Denis Stone, a would-be novelist and subpar poet, travels up to the stately country estate of Crome for a house party thrown by the wealthy Priscilla and Henry Wimbush. Ostensibly a comedy of manners, this novel is in fact based on real places and people: The cynical Mr. Scogan is based on the renowned mathematician Bertrand Russell; Priscilla and Henry Wimbush are based on Huxley's in-laws; and the deaf but scathing Jenny Mullion is based on the painter Dorothy Brett.

Although Aldous Huxley is best known for his dystopian classic Brave New World, it was this satire of the English intellectual scene that launched his career. A crucial text by a 20th century giant, Crome Yellow engages with Huxley's most famous themes—free love, the perfect society, hierarchies of intellect—and was heralded by F. Scott Fitzgerald as "utterly ruthless . . . I have wanted a book such as Crome Yellow for some time."