B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 "YES, EVERYBODY'S HAPPY NOW": FIRST EDITION OF BRAVE NEW WORLD 26. HUXLEY, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Chatto & Windus, 1932. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $13,500 First trade edition of Huxley's haunting dystopian classic, in original dust jacket. "A nightmarish prognostication of a future in which humanity has been destroyed by science… easily Huxley's most popular (and many good judges continue to think his best) novel" (DNB). "After the success of his !rst three novels, Huxley abandoned the !ctional milieu of literary London and directed his satire toward an imagined future. He admitted that the original idea of Brave New World was to challenge H.G. Wells' Utopian vision… The novel also marks Huxley's increasing disenchantment with the world, which was to result in his leaving England for California in 1937 in search of a more spiritual life. The book was immediately successful" (Parker & Kermode, 161-62). Itremains the "seminal dystopia… As argument and as satire, Brave New World is a compendium of usable points and quotable jibes… and has provided material for much subsequent !ction," not only within speculative !ction but also beyond it (Clute & Nicholls, 606). "Along with Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, it is one of only two futuristic novels to have made a considerable contribution to the social and political rhetoric of the 20th century" (Anatomy of Wonder II558). Preceded by the signed limited edition of 324 copies. Connolly 75. Books of the Century, 94-96. An English Library, 30. Owner ink signature, dated "March, 1932," the year of publication. Cloth spine very gently sunned, gilt bright; book clean and very nearly !ne. Scarce unrestored original dust jacket with only shallow chipping to head of slightly toned spine, panels and "aps clean and bright, exceptionally good. A lovely copy. 26
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