Aldous Huxley's Early Writings including (complete and unabridged) Crome Yellow, The Burning Wheel, The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems and Mortal Coils

Crome Yellow, is Huxley's first novel, published in 1921. It is a British manor satire where almost nothing happens - even less than normal for this genre. The characters are immaculately presented and manage to express immense profundity in tiny conversations. The writing is wonderful and each turn of phrase is a gem. Huxley's genius shines through the book. It is hilarious, wry and erudite.

The Burning Wheel is Huxley's first collection of Poetry, published in 1916 before any of his novels. He was not allowed to fight in the Great War due to his very poor eyesight and so it is unsurprising that many of the thirty poems in this collection deal with light, sight and war. These poems show the Young Huxley at his most optimistic, even sentimental, although this is tempered by a second voice, that of an ironic modern commentator.

The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems is Huxley's second book, published in 1918. There are thirty five poems and it starts with a poem that a contemporary called "the century's most successful sonnet sequence, better than Auden's or Edna St. Vincent Millay's."

Mortal Coils is a collection of five short stories published in 1922, all of which are highly amusing and brilliantly written by the young Huxley.