Today, British author and essayist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) who was one of the most famous English writers and philosophers in the twentieth century, is best remembered for the bleak dystopian vision he set forth in the classic novel „Brave New World”. Huxley was considered to be one of the great intellectuals of his time and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in seven different years. In the engaging short pieces collected in „Mortal Coils”, Huxley spreads his creative wings, dabbling in murder mysteries, romance, and satire. It includes the following stories: „The Gioconda Smile”, „Permutations Among the Nightingales”, „The Tillotson Banquet Green”, „Tunnels Nuns at Luncheon”. Brilliantly written, sad, acid, and ironic little stories about the human condition. The stories all concern themselves with some sort of trouble, normally of an amorous nature, and often ending with disappointment.