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Epicurus.com - Island (Perennial Classics)
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.17
Your Save: $ 4.78 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780060085490
ISBN: 0060085495
Label: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 368
Publication Date: 2002-08-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Release Date: 2002-07-30
Studio: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
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Editorial Reviews:
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In Island, his last novel, Huxley transports us to a Pacific island where, for 120 years, an ideal society has flourished. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala and events begin to move when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and -- to his amazement -- give him hope.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Intellectual Rubbish
Comment: Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this book is the apparently wholehearted acceptance that its dated and dangerous ideas seem to have found, at least as evidenced by a cursory reading of the reviews. What in the world gives Huxley the right to revise civilization? The fact that he is well-read? His adoption of discredited oriental philosophies?
It cannot be argued that Western Civilization is without room for much improvement; however, abandonment of family, use of "mind-expanding" drugs, renunciation of religion, modification of accepted societal behavior, repudiation of long-standing definitions of acceptable sexual conduct, etc. These have all been tried to some extent and have universally failed. Huxley merely puts a fine gloss on the 20th Century's disdain of tried and true principles.
Strong families supported by public morality and high expectations with respect to ethical behavior are the means whereby society will advance. History has proven this to be the case. It is no accident that English has become the language of the world--despite its many flaws, the rule of law and its protections of freedom and private property have given us the world we now, apparently, seek to destroy.
Huxley and his ilk would have us believe that our civilization is so inherently superior to all others that we are free to ignore the lessons of history. However, it is more likely than not that humanity's basic nature remains the same today as hundreds of years ago. For example, regardless of your religious persuasions and beliefs, one must acknowledge that the Jewish culture has proven remarkably adaptive and has a longevity that is the envy of any cultural group--they have kept their people together through thousands of years of history by following some simple rules that Mr. Huxley would throw out the window.
Despite the superficial attractiveness of Huxley's easy philosophy, hard work and obedience to laws will paradoxically produce far more freedom than a slothful abandonment to what feels good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Any fans of the ABC TV Series Lost?
Comment: My wife and I have been preparing for next year's season premiere of ABC's hit series, Lost (Lost - The Complete Fourth Season), and decided to engage in one of our "movie marathons" by watching all four seasons' prior episodes over several weeks. As part of the experience, we perused the Lost Book Club offerings (on ABC's website) and noticed that Aldous Huxley's "Island (Perennial Classics) was included. The connection, for those die-hard Lost fans: the "Others" use the Pala Dock Ferry to travel to/from their barracks.
On seeing that online listing, I was reminded that I had read the book about a decade after it was originally published (in 1962), while I was in high school. Although most of us growing up in the 1960s were more likely to have read his more famous and successful Brave New World; his last novel, Island is also worth a read. One of the lasting memories from the novel involved the talking parrots that inhabit Huxley's idyllic island, Pala. The parrots had been trained to remind the Palanese inhabitants to pay "attention" and to concentrate on the "here and now." Very good advice indeed.
The book can be a bit tedious at times, but I certainly enjoyed re-living the transformation of the book's cynical and corrupt main character, Will Farnaby, as he gradually comes to understand and accept the more spiritual existence he finds on the island. Through his conversations with the islanders, Farnaby learns of group upbringing of children in what are known as Mutual Adoption Clubs; special religious traditions (based on a mixture of eastern religions, primarily Buddhist); the pervasive use of mind-expanding drugs, called "moksha medicine;" tantric sexual practices; and much more.
Go ahead and give it a try... whether it's your first time reading, or you're diving back in after a long absence, it's definitely worth a read. Maybe, just maybe, it'll help you figure out what "Lost" is all about as well!
John Cathcart
Author, Delta 7
Customer Rating:
Summary: exploration of the here and now, the there and later
Comment: A man arrives on an Island to engineer an oil deal. He begins to like the place. It is a nice place. But one of the old money family wants to sell it out for greater access to the contents of a Sears-Roebuck catalog. In the end evil triumphs because good is pacifist and big oil money can buy more guns.
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Summary: The hope for a sane society
Comment: For some reason this book is no where near as popular as Brave New World. I suppose it's because Brave New World is about our culture exagerated into the future, whereas Island is about extreme changes in our world views.
Island is about looking at existence and reality from a sane perspective, and by this I mean that it puts human ends above all else. Why tolerate and perpetuate instituations and modes of thought that alienate humans from themselves, their environment and each other? This book helps point out how much of our behaviour is learned, and how much of what we consider "natural", is simply human construction.
I think the best way to describe it is as John Lennon's song Imagine, in book form.
I think everyone should read this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Utopia Vs Dystopia
Comment: If you read a Brave New World you have to read also this one.
Is the more mature vision of a possible better world from Huxley totally different that the first dystopia.
It was written back in the 60's but the book remains actual...
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