Huxley's first published work was a collection of his poetry, The Burning Wheel (1916), written when he was still in his early twenties. French novelist Marcel Proust praised Huxley's early efforts, and Huxley seemed destined for life as a poet. But with the publication of his first two novels, Crome Yellow (1921) and Antic Hay (1923), Huxley emerged as a particularly witty chronicler of modern life among the educated and pretentious.
Huxley further solidified his reputation as a satirist with the novel Point Counter Point (1928), a scathing study of the breakdown of commonly held social values. Huxley followed up with another satire, which would prove to be his most popular work — Brave New World (1932).
Like his previous novels, Brave New World is a "novel of ideas," in which the themes the author wishes to explore take center stage, determining the action as well as the characterization. Brave New World continued in Huxley's familiar irreverent fictional style, showing readers the absurdity of strongly held but little examined beliefs.
