Aldous Huxley had left England by 1923 and was living a balmy exile in Florence, Paris, and the Cote d'Azur. Already a literary success at home, his image--from today's vantage point--was that of an aloof and detached highbrow whose sole concern was to satirize the emotional and intellectual failings of British life. Yet as these newly published letters and essays show, Huxley was drawn to the social and political upheavals of this period between...