Mortal Coils

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.

First edition (publ. Chatto & Windus)

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.

Adaptations

Based on novelette "The Gioconda Smile":

• A Woman's Vengeance (1948), film directed by Zoltan Korda
• Mortal Coils: Play (1948), play by Aldous Huxley
• Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1958), TV movie directed by Michael Kehlmann
• The Gioconda Smile (1963), TV movie directed by Patrick Barton
• Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1966), TV movie directed by Ilo von Jankó
• Mona Lisan hymy (1966), TV movie directed by Jukka Sipilä
• Úsmev Mony Lízy (1968), TV movie directed by Bedřich Kramosil

Based on play Mortal Coils: Play:

• Das Lächeln der Gioconda (1953), TV movie directed by Werner Völger
• Il sorriso della Gioconda (1969), TV movie directed by Enrico Colosimo