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Island

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Island

Written by: Aldous Huxley
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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In his final novel - which he considered his most important - Aldous Huxley transports us to the remote Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal society has flourished for 120 years.

Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala, and events are set in motion 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.

©1962 Aldous Huxley (P)2016 Tantor Classics Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Utopian Fiction
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What the critics say

" Island...holds the charm of Huxley's cultured prose and fertile mind." ( The Guardian)
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really great performance, I could feel the emotions of each character through the narration. Highly recommend, even if you have already read the book!

Beautiful

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I appreciated the amount of thought that went into this message of the book, but I didn’t enjoy the lecture style of the writing as it felt like the author had an agenda to dismiss western ideals in favour of eastern mysticism. Interesting ideas were presented, but it was hard continuing to keep listening because the story was boring.

Lecture Style

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Great writing and voice performance but way too preachy for my liking. Glad I listened. By wouldn’t recommend

Great Writing and Performance

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Psychedelia, mindfulness, environment vs oil exploitation. This tale has this all and more. This is a parable about a perfect environment where man lives in harmony with man and nature but ‘progress’ is lurking in the wings to invade. Written in glorious and ponderous prose, it has wonderful classical 1960s British private school education at its heart.

It is remarkable how current thinking about mindfulness and CBT, with a liberal mix of magic mushrooms is presented with a voice from the past. Like Brave New Word, Huxley somehow manages to see things as they are now and were 60 years ago.

Having said that, this is not an adventure story and needs careful concentration to listen to.

Oddly prescient story from the 1960s

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Well this certainly was no Brave New World. But it starts getting interesting about half way through. Basically a critique of the sorry state of the world of international politics. Nice dose of Huxley for sure and well narrated too.

Pretty good

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