Mortal Coils is a collection of five short fictional pieces written by Aldous Huxley, published in 1921. The book consists of three short stories, a novelette and a play.
The title uses a phrase from Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1:
[...] To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to dream; aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause [...]
The stories all concern themselves with some sort of trouble, normally of an amorous nature, and often ending with disappointment.
Content
"The Gioconda Smile", novelette:
is a mixture of social satire and murder story,[1] which Huxley later adapted into a film called A Woman's Vengeance (1948).[2][3]
"Permutations Among the Nightingales", play:
is a play concerning the amorous problems encountered by various patrons of a hotel.
"The Tillotson Banquet":
tells of an old artist who was thought to be dead, and is "rediscovered"; a not entirely successful honorary dinner is organised for him.
"Green Tunnels":
is about the boredom of a young girl on holiday with her family. She develops a romantic fantasy, and is ultimately disillusioned.
"Nuns at Luncheon":
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.
