Antic Hay

Antic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I. The book follows the lives of a diverse cast of characters in bohemian, artistic, and intellectual circles and has been called  by some as a "novel of ideas" rather than people. It expresses a mood of mournful disenchantment and reinforced Huxley's reputation as an iconoclast. It was written just after Huxley and his wife moved to Italy, where they lived from 1923-1927. The title is from the play Edward II by Christopher Marlowe. The manuscripts for the novel are part of the collection of the University of Houston Library. The book was condemned for its cynicism and for its immorality because of its open debate on sex. The novel was banned for a while in Australia and burned in Cairo.

       Superficially the story follows one Theodore Gumbril in his invention of Gumbril's Patent Small-Clothes, trousers which contain a pneumatic cushion in the seat. Gumbril's quest for love occasionally makes him resort to utilizing "The Complete Man" which is a disguise he concocts around a false full beard. With it he is able to overcome his shyness and approach women in public places with a bold directness; however, he is then left with the problem of how he reveals his real self to the women he befriends.