While shipwrecked on the island of Pala, Will Farnaby, a disenchanted journalist, discovers a utopian society that has flourished for the past 120 years. Although he at first disregards the possibility of an ideal society, as Farnaby spends time with the people of Pala his ideas about humanity change. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Infocus Article - English Peter Firchow explores the modern literary style of Brave New World toprovide a critical analysis of the novel's composition. Among the thingsdiscussed are the construction of the opening chapers, the rich literaryallusions presented by Huxley, and the book's narrative structure. A Study of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World pp. 13-36.

Within the cycle that runs from Erewhon to Island, British literary utopias compete with one another to form the most persuasive picture of what the future might, or should, be like. At issue for Butler, Wells, Zamiatin, Orwell and others is whether utopia, be it positive or negative, is essentially prediction or hypothesis. Huxley contributed to this debate at roughly fifteen-year intervals, his three utopias becoming its key texts. In addition, Aldous Huxley and Utopia examines ironic cure scenes, the obsession with golf in the brave new world, attitudes towards death in Brave New World and Island, problems with names and history in the former, the role of islands in both, the detrimental impact of Madame Blavatsky and young Krishnamurti on the story of Pala, and the significance of a zoological conclusion of Island.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Hamburg (Insitut für Anglistik), course: „Alternate Worlds“: Utopian and Counterfictional English Fiction from the late 19th Century to the 1990’s, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction (...) Island is a novel of ideas, light on the novel-part and heavy on the ideas. In fact it could also be seen as an essay with a bit of a plot entangled around it. The plot in any case is secondary and easy to summarize: The English journalist Will Farnaby is stranded on the island of Pala and is on the secret mission to negotiate a contract for oil. Injured in the beginning, he leads long conversations with some inhibitants through which he learns about the Palanese way of life. As he takes pleasure in their virtues and beliefs, he gives up his initial oil plans. Nevertheless, in the end Pala gets invaded by the neighbour island Rendang. The emphasis in Island lies in the long conversations that Will leads in which he learns about the Palanese lifestyle and through which we, the readers, get to know about Huxley’s ideas of an ideal society. The questions this research paper deals with are: What exactly are the utopian features in Island? Are those features attainable and what is more, are they worth to attain at all? And in this context, is Island rather a utopia of escape or reconstruction? In order to find out the answers to these questions, the paper will first offer an analysis of the ideas and then it will turn to the ‘novel’-part with an analysis of the main plot.

Within the cycle that runs from Erewhon to Island, British literary utopias compete with one another to form the most persuasive picture of what the future might, or should, be like. At issue for Butler, Wells, Zamiatin, Orwell and others is whether utopia, be it positive or negative, is essentially prediction or hypothesis. Huxley contributed to this debate at roughly fifteen-year intervals, his three utopias becoming its key texts. In addition, Aldous Huxley and Utopia examines ironic cure scenes, the obsession with golf in the brave new world, attitudes towards death in Brave New World and Island, problems with names and history in the former, the role of islands in both, the detrimental impact of Madame Blavatsky and young Krishnamurti on the story of Pala, and the significance of a zoological conclusion of Island.

In summer 1960, Adorno gave the first of a series of lectures devoted to the relation between sociology and philosophy. One of his central concerns was to dispel the notion, erroneous in his view, that these were two incompatible disciplines, radically opposed in their methods and aims, a notion that was shared by many. While some sociologists were inclined to dismiss philosophy as obsolete and incapable of dealing with the pressing social problems of our time, many philosophers, influenced by Kant, believed that philosophical reflection must remain ‘pure’, investigating the constitution of knowledge and experience without reference to any real or material factors. By focusing on the problem of truth, Adorno seeks to show that philosophy and sociology share much more in common than many of their practitioners are inclined to assume. Drawing on intellectual history, Adorno demonstrates the connection between truth and social context, arguing that there is no truth that cannot be manipulated by ideology and no theorem that can be wholly detached from social and historical considerations. This systematic account on the interconnectedness of philosophy and sociology makes these lectures a timeless reflection on the nature of these disciplines and an excellent introduction to critical theory, the sociological content of which is here outlined in detail by Adorno for the first time.