Mortal Coils

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File:Mortalcoilsfasj.jpg
First edition (publ. Chatto & Windus)

Mortal Coils is a collection of five short fictional pieces written by Aldous Huxley, published in 1921. The book consists of three short stories, a novelette and a play.

The title uses a phrase from Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1:

[...] To die, to sleep,

To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause [...]

The stories all concern themselves with some sort of trouble, normally of an amorous nature, and often ending with disappointment.

Content

  • "The Gioconda Smile", novelette:
    is a mixture of social satire and murder story,[1] which Huxley later adapted into a film called A Woman's Vengeance (1948).[2][3]
  • "Permutations Among the Nightingales", play:
    is a play concerning the amorous problems encountered by various patrons of a hotel.
  • "The Tillotson Banquet":
    tells of an old artist who was thought to be dead, and is "rediscovered"; a not entirely successful honorary dinner is organised for him.
  • "Green Tunnels":
    is about the boredom of a young girl on holiday with her family. She develops a romantic fantasy, and is ultimately disillusioned.
  • "Nuns at Luncheon":
    is a second-hand story told of a nun falling in love. The story mocks the writer's process, a concept Huxley used in his novel Crome Yellow.

Adaptations

Based on novelette "The Gioconda Smile":

Based on play Mortal Coils: Play:

  • Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1953), TV movie directed by Werner Völger
  • Il sorriso della Gioconda (1969), TV movie directed by Enrico Colosimo

References

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External links

Template:Huxley

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