Mortal Coils
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":
- A Woman's Vengeance (1948), film directed by Zoltan Korda
- Mortal Coils: Play (1948), play by Aldous Huxley
- Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1958), TV movie directed by Michael Kehlmann
- The Gioconda Smile (1963), TV movie directed by Patrick Barton
- Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1966), TV movie directed by Ilo von Jankó
- Mona Lisan hymy (1966), TV movie directed by Jukka Sipilä
- Úsmev Mony Lízy (1968), TV movie directed by Bedřich Kramosil
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
External links
- Mortal Coils at Project Gutenberg
- Aldous Huxley at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Aldous Huxley at IMDb
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- Crome Yellow (1921)
- Antic Hay (1923)
- Those Barren Leaves (1925)
- Point Counter Point (1928)
- Brave New World (1932)
- Eyeless in Gaza (1936)
- After Many a Summer (1939)
- Time Must Have a Stop (1944)
- Ape and Essence (1948)
- The Devils of Loudun (1952)
- The Genius and the Goddess (1955)
- Island (1962)
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- The Discovery: A Comedy in Five Acts (1924)
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Uncollected |
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- Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934)
- Grey Eminence (1941)
- The Art of Seeing (1942)
- Pride and Prejudice (1940)
- Madame Curie (uncredited, 1943)
- Jane Eyre (1943)
- A Woman's Vengeance (1947)
- The Devils of Loudun (opera)
- The Devils (play)
- The Devils (film)
- Brave New World (1980 film)
- Brave New World (1998 film)
- Brave New World (TV series)
- Category
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