Giocondin posmijeh i druge pripovijesti
The Laughing of Gioconda and Other Stories (1921) is a collection of short stories by Aldous Huxley. It humorously and cynically depicts marital intrigue, the boredom of bourgeois life, human vanity, and the moral decline of modern society.
The collection contains several stories and essays, and the title story Gioconda's Smile is the most famous. It is a cynical, darkly humorous tale of marital infidelity, boredom, and murder for the sake of calculation. The main character, Henry Hutton, lives a boring bourgeois life with a sick wife, and then begins an affair with a young woman. The story ends in a surprisingly dark and ironic way.
The other essays and stories in the collection are typically Huxleyan: the author plays with ideas, criticizing modern society, tourism, pseudo-intelligence, technological progress, and the loss of individuality. Huxley writes with extraordinary elegance, sharp irony, and intellectual superiority, which became his trademark.
In the Croatian edition from 1939, the book was noted as the work of one of the most distinguished European writers of the time. Critics praised Huxley's style and lucidity, but some criticized his excessive intellectual coldness and cynicism.
Gioconda's Smile presents Huxley in his mature phase – before he turned to mysticism and spirituality (Eternal Philosophy). The collection is an excellent example of 20th-century English essays and is still read with pleasure due to the topicality of the themes and superb style. The antiquarian edition of Matica Hrvatska is rare and sought after.
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