
Point Counter Point
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
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By:
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Aldous Huxley
About this listen
“Everybody strains after happiness, and the result is that nobody’s happy.”
In music, counterpoint is the art of writing melodies that play in conjunction with one another, according to a strict set of rules, in order to emphasize the melody by contrast. In debate, point/counterpoint is a means of persuasion in which the speaker begins by conceding to their opponent’s argument before refuting it wholeheartedly. Aldous Huxley follows these traditions in his masterpiece Point Counter Point. The polarity between passion and reason in the intellectual life of the 1920s is demonstrated both in form and in theme in Huxley’s ambitious satire: This complex novel darts around points of view to portray the convoluted nature of perception versus reality, and it boasts a large cast of characters that come together, almost as an orchestra, performing separate melodies that come together in one great symphony. Not only do these characters serve such a musical purpose in the plot, they also represent real life writers who were popular at the time, such as D. H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, John Middleton Murry, and even Huxley himself (in the form of Phillip Quarles, the “novelist” within the novel).
Point Counter Point was named one of “100 Best Works of the 20th Century” by Modern Library.
Originally published in 1928.
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Saul Bellow evokes all the rich colors and exotic customs of a highly imaginary Africa in this acclaimed comic novel about a middle-aged American millionaire who, seeking a new, more rewarding life, descends upon an African tribe. Henderson's awesome feats of strength and his unbridled passion for life win him the admiration of the tribe - but it is his gift for making rain that turns him from mere hero into messiah. A hilarious, often ribald story, Henderson the Rain King is also a profound look at the forces that drive a man through life.
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Funny and Powerful
- By Michael on 03-17-21
By: Saul Bellow
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The Art of Seeing
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: David Pickering
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Unlike the dystopian vision described in Brave New World, or the psychedelic vision described in his The Doors of Perception, in The Art of Seeing, Aldous Huxley focuses on the actual vision of the human eye. Documenting his own profound near-blindness and subsequent attempts to improve his own sight, Huxley offers a thorough instruction manual on the controversial alternative vision therapy exercises developed by W. H. Bates.
By: Aldous Huxley
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Tender Is the Night
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Set on the French Riviera in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic romance of the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and the stylish American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant young psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth goads him into a lifestyle not his own, and whose growing strength highlights Dick's harrowing demise. A profound study of the romantic concept of character - lyrical, expansive, and hauntingly evocative.
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Subtle yet grand
- By jb on 10-12-15
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Antic Hay
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Young Oxford tutor Theodore Gumbril has become thoroughly dismayed by the formality of college life and the staid British institutions of learning. An impetuous need for celebration, even rebellion, possesses him. He and his bohemian companions embark on wild and daring "bacchanalian" adventures that steer them resolutely away from stifling conventions of behavior. Antic Hay, first published in 1923, is one of Aldous Huxley's earlier novels, and like them is primarily a 'novel of ideas' involving conversations which disclose viewpoints rather than establish characters; its polemical theme unfolds against the backdrop of London's post-war nihilistic Bohemia. This is Huxley at his biting, brilliant best -- a novel, loud with derisive laughter, which satirically scoffs at all conventional morality and at stuffy people everywhere -- a novel that's always charged with excitement.
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Bad
- By Ingrid on 04-15-03
By: Aldous Huxley
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Mortal Coils
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Mortal Coils is a collection of five pieces written by Aldous Huxley in the 1920s. The first one, "The Giaconda Smile", is a short murder story. "Permutations Among the Nightingales" is a play concerning amorous problems experienced by the patrons of a certain establishment. "The Tillotson Banquet" tells of an old artist who was thought to be dead. "Green Tunnels" is about the boredom of a young girl on holiday with her family. "Nuns at Luncheon" is a story told by a nun falling in love.
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Society Comedies that I found rather boring
- By Ash on 02-17-15
By: Aldous Huxley
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Journey by Moonlight
- By: Antal Szerb
- Narrated by: Johny Pitts
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's "Journey by Moonlight" is the fantastically moving and darkly funny story of a bourgeois businessman torn between duty and desire. 'On the train, everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice ...' Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life. When he finally travels there, on his honeymoon with Erszi, he soon abandon his new wife in order to find himself, haunted by old friends from his turbulent teenage days: beautiful, kind Tamas, brash and wicked Janos, and the sexless yet unforgettable Eva.
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Amazing!
- By Bayan F. on 05-20-24
By: Antal Szerb
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The Heart of the Matter
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Joseph Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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A police commissioner in a British-governed, war-torn West African state, Scobie is bound by the strictest integrity and sense of duty both for his colonial responsibilities and for his wife, whom he deeply pities but no longer loves. Passed over for a promotion, he is forced to borrow money in order to send his despairing wife away on a holiday.
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Characters come to life with Greene as the author
- By John on 06-08-11
By: Graham Greene
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Pale Fire
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.
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An amazing feat for such a unique novel
- By AmazonCustomer on 03-27-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
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Crome Yellow
- By: Aldous Huxley
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the greatest prose writers and social commentators of the 20th century, Aldous Huxley here introduces us to a delightfully cynical, comic, and severe group of artists and intellectuals engaged in the most free-thinking and modern kind of talk imaginable. Poetry, occultism, ancestral history, and Italian primitive painting are just a few of the subjects competing for discussion among the amiable cast of eccentrics drawn together at Crome, an intensely English country manor.
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Bloomsbury in a blender, 1922
- By Adeliese Baumann on 01-02-17
By: Aldous Huxley
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The Road to Wigan Pier
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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When Orwell went to England in the 30's to find out how industrial workers lived, he not only observed but shared in their experiences. He stayed in cramped, dreary lodgings and subsisted on the scant, cheerless diet of the poor. He went down into the coal mines and walked crouching, as the miners did, through a one- to three-mile passage too low to stand up in. He watched the back-breaking, dangerous labor of men whose net pay then averaged $575 a year.
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Frederick Davidson's a Great Reader
- By Debali on 01-11-09
By: George Orwell
I only wish there were more audiobooks of Huxley's novels (many are still missing - why? - including "Those Barren Leaves," "Eyeless in Gaza," "After Many a Summer," "Time Must Have Stop," and "Ape and Essence"). Many examples of non-fiction could also be narrated. I feel this is important because Huxley's writings beyond "Brave New World" need to be known; it's fascinating, and it helps in appreciating that novel more.
finally - another classic from Huxley
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Early Huxley
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Early A. Huxley philosophy
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Aldous Huxley is a great stylist, and that comes out in this book. I was generally familiar with the plotline, but I'm pleased that that I can tell myself I finally checked this novel off my bucket list.
Stefan Rudnicki is a capable and accomplished narrator. However, at times I found it difficult to distinguish which character was speaking since many of them sounded alike. Furthermore, although Mr. Rudnicki is a classically trained actor whose voice is appropriately aristocratic, he is American, not British. This issue was apparent when he read the lines of a character who was supposed to be of the lower English class (Frank Illidge). Mr. Rudnicki's voice sounded artificial and sometimes he forgot to stay in character.
Overall, I recommend this book to other listeners. Although not as compelling as Brave New World (few novels are), this is a great work of art.
Finally
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On another note, literary and musical references all throughout the work keep a reader/listener on their toes. Huxley references everyone from Marcel Proust and the Marquis de Sade to Bach and Beethoven. This does make for an involved narrative experience.
I recommend doing a little reading about the characters before hand. There are A LOT of them and it can be challenging to keep track of them all. Also, do a bit of an overview of 20th century philosophy and existentialism. Like music and literature, a great deal of metaphysics are woven into the narrative.
-Noah Balfour
4/25/25
Wonderful Performance of a Fairly Drab Narrative
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