Mortal Coils is a collection of five short fictional pieces written by Aldous Huxley in 1921. 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.