Mortal Coils

Mortal Coils (1921) is a collection of short fiction by English author Aldous Huxley. Focused on themes of love, taboo, disillusionment, and the writing process, these four stories and one play illuminate the young writer’s abundant wit and critical vision of life in twentieth century England.

In “The Gioconda Smile,” a wealthy aristocrat named Henry Hutton invites the young Miss Janet Spence to dinner with him and his invalid wife Doris. After eating a dish against her doctor’s orders, Dor...