Those Barren Leaves

Those Barren Leaves is a satirical novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1925. The title is derived from the poem 'The Tables Turned' by William Wordsworth which ends with the words:

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

Stripping the pretensions of those who claim a spot among the culturally elite, it is the story of Mrs. Aldwinkle and her entourage, who are gathered in an Italian palace to relive the glories of the Renaissance. For all their supposed sophistication, they are nothing but sad and superficial individuals in the final analysis.

Works by Aldous Huxley
Novels
  • Crome Yellow (1921)
  • Antic Hay (1923)
  • Those Barren Leaves (1925)
  • Point Counter Point (1928)
  • Brave New World (1932)
  • Eyeless in Gaza (1936)
  • After Many a Summer (1939)
  • Time Must Have a Stop (1944)
  • Ape and Essence (1948)
  • The Genius and the Goddess (1955)
  • Island (1962)
Short stories
  • "Happily Ever After"
  • "Eupompus Gave Splendour to Art by Numbers"
  • "Cynthia"
  • "The Bookshop"
  • "The Death of Lully"
  • "Sir Hercules"
  • "The Gioconda Smile"
  • "The Tillotson Banquet"
  • "Green Tunnels"
  • "Nuns at Luncheon"
  • "Little Mexican"
  • "Hubert and Minnie"
  • "Fard"
  • "The Portrait"
  • "Young Archimedes"
  • "Half Holiday"
  • "The Monocle"
  • "Fairy Godmother"
  • "Chawdron"
  • "The Rest Cure"
  • "The Claxtons"
  • "After the Fireworks"
  • "Jacob's Hands: A Fable" (published 1997) co-written with Christopher Isherwood
Short story collections
  • Limbo (1920)
  • Mortal Coils (1922)
  • Little Mexican (US title: Young Archimedes) (1924)
  • Two or Three Graces (1926)
  • Brief Candles (1930)
  • Collected Short Stories (1957)
Poetry
  • The Burning Wheel (1916)
  • Jonah (1917)
  • The Defeat of Youth (1918)
  • Leda (1920)
  • Arabia Infelix (1929)
  • The Cicadias and Other Poems (1931)
  • Collected Poetry (1971)
Travel writing
  • Along the Road (1925)
  • Jesting Pilate (1926)
  • Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934)
Essay collections
  • On the Margin (1923)
  • Essays New and Old (1926)
  • Proper Studies (1927)
  • Do What You Will (1929)
  • Vulgarity in Literature (1930)
  • Music at Night (1931)
  • Texts and Pretexts (1932)
  • The Olive Tree (1936)
  • Ends and Means (1937)
  • Words and their Meanings (1940)
  • Science, Liberty and Peace (1946)
  • Themes and Variations (1950)
  • The Doors of Perception (1954)
  • Adonis and the Alphabet (US title: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow) (1956)
  • Heaven and Hell (1956)
  • Collected Essays (1958)
  • Brave New World Revisited (1958)
  • Literature and Science (1963)
  • The Human Situation: 1959 Lectures at Santa Barbara (1977)
  • Moksha: Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience (1999)
Screenplays
  • Pride and Prejudice (1940)
  • Madame Curie (uncredited, 1943)
  • Jane Eyre (1944)
  • A Woman's Vengeance (1947)
  • Prelude to Fame (1950)
  • Alice in Wonderland (uncredited, 1951)
Non-fiction
  • The Perennial Philosophy (1945) Grey Eminence (1941)
  • The Devils of Loudun (1952)
Plays
  • The Discovery (based on Frances Sheridan) (1924)
  • The World of Light (1931)
  • The Gioconda Smile (play version, also known as Mortal Coils) (1948)
  • The Genius and the Goddess (play version, with Betty Wendel) (1957)
  • The Ambassador of Captripedia (1965)
  • Now More Than Ever (1997)
Children's books
  • The Crows of Pearblossom (1944, published 1967)
  • The Travails and Tribulations of Geoffrey Peacock (1967)
Other books
  • The Art of Seeing (1942)
  • Selected Letters (2007)


Famous quotes containing the words barren and/or leaves:

    “The good want power, but to weep barren tears.
    The powerful goodness want: worse need for them.
    The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom;”
    —Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

    “I happened to find
    Your picture. That picture. I stopped there cold,
    Like a man raking piles of dead leaves in his yard
    Who has turned up a severed hand.”
    —William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)