Episode 301: Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" Intro and Ch. 1-3

The Literary Life Podcast

Angelina Stanford

Arts, Books, Education

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2025

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast with Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks! They are joined by Ella Hornstra for the beginning of a new series on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Thomas and Ella kick off the book discussion with a little biographical background on Huxley and dispel the myth that he belonged to the Bloomsbury Group. Angelina gives some literary history of the period in which Huxley wrote, as well as some thoughts on satire as a response to an age of overwhelming optimism. She also highlights the literary and cultural influences that Huxley satirizes in this novel, including Wells, Ford, and Freud.

Visit the HouseofHumaneLetters.com to sign up for all the upcoming and past mini-classes and webinars taught by Angelina, Thomas, and their colleagues!

Don't forget to check out this coming year's annual Literary Life Online Conference, happening January 23-30, 2026, "The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Quickeneth: Reading Like a Human". Our speakers will be Dr. Jason Baxter, Jenn Rogers, Dr. Anne Phillips, and, of course, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks.

To view the full show notes for this episode, including commonplace quotes and today's poem, please visit https://theliterary.life/301.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is not just another book chat podcast.
0:05.0	Lifelong reader Cindy Rollins, This is not just another book chat podcast.
0:21.6	Lifelong reader Cindy Rollins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well.
0:32.6	Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover how to fully enter end to the great works of literature.
0:40.2	Learn what books mean while delighting in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week, we will rescue
0:47.1	story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your kitchen, and your commute. The literary life is for everyone because in the
0:55.9	words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight into
1:02.2	reality. Join us for an ever-unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world.
1:09.7	This is the Literary Life Podcast.
1:12.6	Hello and welcome to the Literary Life podcast.
1:31.1	I'm Angelina Stanford and here with me, as always, the increasingly less mysterious,
1:37.2	which I guess I should say technically, the decreasingly mysterious, Mr. Banks?
1:41.5	Decreasingly, yes.
1:43.0	But I like the sound of the less, the increasingly less mysterious. Yeah, I think if I had a less prosaic name, maybe, that would be an advantage. But no, I think everything about me is just more and more prosaic, I'm afraid. And maybe if I change my name to like Mustafa Mond, that would give me an air of mystery again. I'm not going to call you the mysterious Mr. Monde. It's not happening. Okay, all right. It's not just an idea. Thoughtful, in. If you haven't figured out, we're here to start a brand new series on Aldus Huxley. There's a name for you, Aldus. Aldus, yeah. I like it. It's a smart sounding name. It's a smart sounding name. It's a smart sounding name.
2:18.3	Aldous Banks.
2:19.3	What do you guys say?
2:20.3	Let's vote on this.
2:22.3	We're here to talk about Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.
2:26.3	And we have today with us a guest for this series.
2:30.3	Please welcome back to the podcast.
2:32.3	Miss Ella Hornstra. Hello Ella and welcome. It welcome back to the podcast. Miss Ella Hornstra. Hello, Ella, and welcome.
2:36.0	It's good to be back. You guys might recognize her name. We have, I presume, no one's listening
	...

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