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extant script, housed in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, and indexed as "An Unpublished Play, TMs, corrected. 92 pp."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

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).

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A. in English)--Washington State University, May 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 14, 2010). "Department of English." Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-84).

The purpose of this thesis is to indicate and describe the interest in mysticism apparent in the prose works of Aldous Huxley, and to show that this interest has developed consistently throughout Huxley's literary career. The books, articles and theses referring to Huxley as a mystic, or accepting Huxley's basic interest in mysticism, make no attempt to account for the progressive stages of mysticism, nor to compare Huxley's pattern of development with that of the traditional mystic. This thesis will indicate at least Huxley's genuine interest in mysticism, and will show that, as work follows work, each displays a growing comprehension of the progressive stages of mystical experience described as typical of the traditional mystic. As a result of this comparison, it will be shown that an interest in mysticism has become a dominating influence in all Huxley's writing. The introduction contains a sampling of criticism to show that critics have generally tended to accept the idea that Huxley went through a conventional religious conversion period in the thirties, but an examination of his works shows that his interest in mysticism began with his earliest writing and developed consistently. Chapter I attempts further to substantiate the contention that Huxley's interest has been progressive, by showing that he is not a personality type likely to undergo sudden religious conversions. The biographical data available suggest that Huxley belongs to a psychological type that usually does not experience conversions, at least according to his own theories of personality classifications. Chapter II includes a general description of the phenomena of mysticism presented in the terms of Western authorities and a description of mysticism taken from Huxley's non-fiction. The comparison makes apparent the variance between Huxley’s theories and those of the authorities. The basic difference stems from Huxley's determination to explore the rich and complex fields of Oriental, as well as of European, mysticism. Chapter III will attempt to trace and evaluate, through his fiction, Huxley's developing interest in mysticism, and it will be shown that the stages of development discernible in the fiction are not directly comparable to the Five-fold Mystic Way — stages considered necessary by Miss Underhill for normal mystical development. Chapter IV will discuss Huxley's latest publications in an effort to show how he has related his interest in mysticism to the problems of contemporary life. On the whole, the thesis is primarily concerned, not with what Huxley, as a man, privately believes, but with the manifestations of mystical apprehension that occur in his writings. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate