Aldous Huxley - a major figure of the literary and intellectual history of this century - dramatizes here one man's blind determination to seek an alternative to the moral disillusionment threatening to plunge the world into a new morass. Anthony Beavis - something of a libertine and fashionably cynical - is growing to maturity in the vacuum left by World War I. His life, loves and foreign adventures leave him unfulfilled, until in Mexico he meets a charismatic doctor fired by an original brand of political activism.

How the young Beavis snatches up an inspiring idea and forges a compelling philosophy makes this one of Huxley's most enduring novels, one thar remains a potent statement on the challenges of rewards of bold, vigorous thinking.