analysis of The World of Light and The Gioconda
Smile.
Chapter Three introduces the play text with an analysis and evaluation of
the themes and symbolic structure of Now More Than Ever.
The appendices present several of Huxley’s Hearst essays which illumine
various aspects of Now More Than Ever followed by a list of all significant
deletions that Huxley made to his typescript.
Description
Keywords
Huxley, Aldous