Huxley dramatized significant members of British society in Point Counterpoint, famously including DH Lawrence, so I wouldn't be surprised if he drew some characters from real life in this one, too.
This wasn't the only novel of Huxley's that his acquaintances saw themselves in to their dismay. His Antic Hay has a brilliant scientist. Professor Shearwater, with a wife who cheats on him. Apparently Shearwater was an obvious representation of J.B.S. Haldane, who was not amused.
In Bloomsbury they were in and out of each other's lives, beds, and
books. Those modern disclaimers saying "All characters and events are
entirely fictional." make me laugh. It absolutely goes without saying
that novelists, especially satirists draw on all their friends, family
and work colleagues. If you're (un)lucky enough to be in or near that
circle, even as the local bartender or random person they once met,
the only question is where you feature.
Love reading about the Bloomsbury Set in London early 1900s. I think the finest novelization of that world is the E. M. Forester *Howard's End". Movie & TV versions work as well. One of those stories you can set in any generation and it holds sort of true ;)
It's fantastic when the article pushes my appetite for knowledge and offers a keyhole to aristocracy of days gone by. It's like shaking hands with one of it's participants while they momentarily bore themselves of their usual lavish life with my existence lol...
Though it is articles like this that make me ponder about such aristocratic life today, and how the modern proliferation and consolidation of wealth is a usurper of such relations and events to spawn current literature, in the now.
Having read the seminal Huxley work, I'm now looking forward to consuming Chrome Yellow, with verve.
