Brave New World
Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by the story's protagonist. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final novel, Island (1962), the utopian counterpart.
In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World at number 5 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, The Observer, included Brave New World chronologically at number 53 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time", and the novel was listed at number 87 on The Big Read survey by the BBC.
Brave New World has frequently been banned and challenged since its original publication. It has landed on the American Library Association list of top 100 banned and challenged books of the decade since the association began the list in 1990. This did not prevent the book from being translated into 28 languages.
About the Author
Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) was the third son of Leonard Huxley (1860-1933), an assistant master at Charterhouse, editor of Cornhill Magazine and son of eminent scientist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895).
In 1908, Aldous started his academic life at Eton College. This coincided with the unexpected death of his mother, which Huxley said was “as if a great explosion had taken place in the family”.
Three years later, Huxley suffered a serious eye infection which was left untreated over term-break at school.
As a result he was left partially blind for 18 months. While recuperating at home, he taught himself to touch-type and learnt to “read Braille and even Braille music, which is very difficult”.
Years later, the writer commented that “everything has its compensations and I remember with pleasure the volupte of reading Braille in bed, in the dark and with one’s book and one’s hands snugly under the bed clothes”.
Abandoning any future inclination or ambition he had towards science or medicine, Huxley turned to the idea of writing. But he managed to win a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he read English literature and language.
At Garsington, Huxley consorted with the Sitwells, Lytton Strachey, Maynard Keynes and others in the Bloomsbury circle. It was here he met his future wife, a Belgian refugee named Maria Nys. The couple married in 1919 and a year later had their only son, Matthew.
After his Oxford days, Huxley had stints as a secretary at the Air Board and teaching posts at Repton School and Eton College. As a teacher at Eton College, Huxley’s pupils included the writer George Orwell and historian Steven Runciman.
Aldous Huxley in Hampstead
While working at the Air Board in the Strand, he lived at his father’s house in 16 Bracknell Gardens (initial coordinates), in “a most pleasant room, looking on the garden”. A plaque commemorating Huxley at the house was erected in 1995 and celebrates “men of science and letters”.
Huxley worked as a literary journalist for John Middleton Murray at The Athenaeum and then for Vanity Fair and Vogue.
At this time, the couple, now married, were living in a tiny studio flat at 18 Hampstead Hill Gardens, which they shared with a pug and a kitten – both given as wedding gifts.
By the age of 26, Huxley’s poetry had matured significantly. Virginia Woolf praised the “high technical skill and great sensibility” and Marcel Proust placed him in the first rank of young British authors.
During his stay in Hampstead, Huxley edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories and poetry. Mid career and later, he published travel writing, film stories, and scripts. He spent the later part of his life in the U.S., living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. In 1962, a year before his death, he was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature.
Huxley was a humanist, pacifist, and satirist. He later became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, in particular Universalism. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time.
He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in seven different years.
About the Cache
In honor of Aldous Huxley's work and the period in which the writer lived in Hampstead, we have placed this cache to draw the attention of GeoCachers to this moment in British literary history.
You'll start your journey in front of former Huxley’s family house, on Bracknell Gardens.
To crack this puzzle you will need to answer the following questions in the published coordinates:
- Looking at the house at Bracknell Gardens, you can see a blue heritage plaque. The number of members of the Huxley family appear on this plaque is A.
- The number of the house is B6.
- Along the entire road you will see that only residents permit holders can park their cars, from 9am - Cpm.
- The blue heritage plaque also says that Julian died in 197D.
The final location where our cache is located is:
N51 33.ABC W000 11.ADA
Check sum for all the digits in the final coordinates = 35.
After solving the puzzle, you’ll be looking for a magnetic geocache.
The cache is within eyesight, it is not hidden.
BYOP, the cache has only a log strip for you to sign your find, but no pen/pencil.
About Hampstead_Twins
We are Hampstead locals and have recently discovered GeoCaching activity. As we are delighted with the place where we live and with the stories we find in every corner of this locality, we decided to share some curious facts about our neighbourhood and encourage GeoSearching activity in the region. We hope you enjoy.
If you found any errors, had any ideas for improvement while doing the route or even just want to talk with us and encourage more caches like this one, feel free to send us a message. We will respond to everyone as soon as possible. Let’s get in touch.
What’s next?
This cache is the third in a multi series of seven, known as the Hampstead Writers Series. The series is a tribute to the periods of time that famous writers (British or not) lived and contributed with the Hampstead community.
#1 George Orwell - Animal Farm
#2 Julia Donaldson - Stick Man
#3 Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
#4 Agatha Christie - The Mousetrap
#5 H. G. Wells - Floor Games
#6 D. W. Lawrence - The Rainbow
#7 J. B. Priesley - The Good Companions
So, how about trying to find another cache in the heart of Hampstead? Search for any other cache from this series and have fun!