Item #126575 An autograph letter signed by Aldous Huxley, in answer to a question from a reader about the fate of the fictional Claxton children. Aldous HUXLEY, English writer.
An autograph letter signed by Aldous Huxley, in answer to a question from a reader about the fate of the fictional Claxton children
An autograph letter signed by Aldous Huxley, in answer to a question from a reader about the fate of the fictional Claxton children

An autograph letter signed by Aldous Huxley, in answer to a question from a reader about the fate of the fictional Claxton children

Duodecimo, 4 pages (a bifolium on blue paper), on the letterhead of 'The Athenaeum,' Pall Mall, SW1; 28 January 1931.

Folded once across the middle for posting; essentially in fine condition.

The letter is in response to one from a Mr Johnstone in New Zealand, who had some queries about the social satire 'The Claxtons', one of the three short stories in the recently published 'Brief Candles' (London, Chatto & Windus, 1930). One needn't to have read the story for the letter to make a lot of sense, and it is sufficiently entertaining to warrant quoting it in its entirety. (However, we can recommend as an interim measure 'The Domestic Downfall,' a lengthy account of the work in 'The Running Deer Review' dated 29 January 2019. It commences with 'The nuclear family is up for scrutiny in Aldous Huxley's 1929 short story "The Claxtons," particularly of the privileged, overeducated, and idle variety.')

'Dear Mr Johnstone, Your questions are difficult. I don't exactly know what happened to the Claxton children. The boy evidently would break away into rather sordid revolt: the girl either plunges into an orgy of good works, or falls painfully & idealistically in love with quite the wrong person, who is terrified of the vehemence of her passion & flees.

But who knows? £700 is not a pittance --- I wish I had it, [solidly (crossed out)] coming in regularly from something sound & everlasting like beer! --- but the monomania of Mrs C, & her envies, wd make it seem one.

Actually, moreover, if she was going to educate her children in the fantastically expensive way usual in upper-middle-class circles in England --- £200 to £250 a year per child --- the income wdn't go very far. I take it that in N.Z you don't suffer from that amazing traditional snobbery which prevents people of a certain standing in society from sending their children to the state schools. Yours sincerely, Aldous Huxley'.

Item #126575

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