Toxic Masculinity, Pseudo-Intellectualism, and “Sexo-Religious Psychology” in Mortal Coils

This chapter focuses on Mortal Coils (1922), Huxley’s second and most accomplished book of short stories. It analyzes the following works: “The Gioconda Smile,” “The Tillotson Banquet,” “Green Tunnels,” and “Nuns at Luncheon.” The analyses of these stories show the ways in which Huxley developed the topics from Limbo such as mainstream intellectual education and organized religion. They also examine new themes such as art snobbery, toxic masculinity, and a sense of colonial supremacy among English expatriates in Italy. In addition, this chapter highlights Huxley’s experiments with the short story’s structure, which are usually overlooked in Huxley scholarship. These experiments center on subplots and metastories whose aim is to undermine the narrative. Finally, building upon the previous analyses, the interpretations in this chapter indicate new layers of Huxley’s humor and irony.