Though Aldous Huxley is best known for his later novels and essays, he started his writing career as a poet. The Burning Wheel is his first work, a collection of thirty poems that pay homage in style to poets who wrote in the Romantic or the French symbolist styles. Many of the poems deal with themes of light, darkness, sight, music, art, war, and idealism vs. realism. Though the optimism in his early works waned as he became older, his characteristically optimistic and determined point of view shines through. - Summary by Mary Kay
The last poem was read collaboratively by ezwa, AlgyPug and Larry Wilson.
The last poem was read collaboratively by ezwa, AlgyPug and Larry Wilson.
LibriVox recordings are public domain in the United States; copyright status may differ elsewhere.
Chapters
- Chapter 1
The Burning Wheel
02:13 - Chapter 2
Doors of the Temple
01:09 - Chapter 3
Villiers de L'Isle-Adam
01:08 - Chapter 4
Darkness
00:57 - Chapter 5
Mole
03:19 - Chapter 6
The Two Seasons
01:19 - Chapter 7
Two Realities
00:57 - Chapter 8
Quotidian Vision
00:55 - Chapter 9
Vision
00:50 - Chapter 10
The Mirror
00:59 - Chapter 11
Variations on a Theme of Laforgue
00:40 - Chapter 12
Philosophy
00:29 - Chapter 13
Philoclea in the Forest
03:20 - Chapter 14
Books and Thoughts
01:08 - Chapter 15
Contrary to Nature and Aristotle
00:54 - Chapter 16
Escape
01:07 - Chapter 17
The Garden
01:09 - Chapter 18
The Canal
01:13 - Chapter 19
The Ideal found wanting
01:19 - Chapter 20
Misplaced Love
01:21 - Chapter 21
(First) Sonnet
01:20 - Chapter 22
Sentimental Summer
01:14 - Chapter 23
The Choice
01:03 - Chapter 24
The Higher Sensualism
01:19 - Chapter 25
(Second) Sonnet
01:08 - Chapter 26
Formal Verses
01:26 - Chapter 27
Perils of the Small Hours
01:20 - Chapter 28
Complaint
00:56 - Chapter 29
Return to an Old Home
01:16 - Chapter 30
Fragment
01:11 - Chapter 31
The Walk
08:17