EVELYN WAUGH
The Early years, 1909-1939
Martin Stannard
New York: W.W.Norton, 1987
537 pp.
It is safe to say that those people who read the novels of Evelyn Waugh today do so largely for their riotous humor rather than any profundity of meaning or criticism of the modern world. This would not have unduly bothered Waugh, who held firmly to the classical belief that art must first entertain before it can instruct. Waugh's fiction may be roughly divided into two periods. The "classic" Waugh - the most widely read - is the comic author who took as his fictional turf the irresponsible world of the English upper classes in the 1920s and 1930s. In such novels as Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, and Black Mischief, the Bright Young People go careening from cocktail party to country house to jail, death or, more usually, back to the cocktail party. The reader finds himself laughing at the antics of these eccentric characters, only to realize that what he has found amusing involved a decadence that none of the characters are able or willing to recognize. The later novels move beyond the light, coruscating world of eccentric aristocrats with hyphenated names to a more realistic vein, in which characters are given depth and the tragic dimension is closer to the surface. For many Americans, their only exposure to the later style has been the sumptuous, romantic television series based on his most popular novel, Brideshead Revisisted. The theological issues raised in Brideshead blend with politics and history in Waugh's final major work, the Sword of Honour trilogy, based on his experiences in World War II.
But while the public continues to enjoy Waugh's fiction (all of which remains in print), the critics are far more grudging in their estimation of his achievement. Widely hailed as an artist who mastered the language and a literary innovator of genius, he has been treated largely as a humorist, and his more serious themes have been either ignored or derided. Among those who study modern literature, Waugh is a much-misunderstood figure, surrounded by legend, biographical speculation, and outright hostility.
The Making of a 'Testy Colonel'
In the Prologue to Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years, 1909-1939, Martin Stannard recounts an anecdote typical of the public image Waugh cultivated with admirable success in his mature years. Making a rare appearance on a television interview show in 1960, Waugh faced a rather formidable precursor to Phil Donahue named John Freeman. Freeman was known as a tough interviewer who could reduce his guests to the verge of tears by probing into their intimate memories. Waugh appeared, writes Stannard, "soberly dressed, a carnation in his buttonhole, with the inevitable cigar and a quizzical glare of amused condescension." For nearly the entire show, Waugh parried Freeman's inquiries, using a mixture of imperiousness, evasive wit, and fabrication; his answers were disconcertingly succinct. Finally, Freeman got Waugh to agree that the best Waugh could hope for was that people would ignore him. "You like that when it happens, do you?" "Yes." "Why are you appearing in this programme?" "Poverty," said Waugh. "We've both been hired to talk in this deliriously happy way."
This is the amusing and
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