This is a series of his philosophical essays loosely connected by a storyline relating to the search for an elixir of life. In the end, we find, as did Tennysons Tithonus, that eternal life must be accompanied by eternal youth as well. He begins with a parody into the lifestyles of the rich and famous of Hollywood. Early in the novel (published in 1939) he dwells upon the plight of migrant laborers: the dust bowl émigrés that Steinbeck documented in The Harvest Gypsies (1936) and fictionalized in In Dubious Battle (1936) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). There is also an interesting bit about the use of solar energy. The author (primarily through the alter-ego character of Professor Propter) then wanders glibly among a kaleidoscope of philosophies among which are, art for the sake of art, 18th century French pornography, Darwinism, and deep-seated, fatalism. Most of these are rather long-windedrivaling Faulkner in length.

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