Mortal Coils

Mortal Coils is a collection of five short fictional pieces written by Aldous Huxley in 1921. "e;The Gioconda Smile"e; is a mixture of social satire and murder story, which Huxley later adapted into a film called A Woman's Vengeance (1948). "e;Permutations Among the Nightingales"e; is a play concerning the amorous problems encountered by various patrons of a hotel. "e;The Tillotson Banquet"e; tells of an old artist who was thought to be dead, and is "e;rediscovered"e;; a not entirely successful honorary dinner is organised for him. "e;Green Tunnels"e; is about the boredom of a young girl on holiday with her family. She develops a romantic fantasy, and is ultimately disillusioned. "e;Nuns at Luncheon"e; is a second-hand story told of a nun falling in love. The story mocks the writer's process, a concept Huxley used in his novel Crome Yellow.