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extant script, housed in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, and indexed as "An Unpublished Play, TMs, corrected. 92 pp."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. / Graduate

Part of Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 1943. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Bonn. / Cover title. At head of title: Englisch. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-93).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1965. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Ph. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1958. / Typescript. Abstracted in Dissertation abstracts, v. 19 (1958) no. 6, p. 1392-1393. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 431-491).

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This dissertation intends to study the quest for the authentic life in both Aldous Huxley¡¦s Brave New World and George Orwell¡¦s Nineteen Eighty-Four. In this dissertation, I attempt to examine how Huxley and Orwell criticize the modern trend toward dehumanization and how both writers assert the value of the authentic life in their individual dystopian novels. In the twentieth century, the rise of totalitarianism and the development of science and technology threaten the independence of the individual. In their respective dystopian novels, both Huxley and Orwell reflect this crisis of the death of individuality in the modern world and warn us against it by portraying the quest of the characters for an individual meaningful life. On the other hand, the rise of existentialism also reflects the human desire to live a life of authenticity in this excruciating modern condition. Philosophers like Heidegger and Sartre all try to assert the value of the individual authentic life in this modern world where traditional values seem no longer sufficient to guide the individual in his life. Thus, it seems that the four authors Heidegger, Sartre, Huxley and Orwell all share the concern for the freedom of humans in the modern world. To them, an authentic individual life has a value in itself. It overrides the past utopian concern for rational order that overlooks the freedom and independence of the individual. The introduction focuses on presenting the major tents of Heidegger¡¦s and Sartre¡¦s ideas on authenticity. In his Being and Time, Heidegger mentions the characteristics of a life of fallen-ness, the individualizing effects of anxiety, the call of conscience and the authentic life. And in his Being and Nothingness, and Existentialism and Humanism, Sartre emphasizes the freedom of the individual to define himself through his own free choice of actions. In their individual philosophical works, both of them emphasize the freedom of the individual to take the initiative to create an authentic life. Chapter two focuses on a comparison between three works, Plato¡¦s The Republic, Huxley¡¦s Brave New World and Orwell¡¦s Nineteen Eighty-four. In my discussion of their similarities and differences, we try to point out both Huxley¡¦s and Orwell¡¦s reflections on the modern world and their implied criticism of Plato¡¦s utopian ideals which can be taken advantage of by the modern dictators. Chapter three treats Huxley¡¦s dystopia Brave New World as essentially an anti-existential world in which there exists no possibility for the individual to lead a truly authentic life. Through the characters¡¦ rebellion, Huxley suggests to the reader that the true authentic life consists in the quest for beauty, love and truth. Chapter four focuses on the protagonist¡¦s quest for the authentic life in Orwell¡¦s dystopia Nineteen Eighty-four. By starting a diary to keep a faithful record of the past, by developing a love affair and joining the Brotherhood to revive the past authentic life, Orwell¡¦s protagonist Winston Smith actually serves as the novelist¡¦s alter ego to express his ideal for the individual authentic life.

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