Aldous Huxley spares no one in his ironic, piercing portrayal of agroup gathered in an Italian palace by the socially ambitious andself-professed lover of art, Mrs. Aldwinkle. Here, Mrs. Aldwinkleyearns to recapture the glories of the Italian Renaissance, but herguests ultimately fail to fulfill her naive expectations.

          Among her entourage are: a suffering poet and reluctant editor of the Rabbit Fanciers’ Gazettewho silently bears the widowed Mrs. Aldwinkle’s desperate advances; apopular novelist who records every detail of her affair with anotherguest, the amorous Calamy, for future literary endeavors; and an agingsensualist philosopher who pursues a wealthy yet mentally-disabledheiress.

          Stripping the houseguests of their pretensions, Huxley reveals the superficiality of the cultural elite. Deliciously satirical, Those Barren Leaves bites the hands of those who dare to posture or feign sophistication and is as comically fresh today as when first published.