Digressions from a Theme
Vulgarity in Literature Digressions from a Theme
Chatto & Windus, 1930.
First edition, limited issue. Number 172 of 260 copies signed by Huxley. Original quarter buckram over paper covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. Top edge gilt, others uncut. A near fine copy with a touch of tanning to the spine and minor wear to the corners.
One of Huxley's literary essays.
"This is a brilliant essay, perhaps one of the best Mr. Huxley has written... The reader naturally asks : What do you mean by vulgarity? And Mr. Huxley answers briefly :
'It is vulgar, in literature, to make a display of emotions, which you do not naturally have, but think you ought to have, because all th best people have them. It is vulgar (and this is the more common case) to have emotions, but to express them so badly, with so many protestings, that you seem to have no natural feelings, but to be merely fabricating emotions by a process of literary forgery.'" Contemporary review by W.G. Stonier in The Fortnightly Library, Feb 1931.
Stock ID: 44643
