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    Crome Yellow
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    Crome Yellow
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    Crome Yellow
    Ebook236 pages3 hours

    Crome Yellow

    By Aldous Huxley

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    A witty recounting of a house party, wherein Huxley satirises the fads and fashions of the time--we hear the history of the house 'Crome' from Henry Wimbush, its owner and self-appointed historian; apocalypse is prophesied, virginity is lost, and inspirational aphorisms are gained in a trance. The protagonist, Denis Stone, tries to capture it all in poetry and is disappointed in love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSheba Blake Publishing
    Release dateMay 18, 2015
    ISBN9781304109293
    Author

    Aldous Huxley

    Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) is the author of the classic novels Brave New World, Island, Eyeless in Gaza, and The Genius and the Goddess, as well as such critically acclaimed nonfiction works as The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception. Born in Surrey, England, and educated at Oxford, he died in Los Angeles, California.

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    Reviews for Crome Yellow

    3.5/5

    320 ratings23 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Words - I wonder if you can realize how much I love them. You are too much preoccupied with mere things and ideas and people to understand the full beauty of words. Your mind is not a literary mind.

      Goodreads is but a sea of possibilities, rife with points of contact albeit drifting and bobbing. Too often I don't hear the calls across the foamy expanses. It is with relief and gratitude that I thank Jim Paris for suggesting this novel.
      Crome Yellow is Huxley's first novel.
      It has wit and snark.
      It overflows with pain and self-deprecation.
      It takes place in a place called Crome.
      It involves a bank holiday and there are references to oysters.
    • 2/5
      Wealthy people hang out at someone's country house. They talk art, politics, philosophy, and wish they weren't single. They pine after each other or try to figure out who might be a possibility. The host holds the annual day-long fair and they all assist.There is definitely humor here, but it is 100-year-old upper class English humor, and doesn't really do it for me. The best and most interesting part is when Mr Scogan spends a page expounding on what he thinks will be life in the future. His world sounds like an outline for Brave New World--which this book predates by 12 years.
    • 4/5
      I read this so many years ago that I cannot recall the details, but I have kept the paperback for 40 years because the parts that are "Henry Wimbush's engaging accounts of his eccentric ancestors," have haunted me for all those years. It is probably the greatest thing I have ever read.
    • 5/5
      I feel a little guilty that I so enjoyed Crome Yellow, as if I'd been sitting for hours in a high school cafeteria making fun of nearly everyone else, especially my own friends.
    • 3/5
      Clever, arguably too clever, since sometimes it's hard to keep track of who's doing what and why. Some great scenes, though.
    • 3/5
      This is a solidly written novel with moments of humor and insight but overall a tad boring.
    • 3/5
      Huxley's first novel. It lacks the organization and amazing storytelling of Brave New World but you can see that he is toying with the ideas that he will later use in Brave New World. This is a decent read, but I'd only recommend it for people who really enjoy Huxley.
    • 2/5
      It wasn't bad - it just wasn't for me.
    • 3/5
      This example of a country week end novel is the first published work (1921) by Aldous Huxley. In some ways this may have been a novel for the episode structure of "A Dance to the Music of Time". The characters show up, do a number of character revealing acts, chat about their lives, and very little happens in front of the readers. But Huxley is a good character drawing writer and I had a good time.
    • 2/5
      A light, rather tedious comedy of manners (and disjointed novel of ideas) set in the English countryside post WW1. I much prefer Huxley after he experimented with mind-expanding drugs...
    • 4/5
      4 1/2, but there's no half here. Oh, well. Eventually, this will get a full review at accidentallymars.wordpress.com.
    • 3/5
      Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley published in 1921 was Huxley's first novel. It is a witty, satirical book about the British literati. It is set in a country home of Henry Wimbush in the town of Crome. The time period is just after World War I. Denis Stone, who sees himself a poet, is hopelessly in love with Henry’s niece. Mr Scogan is the rational person who discourses constantly and prefers the things of man and rejects nature. Priscilla Wimbush is immersed in the occult. Gombauld is the painter who is rejecting cubist art and painting reality instead. He is also painting a portrait of Anne. The author addresses sex in this book. He references that sex was only prudently treated in the 19th century but was enjoyed and fun in the earlier centuries. There is also Mary who would be an early woman libber seeking to express her sexuality without the restraints of society. The author uses many words that required looking up, at least for me and there is the sense that he is mocking language. A quote from the book on reading; “Human contacts have boon so highly valued in the past only because reading was not a common accomplishment and because books were scarce and difficult to reproduce…..”The proper study of mankind is in books.”
      I liked the book but it wasn’t as enjoyable as his Brave New World but this is a quick read for those working their way through the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
    • 4/5
      3.5★ I may up this to 4 stars -- I want to see how it lasts in my memory. This is a satire or comedy of manners so there is not much action. Various people are gathered at a country house for a visit which gives Huxley a chance to show us different types of 'bright young things' (this was published in the early 1920s). I found much to amuse me but it rarely made me laugh out loud.One character I found particularly funny was the local vicar, Mr. Bodiham: "He preached with fury, with passion, an iron man beating with a flail upon the souls of his congregation. But the souls of the faithful at Crome were made of india-rubber, solid rubber; the flail rebounded." A predecessor of Amos in Stella Gibbons' [Cold Comfort Farm]!There were indications of Huxley's masterpiece to come, [Brave New World]. For example, in this early passage by one of the guests (Mr. Scogan):"Eros, for those who wish it, is now an entirely free god; his deplorable associations with Lucina may be broken at will. In the course of the next few centuries, who knows? the world may see a more complete severance. I look forward to it optimistically. ... our descendants will experiment and succeed. An impersonal generation will take the place of Nature's hideous system. In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations; and Eros, beautifully and irresponsibly free, will flit like a gay butterfly from flower to flower through a sunlit world."Finally, a quote I love from this (also by Mr. Scogan):"After all, what is reading but a vice, like drink or venery or any other form of excessive self-indulgence? One reads to tickle and amuse one's mind; one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking."
    • 4/5
      Huxley's first novel. As a reader of a number of his other works, this one I felt was quite light compared to some later works. Somewhat predictable love story at times, but still unfolds surprises along the way. Huxley does not disappoint by filling an estate with a bunch of intellectuals trying to one up each other in the context of the english countryside. I will always remember sleeping getaways with mattress on the rooftop reading stars while conversing across turrets- life dangering in the meantime.
    • 4/5
      I've never read anything by Huxley besides Brave New World, and I try to go into reading the books on the 1001 list knowing as little as possible, so I had no clue what to expect. (On a side note, one of the very annoying things about the 1001 book is that in the descriptions, they frequently spoil the book they're talking about. So now, I don't read their comments until after I've finished the book in question.) This was Huxley's first published book, and it's a satire which takes place at an English country home. The narrator is Denis, who is a poet. He's clumsily enamored of the host's daughter, Anne. Other characters include two other young women, one of whom has her own love problems and the other of whom is somewhat deaf, but as Denis discovers, that doesn't necessarily mean she misses what goes on around her; Henry, the host, who has opinions on everything and loves to share them at length; and Gombauld, an artist. The plot isn't particularly deep, but the plot isn't the point. It's really all about how these people interact with each other. If you were a contemporary of Huxley's and moved in the same circles, I'm sure reading this would make you smile and recognize people you knew. And for the modern reader, one of Henry's ideas sounds very familiar:"An impersonal generation will take the place of Nature's hideous system. In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear; society, sapped at its very base, will have to find new foundations; and Eros, beautifully and irresponsibly free, will flit like a gay butterfly from flower to flower through a sunlit world.""It sounds lovely," said Anne."The distant future always does."I found it quite entertaining, and a short read. I also added at least 15 words to my vocabulary (I don't think Huxley ever met a word he didn't like).
    • 4/5
      Crome Yellow is the first early Huxley I have read and I am surprised it isn't more widely talked about. A very funny dissection of the moneyed classes of the 1920's, far better in characterisation and wit than Waugh's Vile Bodies, in my opinion.The 'hero', Denis, a hopeful young poet, is a guest at Crome, the ancestral home of Henry Wimbush, whose history of the previous inhabitants, he recites whenever he can, and is his only interest. Denis tangles with a recovering Cubist painter, a successful writer called Barbecue-Smith, Mary, a virgin obsessed by the dangers of repression and dreaming constantly of wells and towers, and a demented vicar hoping beyond hope for the end of times. The most grotesque character is Mr Scoggins, a rationalist who looks forward to a future which has a strong resemblance to Brave New World.I really enjoyed this book.
    • 4/5
      Young poet Dennis Stone attends a country house party at Crome. There are lots of philosophical conversations about artistic matters, the host tells interesting stories about his ancestors and Dennis suffers the pangs of unrequited love. I don't get the title; Crome is the name of the house and village, but why Yellow? The house is built of rosy brick, not of golden Cotswold stone so it's not that.
    • 4/5
      Someone says that this book is a bit like an Agathie Christie novel without the murder. I like that--a group of intellectuals, young and old, are staying at a country house right after WWI. They discuss art, love, literature, and history. Much of it is very entertaining--the intellectual back and forth reminded me of MY DINNER WITH ANDRE. The characters, unfortunately, are basically mouthpieces for ideas. When Denis--near the end--contemplates suicide, my response was . . . "Oh, well." His love for Anne is similarly a yawner. Even though I wouldn't want to read "idea" novels all the time, I'm delighted to have read this one, and I'll read more Huxley in the future.
    • 3/5
      So this is some kind of... presumably satire about a bunch of people sitting about in their country house telling each other their opinions and/or complaining about their unrequited love for each other. It was fun to read, although the main character especially is particularly irritating. The best-written parts, in my opinion, were the parts describing the history of the household and its former occupants - the story about the couple with dwarfism whose son was really tall was particularly well done.I definitely liked this the least of the three Huxley books I've read, but it was still pretty good.
    • 4/5
      Huxley's first book at a ripe and young adolescence age and OH is he aware of it! Huxley has no problem with the extreme vulnerability of his lead character, to the point of letting his jealousy get in the way of the novel sometimes. It is also one of the most genuinely melancholy books I have ever read. If I had to compare it to an album it would possibly be Beck's 'Mutations'. However, he shows fleeting glimpses' of future Huxley as his older characters have a flair for history, one even writing a large and silly history of the town 'Crome' (a British countryside town) that includes a dwarfish lord who kills himself and his wife, a family of beautiful women who pretend not to eat but lock themselves in a basement at night downing chickens and hams, amongst other stuff. the history is not the most important part of the novel, the ultimate feeling of character development and the strong sense of description and criticism is what is so rich in this novel and what made me so excited to pick up every page. Although it was his first it cannot be called raw as it is better than many writers greatest works. Huxley is a writer's writer other than the few books he is known for, and any male between the age of 20-24 who feels angst and discontented with the melancholy of his stature in relationships and the surroundings he finds himself in will adore 'Crome Yellow.' It's very much something that Morrissey would read in his youth. PS check out the vintage cover of the copy I scored at this rad book shop in Venice, California!
    • 4/5
      Very slow moving, maybe because the narrative is very detailed, the story is nonetheless worth reading if you are a student of Huxley's time or of Huxley. This story is most notable for an encounter between a man and a woman who, because the night was so hot, moved their mattresses to a roof and spent the night outside together. When the novel was first published, this was considered absolutely scandalous. This novel, and more specifically this passage, is considered by many literary historians as signaling the end of the Victorian Era.
    • 4/5
      There is a passage in which a minister tries to beat his sermon against the "rubber souls" of the congregation. I thought that this might have been an inspiration for the Beatles? But have since heard other theories on the origins of their Rubber Soul.
    • 3/5
      [This started out a little slow; then I went to the audiobook, and the characters came to life. After a couple of chapters, I then went back and forth, audio when commuting, book when sitting still.]There are several passages here that show the kernel of "Brave New World" (1932) to have been fully formed in 1921, at the latest. I recommend it to those who are curious about this, and also to anyone much familiar with the culture of postwar England. Others may find the satire opaque or pointless.