Time Must Have a Stop

From the author that brought us Brave New World comes the story of Sebastian Barnack; a young poet on holiday with his uncle in Florence, where his real education can begin. 

Sebastian visits his uncles in Italy with the objective of finding formal wear for a party hosted by his friend, against the wishes of his father. In Florence, our protagonist encounters many obstacles, a Degas painting, the Italian Fascisti, and a seance. Sebastian is torn between the material luxuries presented by his indulgent uncle Eustace, and the spiritual wisdom of his uncle Bruno. The novel that Aldous Huxley himself thought was his most successful at "fusing idea with story, " Time Must Have A Stop is part of Huxley's lifelong attempt to explore the dilemmas of a twentieth-century person and to create characters who, though ill-equipped to solve the dilemmas, all go stumbling on in their painfully serious comedies.