“Futilitarian” best describes the type of desultory, pleasure-seeking intellectual Huxley pinned so mercilessly to the literary map in Antic Hay. Wickedly funny and deliciously barbed, the novel epitomizes the glittering neuroticism of post-First World War London.

An Oxford professor reacting against the turgid pedagoy of his times is possessed of the vital instinct for celebration. Huxley takes this character through a succession of startling adventures that are the last word in freedom and self expression.