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Mortal Coils

Mortal Coils is a collection of five short fictional pieces written by Aldous Huxley, published in 1921. The book consists of three short stories, a novelette and a play.

The title uses a phrase from Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1: <blockquote>[...] To die, to sleep,<br /> To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub,<br /> For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,<br /> When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,<br /> Must give us pause [...]</blockquote>

The stories all concern themselves with some sort of trouble, normally of an amorous nature, and often ending with disappointment.

Content

  • "The Gioconda Smile", novelette:
  • : is a mixture of social satire and murder story, which Huxley later adapted into a film called A Woman's Vengeance (1948).
  • "Permutations Among the Nightingales", play:
  • : is a play concerning the amorous problems encountered by various patrons of a hotel.
  • "The Tillotson Banquet":
  • : tells of an old artist who was thought to be dead, and is "rediscovered"; a not entirely successful honorary dinner is organised for him.
  • "Green Tunnels":
  • : is about the boredom of a young girl on holiday with her family. She develops a romantic fantasy, and is ultimately disillusioned.
  • "Nuns at Luncheon":
  • : is a second-hand story told of a nun falling in love. The story mocks the writer's process, a concept Huxley used in his novel Crome Yellow.

Adaptations

Based on novelette "The Gioconda Smile":

  • A Woman's Vengeance (1948), film directed by Zoltan Korda
  • ' (1948), play by Aldous Huxley
  • Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1958), TV movie directed by Michael Kehlmann
  • The Gioconda Smile (1963), TV movie directed by Patrick Barton
  • Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1966), TV movie directed by Ilo von Jankó
  • Mona Lisan hymy (1966), TV movie directed by Jukka Sipilä
  • Úsmev Mony Lízy (1968), TV movie directed by Bedřich Kramosil

Based on play ':

  • Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1953), TV movie directed by Werner Völger
  • Il sorriso della Gioconda (1969), TV movie directed by Enrico Colosimo

References

External links