Looking For Brave New World

When I was in college I took a science fiction literature class and read several negative futuristic books along the way as a part of my studies. Three of which have always stood out: George Orwell's 1984, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Ray Bradbury's The Sheep Look Up. These three novels are very powerful, but not the kind of novels that I could ever say I liked. I can only say that I found them haunting.


In the late 30's as the tensions leading to WW II were building many German writers, especially any with Jewish heritage, fled Germany and were drawn to our picturesque village in the south of France. Aldous Huxley was a British writer who had been a teacher in Great Britain for many years. His most famous student was Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell. Huxley was best known for his novel Brave New World. In the late 20's he was living in Tuscany, Italy. The Huxleys were very close to the author D.H. Lawrence, who wrote the classic novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. They actually helped type the manuscript submitted for this novel. Lawrence thought this area of France to be one of the most beautiful places he had ever been (and so do we). As the fascists were rising to power in Italy just as in Germany, Lawrence urged the Huxleys to move to the very village where we are staying. He had lived in the area for some time, but had contracted tuberculosis and was in poor health and had moved to a sanatorium in Vence. The Huxley’s visited him there on his death bed. After his death they took his advice and moved here.

I have known of Huxley's association with this old fishing village ever since we have been coming here. Since Huxley was a British author, the local French have seldom heard of him, much less know that he lived here. Kevin had read that he largely wrote Brave New World while sitting in a harbor side cafe here. Our favorite cafe, La Marine was rumored to be one of the cafes that he wrote in. While it was intriguing to think I could be sitting in the very cafe he had written in, it appears that is not the case. I did some research on Huxley and it turns out that he did all his writing at Villa Huxley and did not want any interruptions when he was working so that doesn't sound like someone who would write in a cafe. It was at Villa Huxley that he wrote Brave New World in just 4 months. After a little bit of digging I was able to find where Villa Huxley is, or I should say was. It turns out it is near a rocky point that we walk to most days. It has since been converted into a place for French naval students.

Tuesday morning for our walk, with map in hand, we went to look for the Villa Huxley and found it. Of course it has changed some since Huxley left it in 1937 and is now a naval school, but we found the very house. It did in fact, even have a small marker identifying it as Huxley's former home so I am sure we found the right house. It was evocative to stand and look at the house and know that Huxley penned his most famous novel there. Many, including me, find it surprising that he could write of such a dreary future while living in such a beautiful place. Since we have been coming here I have and still intend to re-read Brave New World. I have even thought how cool it would be to sit in a cafe in this very village and read that book, but I also don't want to think about such a dreary future while living in such a beautiful place. Needless to say it is not an uplifting read so it is difficult to ever find the right time to read it. Our walk ended up being a rather long walk, but it was very memorable one.

Sandy

Villa Huxley- Today

Huxley's View- I suspect it's changed a bit.