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Crome Yellow


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On vacation from school, Denis goes to stay at Crome, an English country house inhabitated by several of Huxley's most outlandish characters--from Mr. Barbecue-Smith, who writes 1,500 publishable words an hour by "getting in touch" with his "subconscious," to Henry Wimbush, who is obsessed with writing the definitive HISTORY OF CROME. Denis's stay proves to be a disaster amid his weak attempts to attract the girl of his dreams and the ridicule he endures regarding his plan to write a novel about love and art. Lambasting the post-Victorian standards of morality, CROME YELLOW is a witty masterpiece that, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's words, "is too irnonic to be called satire and too scornful to be called irony."

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Plot? Story Line??

The previous person's comment that Crome Yellow had little or now story line to follow has peaked my interest. I would say that the story line was so simple and obvious that it could go unnoticed. The story line is exactly what Mr. Scogan "intuits" Denis' story line to be- a troubled artist trying to understand life and love. But that has almost nothing to do with the meaning of the story itself- which is of course why everyone like the book so much. What I find interesting is that the copy I have is very old (it has an add in the back for prints of Picasso for 10 cents, and claims the book is 35 cents, but I paid $2) and its front cover states that the book is "A bold exploration into love an sex, it is the modern classic which shocked and enlightened a generation" - What a rediculous mistake of a description- am I missing something? The book had nothing to do with sex, it had to do with Aldous Huxley expressing his philosophical ideas through Mr. Scogan and the interplay of characters and their ideas- it was almost completely satire, but for a few points that Mr. Scogan argued, that were in fact mostly satirical themeselves. The book was excellent, but not amazing, it was mearely good- In fact the ending was rediculous, if I handed in a story like this to my professor he would give me a B and ask what the story really meant- for all its satire and interesting characters Crome Yellow fails to present a truly coherent idea about anything- it flutters about in an attempt to get at existentialism but merely fails to do so. Denis is so rediculous a character and the book ends in such an unfinished sort of way, one wonders if Aldous simply got tired and stopped writing.

Posted By Marcus Perman at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Crome Yellow || 3 Replies

No Subject

Listening to this book on tape I found to be very discombobulating.
It seems as if any kind of story line is subservient to the the author's scathing portraits of the main characters. That is not a criticism. In exploring the characters of the book, artists, writers and gentry, one is struck with the idea that Huxley has constructed a literary 'Ship of Fools' and is anxious to let the reader be exposed to each one in his/her turn. Lascerating satire.

Posted By Unregistered at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:03 PM in Crome Yellow || 0 Replies

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