Time Must Have a Stop
OCLC 576061933 | | |
Preceded by | After Many a Summer | |
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Followed by | Ape and Essence |
Time Must Have a Stop is a novel by Aldous Huxley, first published in 1944 by Chatto & Windus. It follows the story of Sebastian Barnack, a young poet who holidays with his hedonistic uncle in Florence. Many of the philosophical themes discussed in the novel are explored further in Huxley's 1945 work The Perennial Philosophy.
Title
Time Must Have a Stop's title derives from Hotspur's death speech in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 Act V, Scene 4:
'But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; And time, that takes survey of all the world, Must have a stop'
Plot summary
The story initially follows Sebastian Barnack, a seventeen-year-old poet with the beauty of a
Sebastian's mission takes him to holiday with his rich uncle Eustace, a
Meanwhile, the spirit of Eustace, an atheist, lives on and is used as both a narrative tool to allow Huxley to show the fate of characters across time and distance but also adds a hint of comic irony when Eustace's eccentric mother-in-law Mrs. Gamble hosts a seance to talk to her dead son-in-law but the second-rate medium involved garbles his message to Sebastian.
Bruno is able to retrieve the painting but at great cost – calling on friends that inadvertently make himself an enemy of the
In the epilogue, set in the midst of the Second World War, Sebastian, who has lost a hand in combat, begins writing a comparative work of the world's religions, inspired by Bruno, that echoes Huxley's own Perennial Philosophy. His father, while not enamoured by his son's new approach to life, finally shows him respect.
Themes
Focusing on the spiritual health of the characters, Huxley explores many of the themes from his comparative study of mysticism, The Perennial Philosophy. The spuriousness of Mrs. Gamble's spiritualism, the limitations of Eustace's hedonism, and the paradox of Sebastian's weakness as a man and power as a creative artist are all contrasted with Bruno, whose spiritual contentment and non-attachment are presented by Huxley as the highest level of personal development. The book is laden with cultural and philosophical discussions amongst his characters with Huxley himself describing the work as his most successful attempt at "fusing idea with story".[1]
Characters
- Sebastian Barnack - A 17-year-old poet, who bears an uncommon physical beauty and precociousness in verse but has the tiresome manner of a spoilt child.
- Eustace Barnack - Sebastian's uncle, a gluttonous expatriate residing in Florence with a penchant for cigars and brandy.
- John Barnack - Sebastian's father, a staunch anti-fascist campaigner and socialist who raises Sebastian in austere conditions.
- Bruno Rontini - A cousin of John and Eustace, Bruno is a deeply religious bookseller who is seemingly at one with the world.
- Mrs. Gamble - Eustace's mother in law, a blind old woman who regularly partakes in seance's to communicate with her deceased friends.
References
- ISBN 9781564781802.