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.

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, which Huxley later adapted into a film called A Woman's Vengeance (1948).
 * "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