October 2021: Evelyn Waugh

Hello all,

For October 2021, we'll be reading and discussing works by Evelyn Waugh together. What have you previously read by Waugh? What do you plan to read?

FWIW, these titles by Waugh are on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die list:
Decline and Fall
Vile Bodies
A Handful of Dust
Brideshead Revisited

I read Vile Bodies (https://www.librarything.com/work/38632/reviews/120731984 if anyone is interested) back in 2015 (where did time go?). Time to get back to him I guess... :) And a nice 6 volume set is staring at me from the shelf behind me (plus I am sure I have a few more somewhere else).

I think I want to read Scoop.

I requested A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited from the library. A Handful of Dust has come in, so I’m starting there. NYT quote on cover promises “a vicious, witty novel.” Looking forward to it!

I’ve finished A Handful of Dust, my first novel by Evelyn Waugh. I found it an entertaining read, but will need to read more of his work before forming an opinion. I enjoyed his wit and his satire of English aristocrats and wannabes and most of his outrageousness (not the outrageous ending!), but need more of a familiarity with the period between the World Wars in England. I bought used copies of Brideshead Revisited and Vile Bodies, and plan to start Vile Bodies soon.

I’ve never seen the Masterpiece Theater production of Brideshead Revisited, so I decided to make it my next read for this thread. I finished reading last night, and I totally loved the book. A later work than Handful of Dust, this novel seems much more substantial. The setting is the same morally corrupt, hedonistic world of British aristocracy, but now moving toward, and then into, the second great war. The characters are well developed and most of them are sympathetic. Here I was not allowed to stand outside the world of the novel and, along with the author, simply note without emotion its self-destructiveness and absurdities. The first person narrator, and the structure of telling the story as the narrator’s reminiscences when he returns for military purposes to the familiar setting of Brideshead, worked well. Themes of psychological and physical destruction and of the possibility for redemption emerge as the novel moves to its profound conclusion. I think Brideshead Revisited a very satisfying novel, to be reread and reflected on.

I started Scoop a few nights ago. I was laughing by page 36. I’m looking forward to continuing. This is my first Waugh.

I finished Scoop this morning. I ended up not liking it very much. The book is divided into three parts with part two being the longest section. I liked the characters from part one but most of the book focused on different characters. Also the book being published in 1937 and being a British satirical novel and I’m not British etc., I felt there were a lot of references to things I didn’t understand and a lot of British aphorisms that I don’t understand. Sometimes I felt like I wasn’t really understanding what was going on.

>8 Tara1Reads: I'm British and did not get a lot of the jokes/allusions either and did not like this novel although I have read quite a few of Waugh's books with enjoyment. 'Scoop' reads like an insiders book for journalists as if only they would get the jokes.
My favourite novels by this writer are his WW2 books comprising the Sword of Honour trilogy. They offer a de-mythologised view of the war in a blackly comic vision and I strongly recommend them.

>9 Maura49: I’ve read only two books by Waugh- the ones I’ve commented on in this thread. I want to read more of his work and appreciate your recommendation of the Sword trilogy. Will add to my TBR.

>9 Maura49: I definitely did not do a good job wording what I was trying to say in >8 Tara1Reads: but I’m glad to hear about the Sword of Honour trilogy. I will probably start there when I read Waugh again.

>11 Tara1Reads: I thought your comments were perfectly fair. There can be a bit of a cultural disconnect sometimes. I know perfectly well that I do not fully understand everything I read which is written by someone not from my own culture. One can miss quite a lot. As an example I love Scott Fitzgerald but know that an American reader will pick up nuances that I don't. Translations of course are another issue and I frequently wonder just what it is that I don't get which readers in the original will.

As for Waugh, his status as a member of an elite group of upper class, moneyed people informs his writing to a marked degree and reflects opinions within that group. I would cite racism as one example of which a fair bit can be found which makes for uncomfortable reading in our era.

Belatedly, I read my first Waugh, The Loved One. I found this a rather odd short novel about rivalry between two morticians in Hollywood, one a luxury provider of funerary services, the other specialising in pet funerals. It is blackly comedic and bizarre. Not sure if I would say I liked it, but it was short enough to take the risk. This is the first Waugh novel I have ever read - I first heard of it back in the 1980s as there was a Doctor Who TV story that partly satirised this satire.