Maria & Aldous HUXLEY

Maria (1899-1955)
& Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Although they were not considered exiles, the presence and hospitality of the Huxleys encouraged many German exiles to come to Sanary. In 1930, the writer, novelist and philosopher, who belonged to the British intellectual elite, bought a house on Cap de la Gorguette, between Sanary and Bandol, called Villa Huley (his name being distorted by the local mason). It was here, in 1931, that he wrote his most famous work, ‘Le meilleur des mondes’ (The Brave New World) and, in autumn 1934, welcomed the poet and philosopher Paul Valéry. The family stayed in Sanary until March 1937, when they left for the United States.

With Aldous Huxley, attracted by his friend D.H. Lawrence, author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, who lived in Bandol, the British intellectual elite settled in Sanary. In the 1920s, Aldous, his wife Maria and their son Matthew lived in Italy, but when the Fascists came to power, they left for France: first Suresnes near Paris, then the South of France.

The Huxleys were a generous and welcoming couple, and the great success of Aldous’ novel Counterpoint ensured them a comfortable standard of living. Their red Bugatti was well known in Sanary, and in their house they entertained other writers and intellectuals, such as Paul Valéry and Edith Wharton, an American writer living in Hyères and a friend of Charles de Noailles. They took the young Sybille von Schoenebeck, later married to Bedford, under their wing at the villa ‘Huley’ (the name the mason had mistakenly written at the entrance to the house) in La Gorguette. Sybille, who had dreamed of becoming a writer ever since she was a child, had unwavering admiration for Aldous, her idol author, and in the 1970s she wrote a highly acclaimed biography of him.

Huxley’s contacts with the German-speaking exiles were rather distant, prejudices existed on both sides and Aldous concealed the fact that he understood German. Marta Feuchtwanger had the impression that Huxley was not particularly fond of Germans, and Huxley felt that Feuchtwanger treated him arrogantly. As for Thomas Mann, he finds him full of himself. Although he felt sorry for the emigrants driven from their homeland by the Nazis, he wanted nothing to do with them and was delighted when some of them settled elsewhere.

In the summer of 1931, in the space of four months, he wrote his famous novel Brave New World in Sanary-sur-Mer, published in 1932 for the first time in London, and for which he received the Medal of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959.

Aldous and Maria stayed in Sanary for 7 years, until 1937. The villa was a place to live, but also to meditate, read, study and write. However, the villa was not open to the circle of exiled intellectuals, as Aldous needed peace and concentration to work, even though his presence there with his wife Maria encouraged many German exiles to come to Sanary. The life of Aldous and his wife can easily be retraced in the archives held by the town. His name appears for the first time in a register of identity cards in 1932 and is regularly included in lists of foreign nationals, questionnaires sent to the Prefecture and registers of CI issues. He was often described as a writer or a man of letters. He was regularly interviewed by the French press, as in 1934 when he gave an interview to L’Intransigeant in his garden in Sanary, and to Cahiers du Sud. During these years, a number of prestigious friends were regularly invited, including Paul Valéry, Edith Warthon, Victoria Ocampo and the Noailles family. However, the Villa Huxley was not open to everyone, as Aldous Huxley needed to work regular hours, including Sundays.

Between 1930 and 1937, Aldous wrote other works: Musique Nocturne (1931), Après le feu d’artifice (1930), The Cicadas and Other Poems (1931), Texts and Pretexts (1932), Croisière d’Hiver en Amérique centrale (Beyond the Mexique Bay 1934), The Olive Tree and other essays (1936), La Paix des profondeurs (1936)…

Great travellers for their literary needs, the Huxleys left Sanary for the United States in 1937. The couple returned to Sanary in 1948, staying at the Villa Rustique (found by their friends the Neveux) for 6 weeks and one last time in August 1950.