Product Description
The writers Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh were great friends, and their friendship gave rise to the 500 letters full of malicious jokes and social gossip, presented in this collection.Amazon.com Review
Charlotte Mosley's careful collection of Nancy Mitford's and Evelyn Waugh's delightfully careless letters immerses one in a lost whirl. The two writers met in London in the late 1920s, but their correspondence didn't take off until mid-World War II, when it quickly became an exaggeration-fest. Mitford, for example, matches Waugh's surreal reports from Europe with one about an M.P. swelling up before his fellow politicians' eyes:"Well, it took 2 ambulances to get him away & now he lies on 4 beds with his trunk hanging out the window. Let nobody say that war time London lacks fantasy."

For the next 21 years, these gifted gossips would render the ridiculous sublime and vice versa, turning (and then only mildly) serious in discussions of reading and writing, preferring to glide over the problematic and emotional. Throughout, Mitford likes to play the euphoric, lazy pupil, Waugh the master grammarian, theologian, and meanie. The exchanges on their own works in progress--particularly on Brideshead Revisited and The Pursuit of Love--are an important addition to literary history, but the book's true exhilaration lies in Mitford and Waugh's knowing--and knowingly vile--comic timing. Irresistibly offensive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Cat Claws at Ten Paces
Evelyn to Nancy 12 Nov 1944:
'In the hope of keeping him quiet for a few hours Freddy & I have bet Randolph [Churchill] 20 pounds that he cannot read the whole Bible in a fortnight. It would have been worth it at the price. Unhappily it has not had the result we hoped. He has never read any of it before and is hideously excited; keeps reading quotations aloud or merely slapping his side and chortling "God, isn't God a s##t". '

What more can you say about such giant personalities? These letters can be catty, wildly funny, and rarely boring. A combined conversational autobiography.

If you enjoy any of either of these writer's work or their personality do not hesitate to buy this book at any price!

A Masterpiece! Do Admit!
Once again Ms. Mosley has submitted for public consumption a fascinating collection.The letters that flew back and forth between these two literary giants are sparkling, witty, nasty and fabulous.They shed lighton a glorious world of nobility and debauchery.Their correspondence fixesin my mind the fact that Nancy Mitford is the greatest mind of thiscentury.Genius!Sheer genius!

Brava, Ms. Mosley, brava!

Delicious with a dash of malice
Poor Evelyn (talented, grumpy, constantly worrying about money) writes to lovely Nancy (talented, cheerful, constantly worrying about her Colonel) about real or imagined slights.Nancy charmingly takes him down a few notches when he deserves it (sometimes he's a bit of a bully).It is a joy to read the letters, even the squabbles (but especially the gossip - I'll never think of Graham Greene in quite the same way again).The comfort of old friends.How I shrieked!! (as Nancy would say) ... Read more

Product Description
This is the third volume in the 'Sword of Honor' trilogy. The other volumes in this trilogy include: 'Men at Arms' and 'Officers and Gentlemen'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Do the Right Thing
In the prologue of THE END OF THE BATTLE, protagonist Guy Crouchback receives a letter from his eminently decent father, who expresses concern over Guy's exhilarated reaction to wartime political change in Italy. In his letter, Father Crouchback observes: "Quantitative judgments don't apply. If only one soul was saved that is full compensation for any amount of loss of face."

Father Crouchback's pronouncement about ego-less behavior strikes a responsive cord in Guy, who subsequently wonders how he can justify his futile soldiering during World War II.Since the "just cause of going to war" was "forfeited by the Russian alliance," Guy now feels that "personal honor alone remains." In THE END OF THE BATTLE, the story Waugh explores is: Will Guy find an opportunity to perform a honorable and decent act during the war?

When Waugh's focus is on Guy and his dilemma, I found THE END OF THE BATTLE to be a first-rate book. Acting as the perfect context for this dilemma is Guy's military service in Yugoslavia, where the political situation is pernicious and opaque and the Brits and Captain Crouchback are supporting the totalitarian partisans. In this assignment, Guy's efforts to behave decently and aid displaced Jews reveal his full poignant futility and his civilized but inadvertent deadliness. When exploring Guy's limits, Waugh is terrific.

Even so, I'd say THE END OF THE BATTLE is a less satisfying book than its predecessors in the SWORD OF HONOR trilogy. IMHO, there are two reasons for this slight decline. First, Waugh writes too much about the English literary scene, which he treats with comic condescension. Second, Waugh is highly sensitive to the presence and effects of left-leaning British intelligence operatives in the war effort. This gives his story a dated cold-war flavor. Anyway, when these are his themes, Waugh seems more fleering and topical than he is literary. This detracts.

Final note: THE END OF THE BATTLE overlaps surprisingly with two antic novels set in World War II. At the parachute school, Waugh's character Ludovic shows the same crazy avoidance patterns as Major Major Major Major in Catch-22. And, his Nazi rocket attacks on London and the dirty tricks facility of HOO HQ certainly surfaced my memories of Gravity's Rainbow (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). Just wasn't ready, I guess, to find affinities between the snobbish and traditional Waugh and the risk-taking Heller and Pynchon.

The conclusion of one of the best works of modern English fiction I have read
THE END OF THE BATTLE is the final novel in Evelyn Waugh's World War II trilogy, "The Sword of Honour."It is an excellent novel, and it is a fitting conclusion to an excellent trilogy.Some have lauded the trilogy as the best fiction in English to come out of World War II.As good as it is, I would not so characterize it, in part because there is very little actual combat in the three novels.(In THE END OF THE BATTLE there are three pages of combat.)The subjects, instead, are the ordinariness, pettiness, and inanity that permeates so much of bureaucratic military life; the dislocation (and death) brought about by the war on the home front; and, most memorably, the changes wrought by the war and modern times on English society.

The protagonist of the novels is Guy Crouchback (who turns 40 in THE END OF THE BATTLE), a thoroughly decent, admirable, and likeable man -- in fact, off hand I can't think of a more decent and admirable protagonist in modern fiction.Guy, as well as his father Gervase and his uncle Peregrine, are representatives of the old order in Great Britain.They are deeply engrained with family and tradition and, above all, faith and honor.But all three must gradually come to grips with the recognition that in the society at large those values are withering.Waugh leaves it to Peregrine to voice his judgment:Peregrine had never married (because he was a younger son, and younger sons simply did not marry in an old-fashioned family like the Crouchbacks), and he had taken to spending Christmas with distant relatives; as his visit in 1943 came to an end, his host remarked to him, "You're really the only link with Christmas as it used to be.It is so sweet of you coming so faithfully.Do you think things will ever be normal again?", and Peregrine Crouchback answers, "Oh, no.Never again."

"The End of the Battle" is the title given to the novel in the United States.In Britain, and as originally published, it is called "Unconditional Surrender."(If anyone knows why it was given a different title in the U.S., I would appreciate learning the reason.)I sense that the original title is more appropriate, because by the end of the novel, and the end of the trilogy, Guy Crouchback seemingly has surrendered, or at least resigned himself, to a new world order.

Among the developments of WWII that greatly disturb Guy Crouchback -- as well as, surely, Evelyn Waugh -- is the alliance with the Soviet Union and atheistic communism.In THE END OF THE BATTLE, Guy serves as a military liaison officer with partisan fighters in Croatia, and he is upset that politics influenced, even overrode, military considerations, and that consequently British actions helped pave the way for Tito and the Communists to entrench themselves in Yugoslavia.He also is upset that Britain and the U.S. abandoned so much of eastern Europe to Stalin and the Soviet Union at Tehran and Yalta.On a larger scale, those developments represent a different sort of "unconditional surrender."

In the face of an overwhelming world war and momentous changes in the principles that govern everyday life at home in Britain, Guy, aided by advice from his father, finds meaning in helping others."[H]ere again, in a world of hate and waste, [Guy] was being offered the chance of doing a single small act to redeem the times," and twice in the novel, in a very touching and honorable way, Guy accepts that offer.

As with the two previous volumes of the trilogy -- "Men at Arms" and "Officers and Gentlemen" -- the writing is superb.Simply put, Evelyn Waugh was a master of English prose, and the "Sword of Honour" trilogy probably represents the pinnacle of his craft.He also was a consummate humorist, and that skill also is very much in evidence in THE END OF THE BATTLE, although (except for a few farcical scenes) the humor is drier and more restrained than it was in "Officers and Gentlemen."All in all, THE END OF THE BATTLE is closer in tone to the first volume, "Men at Arms," and the characters are more fully drawn than they were in "Officers and Gentlemen" and there is more philosophy or reflection about life.In my judgment, THE END OF THE BATTLE is the best of the three.

But to fully appreciate it, one should first read, in order, the two predecessor volumes.And one should read them as they were originally published.In 1965, Waugh revised the three novels and they were published together, under the title "The Sword of Honour."I have not read that later edition, but I have read about some of the changes Waugh made in the revision process, and in my opinion they were for the poorer.On the whole, though, the trilogy is one of the best works of fiction to come out of Britain in the last half of the 20th Century, and Guy Crouchback is one of the most honorable fictional characters.

England Forever
I have been reading Evelyn Waugh since high school - too long ago to admit to the year.I enjoy his black humor and his subjects and his writing.Some stories have been better than others but I am glad to have finally found this one as it wraps up some loose ends.

The End of the Trilogy
I have now completed the Evelyn Waugh trilogy of World War II and I must say that "Men at Arms", "Officers and Gentlemen", and "The End of the Battle" were an interesting experience.The books were very good in the same sense that Evelyn Waugh's writing skills are very good.However, the subjest is World War II and, in that context, Evelyn Waugh is no James Jones (which is a statement I'm sure the late James Jones would agree with).I'm not sure I was able to enjoy Waugh's writing quite as much given the subject and his treatment of it.I confess that I did not come to this conclusion until I finished "The End of the Battle" but I also admit that I was gathering doubts while reading the first two books.

What Waugh's trilogy comes across as is a mildly satirical, upper-class, socialistic examination of the effects of a mainland power struggle.In the process, we get an enjoyable spoof of military buearocracy, marvelously eccentric characters that only the English can produce, and a tinge of tragedy through the eyes of a man who timidly stuck his neck out because it was the right thing to do.What we miss is the defining event of the 20th Century.

I will agree that Waugh throws some helpful perspectives into focus such as the randomness of death, the quality of courage, and the strange bedfellows that often unite in such global common causes.However, one gets the sense that all this is only as important as being properly dressed for dinner.Is that the satire that I'm too dense to appreciate?If so, let this review be my public self-humiliation.I, for one, prefer, for this subject, the down to earth analysis of the common soldier of WWII as presented in James Jones trilogy "From Here to Eternity", "The Thin Red Line" and "Whistle".Waugh's book made me realize that there was an element in England, as well as other countries at the time, for whom WWII was exercise in power from whatever perspective you saw it.For some it was probably what you deservedly got for failing to support the Republican forces in Spain.Oh well, most of us still can't figure out how England voted Churchill out of office before the war was over.

I will continue to read Waugh because he truly is a gifted writer.However, I prefer "Scoop" and its' fictional African setting to this trilogy and its' trivialization of the defeat of tyranny.

A somber, but satisfying conclusion to Sword of Honor
The acclaimed Sword of Honor trilogy concludes in this somber, but still hopeful story of the closing days of WWII in Europe.The protagonist, no-longer-youthful British officer Guy Crouchback, is assigned as liaison to a group of Yugoslav partisans, and finds himself involved in the plight of a group of desperate Jewish refugees.On the Home Front, Guy re-unites with his ex-wife Virginia (for whom he still has strong feelings) but can she provide him with a hoped-for heir, or will she die like the character in Ludovic's novel, forcing Guy to seek love and happiness elsewhere?

Early in the book, Guy's father admonishes that "if only one soul is saved, that is full compensation" and this seems to be the real point of the author's story, and ultimately of the entire trilogy: after all the nonsense, the foolishness, the failures, and even the horror, just one single act of mercy can be enough to account for a wasted life.This hope for a final justification lends an optimistic tone to a book that is otherwise filled with the death and destruction of the bombing of London, but it also ties together the various themes that the trilogy has focused on: the senselessness of war, the relevance (or irrelevance) of Catholicism, and the manifest follies and inequities of modern Britain and Western culture generally.If the first two volumes of this series seemed a little too light and pointless, this book is where it all really pays off.A strong statement about how one man makes sense of an increasingly senseless world. ... Read more

Product Description
Evelyn Waugh presented his biography of St. Edmund Campion, the Elizabethan poet, scholar and gentleman who became the haunted, trapped and murdered priest as "a simple, perfectly true story of heroism and holiness."

It is written with a novelist's eye for the telling incident and with all the elegance and feeling of a master of English prose. From the years of success as an Oxford scholar, to entry into the newly founded Society of Jesus and a professorship in Prague, Campion's life was an inexorable progress towards the doomed mission to England. There followed pursuit, betrayal, a spirited defense of loyalty to the Queen, and a horrifying martyr’s death at Tyburn. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Martyr to progress?
Evelyn Waugh's Edmund Campion is about the making of a martyr in 16th century England. It will appeal most obviously to Catholics. But it is equally a picture of the politics of the time leading from Henry VIII to James I--with implications beyond, with occasional snapshots of unbelievable coarseness of manners: Queen Elizabeth accepting the hospitality of unsuspecting families and ordering their arrest when they try to honor her as she leaves; her ordering a performance from a courtier, who falls, with her roaring in laughter and kicking him, dubbing him Sir Ox.

There is the torture and beastly punishments, etc. But there is in the great changes things we might recognize from our own time. Vast resources were changing hands at the will of the "government," ending the tenure and foundation of religious enterprises. It was, you might say, past time for it. But it is hard to argue that the public benefitted. In fact in the short run the public lost by the change. The support the public needed and was used to from the foundations vanished. The charities and schooling were cut off at their source. Oxford itself became unfunded.

Still, one might think it was time to end the medieval pattern and to assert change that would tend to secular control of the people's business. But the reality was, from Henry to Elisabeth, the plunder went to the ministers' cronies and supporters, creating big establishments to ennoble and enrich them--thus not only paying for their support, but binding them to it. On the other hand, the engine of reform, the public factions agitating for supremacy and the elimination of Catholics and their foundations, were easily steered. There were competing Protestant views. It was only a question of appropriate reinforcement depending ministerial choice: punish those deemed too extreme; the others would feel supported by the government actions of disestablishment. Such turns of events are not unknown in politics at other times.

About Elizabeth: "All her life she had been surrounded by plots; plots to implicate her in Wyatt's rebellion, plots against her life . . . many of them real enough . . . plots that had no existence except in the brains of Walsingham and the Cecils [p. 19 EC]." Waugh says this only in reference to her dying. From his narrative a reader can see that she led an uncertain life, with every reason to be afraid: of judicial death at the hands of her half sisters or their supporters, for one thing. (She reluctantly condemned two of her half sisters to death at the instigation of her chief minister.) Henry VIII had officially declared her illegitimate and blocked her from the succession--later reversing this. Waugh's picture of Elizabeth needs a further level of generalization to register the totality in which her danger grew up with her and stayed with her to the end. She was brilliant, gifted person: but the sense of danger must have been central in her life. I think that she could see that there was no safety for her to try to live an ordinary life: she couldn't even marry without crown permission (very, very unlikely).

Elizabeth could see the likeliest safety was for her to be queen. She would have the power of government behind her. I think that she saw marrying as queen would be a threat to her control, and a merry dance she led them on this. But it made her, too, susceptible to manipulation by her principal minister, William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Neither of them were actuated by fervent religious motive. Elizabeth had to sense the danger potential of the religious disorders; Cecil loved power. He may have called it something else, but the reality for him was his ability to be in control and to build a new power structure based on his sense of what could work. The definitive shift in power between Crown and Parliament would grow out of such interplays of actual power.

In the end I can recommend this book to anyone interested in any these things, or their romance, whether Catholic or not--with the warning that it is the story of Edmund Campion, martyr and saint.Edmund Campion

Incredibly Powerful
This is one of the most powerful, moving and inspiring books I've ever read. In an age when, by and large, the Faith has been watered down to a Disney version of itself, this reminds us of the eternal Truths of the Holy Catholic church.

Not worth the money!
It was extremely boring and VERY LITTLE about Edmund Campion.

For example it rambles, for Pages, about Elizabeth's traveling to get to Oxford, how there was one boring speech after another that by the time she got there she had lost patience - that summarizes how I felt about this book - one boring subject after another without barely a mention of Campion or anything relevant to him.

I would recommend instead a book that is fictional and isn't about Campion, but still gives a portrayed of him much better then this book

Come Rack! Come Rope!

Literature meets biography
Foxe's famous book of martyrs gave the impression that England's troubled past ended with the martyrs of "Bloody" Queen Mary. But martyrdom continued at the hands of the Protestant soveriegns that followed including the hundreds of priests tortured to death under "Good Queen Bess" (Elizabeth I). One of those priests was the beloved Edmund Campion who gave up a lucrative career as a scholar to follow a calling that would lead to the ultimate sacrifice for love of his homeland.

Mr. Waugh brings his literary skills to bear in the biographical genre to tell us this moving story of this great hero of the faith. Campion had all the promise as a young man in England and Ireland to make a renowned scholar. Mentioning a fellow English scholar of that time, Mr. Waugh makes the profound observation, "Tobie Matthew died full of honours in 1628.There, but for the Grace of God, went Edmund Campion." Campion's life would not end with mere honors of man but the the great honor God gives to those who give their lives for others. Campion's ignominious and gruesome death won him a far greater honor than he might have accomplished as a renowned scholar. He is venerated today as a canonized saint with good reason. His life was one of service and love for his fellow man to the point of facing death in order to encourage those under the brutal persecution of Elizabeth's reign.

When the sovereigns of England attempted to squash the Catholic faith, a school for under-cover priests was founded on the continent.Campion attended and took on the austere life of a Society of Jesus eventually teaching at seminaries far from his home.But always his heart ached for his own country. But, as Waugh observes, "Campion could help the English Mission best by realising his own sanctity."And so he did, eventually landing under cover on his home island to pray for and preach the Catholics denied freedom of worship there. But his capture, long torture and brutal martyrdom were not a defeat.As Waugh says of Campion and the martyr priests like him, "We are the heirs of their conquest, and enjoy, at our ease, the plenty which they died to win."

The final chapter conveys the story of one man present at Campion's death.This man, literally splattered with the blood of the martyr, left England to follow the same path of study to priesthood to return and a common end. The blood of the martyrs are indeed the seeds of the Church. Saint Edmund Campion, pray for us.

A Saint speaking out from Old England
This was an amazing book. It was difficult to read as it is of any wholesale murder and suppression of a people. I had never been able to study the effects of the anti-catholic legislation and brutal suppression of the Church in England.I had alway studied it from the Irish perspective.I think that Saint Edmund Campion lived for as long as he did because he spent 10 years in Europe.Otherwise, he would have had a much shorter life, like Man-of-God Father Michael McGivney.He was already well-known in England for his writings, and oratory as a student and Deacon at Oxford University.

I was struck by a few items in this book.The first was Queen Elizabeth I's remark to her bishops and clergy as she neared death, calling them "hedge priests", meaning not being actually ordained and shooing them out.The other was the shear emptiness of the English people's lives created merely to satisfy the political and power ambitions of the English Government and ministers as opposed by the people at large who were generally sympathetic and preferred to remain Catholic.Evelyn Waugh commented about the Queen's Government doing all that it could to "removing the people from the Sacraments of the Church so that it would die out in a generation" was quite striking and saddening to picture.How desolute were their lives already, but to take away the one thing that they had for hundreds of years?Mr. Waugh also points out the destruction of the abbeys and great places of learning, "...that flowed to and from Europe, suddenly cutting off England from the rest of the Church", and the greatest minds and service of the monks and priests of the Church from the English people.

In Ireland, it was well known to us in America that there were safe houses and secret rooms to hide the priests and the vessels and vestments for Mass.I was surprised that this also occurred in England.I think that in many areas of history, Americans hear an "anglicized version" of the event and we see that prejudice in our books and common history.

I highly recommend this book.It can be painful to read, but should be read. I would recommend some research first on the creation of the Church of England by King Henry VIII, and the Penal Laws, the Law of Supremecy, and the Catholic Faith in England first.This system of suppression remained in force until the middle of the 19th Century!There is a whole litany of English saints and martyrs that have been lost, but are waiting to be rediscovered by you. ... Read more

Product Description
Authorized by the English novelist's family, and drawing on his personal papers, letters, and diaries, this biography follows the author of Brideshead Revisited through his education at Oxford, his literary acclaim, and his conversion to Catholicism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great biography, miserable subject
I've read two other biographies of Evelyn Waugh, but this is the best of the lot. Ms. Hastings is not writing a literary life of her subject, nor a elegiac review of his life and friends.This is Evelyn Waugh, warts and all.And boy, does he have them.

I have to say, towards the end of the book, I got to the point that I wished he would die already.The picture presented is of an alcoholic snob who wasted his talents at every opportunity.How he had any friends is a mystery.

Ms. Hastings presents a thoroughly researched biography, thus the evolution of Waugh from a middle-class younger son (his older brother was the family favorite - much to his resentment) to an estate-owning squire with seven children is clearly documented.Her clear vision of her subject is such that the reader doesn't really find him sympathetic at any time (at least I didn't).I particularly like it that she doesn't manufacture reasons or excuses for his many times outrageous behavior, as indeed, there are none.

Ms. Hastings give an excellent picture of the 'bright young things' of which Waugh was a member, as well as the lives of the upper class and literary set of the UK before, during, and after WWII.Her sources are clear, and her bibliography is one of the best I've seen.

This is a very good book, very well written - even if the subject is a monster.

Jitterbug Blues
The between-the-wars generation had it tough. They missed the slaughter in the trenches, were too old for the Marxism of the 30s, and never had it quite so good as their school days at Eton and Oxford. It was a generation consumed by nostalgia. They also had 19th century educations which did little to prepare them for the bleak post-war welfare state. They hated the angry young men of the 1950s, but never could form a coherent enough reaction to be called the angry old men. That would certainly have fit Evelyn Waugh. Cranky, brilliant, and so it has been said, hilarious, Waugh was a kind of literary W.C. Fields. This bio does a very good job, it seems to me, of introducing the author to general readers. Hastings writes well, and tells all without being unseemly or too personal, or too prudishly 'politically correct' as many contemporary biographers have become. There are other one-volume books out on Waugh but this one stands out for its graceful prose.

Enthralling
The best biography I have read of Waugh. In fact, one of the bestbiographies I have ever read. The depth of research is most impressive. Thestyle of writing is very agreeable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

"The Mass is no longer the Holy Sacrifice but the Meal at which the priest is the waiter"
Evelyn Waugh was remarkably prescient about what radical liturgical reformers would do with their newfound post-conciliar freedom.Below are excerpts from Fr. James Schall's review:

"The 'bitter trial' was Waugh's reaction to the changes in the Church, especially in the Liturgy, stemming from Vatican II. Heenan seems to play the role of a sympathetic Prelate who listens to his famous countryman with patience but with little awareness that what Waugh feared would mostly come about. Waugh seeks to inform the British Prelate of the reactions of many an English Catholic, especially a convert like himself, of a sense of betrayal and a loss of dignity and beauty in the worship of the Church."
...
"Waugh could be acid in his description of movements in the Church. 'If the Mass is changed in form so as to emphasize its social character, many souls will find themselves put at a further distance from their true aim.' Waugh thought that the liturgical changes were largely the product of the Germans-'I think it a great cheek of the Germans to try to teach the rest of the world anything about religion.' Waugh could be biting: 'The Mass is no longer the Holy Sacrifice but the Meal at which the priest is the waiter. The bishop, I suppose, is the head waiter.'"
...
"Waugh was also acutely aware that there were theological problems barely below the surface of the changes in the Mass. 'More than the aesthetic changes which rob the Church of poetry, mystery and dignity, there are suggested changes in Faith and morals which alarm me. A kind of anti-clericalism is abroad which seeks to reduce the priest's unique sacramental position. The Mass is written off as a "social meal" in which the "people of God" perform the consecration.'"

Waugh bemoans the Fall of Rome
As an orthodox Catholic convert with a fondness for high quality British fiction, I had to have this book of Evelyn Waugh's gripes and barks at poor Cardinal Heenan concerning the end of the Latin Liturgy following Vatican II.As you would expect, Waugh comes off as witty, sardonic, and somewhat tenderly brokenhearted.It is rare to see Waugh in this mode, but you can tell he felt the changes in the Mass on a personal level.Modernity drove Waugh to drink & bouts of fantastic & biting satire, but in these letters he comes across like a very intelligent child who has lost it's mother.Heenan is the villain of the piece, though no fault of Waugh:the Cardinal's letters show him to be a smooth liar firmly bent on pursuing the Gospel of Trendiness with little regard for the feelings of his flock.All in all, a poignant chronicle of one man's dealings with a Bishop-as-Bureaucrat. ... Read more

Product Description
Put Out More Flags is Waugh's superb send-up of "smart" England, the bohemian crowd, as World War II approaches. Making a return appearance, Basil Seal this time insinuates himself into an odd but profitable role in the country's mobilization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Wary of War Leads to Comedic Wariness
This is the fourth of his books I've read, deliberately choosing to start Waugh with his comedies. This is an odd book, caught halfway between great comedy and potentially powerful drama. While sporadically very funny, the book isn't nearly as outrageously funny as his comic masterpieces: Black Mischief, Scoop, or The Loved One. I suspect Waugh's mood during the dire days and dark depths of WW II, especially as Britain battled alone against Germany for nearly a year and watched her resources and empire start to wither away while America's juggernaut rose to displace it, influenced him. By 1942, the relatively non-combative "phony war" of 1939 and early 1940 was long over, replaced by the complete brutality of 1941 and later. The book has some very funny parts (e.g., as the scoundrel Basil Seal blackmails rural inhabitants by deliberately loosing the horrible Connelly children on them and only relieving their suffering once they pay him to remove them), but often the mood is rather somber and the characters are caught uncomfortably between humor (someone whose hatred of literature is overcome by a comfortable prison stay) and pain/loss (hiding alcoholism from one's social class). Basil is much funnier in Black Mischief.

Great Humor on WW II -- Note This Was Book Prior to More Morose Brideshead Revisited
This book generates a love for the main character whose soul is pure but contaminated with classic British spoil - he is a product of aristocratic inequitable advantage.

Basil Seal is the son of the Lady Seal, and lives through his mid-30's doing primarily nothing of great importance.In this journey without direction, he endeavors to be the subject of many people's ridicule.Armed with friends of great importance and power, Lady Seal attempts to steer her son back onto the road and in the proper direction.

"Basil is a Philistine and a crook; on occasions he can be a monumental bore; on occasions a grave embarrassment; he is a man for whom there will be no place in the coming Workers' State . . ."

Throughout this book, his mother sends him off on jaunts to various British bureaucratic endeavors which Waugh parodies so capably well in appropriate British farce.You will fall off your chair laughing at the ridiculousness of such governmental inefficiency - something which may have been nascent in that time but no less frustrating than today's computer-created flustering.

The book is split into four seasons of 1939-1940.The year of the inception of the "other" world war - or World War II.Everyone must make great sacrifices. This is not like the "other" war. "The great weapons of modern war did not count in single lives; it took a whole section to make a target worth a burst of machine-gun fire; a platoon or a motor lorry to be worth a bomb."

In the Autumn of 1939 just before the war commences, Basil is harmlessly bored. In the Winter of 1940, he plays a great hoax on his sister's neighbors with the Connolly children - a scam of great humor and brilliant dialogue.In the Spring,Basil discovers how to return to London and become peripherally involved in the great war - mainly due to his mother's consternation and demand.And, it all is tied up in an epilogue-like chapter entitled "Summer."

The end - or Summer of 1940 - Waugh delivers us to discover the character of Basil is not as hopeless as we originally were led to believe.Basil matures as the war increases in intensity.He becomes a real citizen who will make a real difference in the world - buthow great a differencewe will not know. The 35-year old child becomes a man, and that even involves his relationship to his greatest love, Angela Lyne.

This book deals with war without too much gore or battle reference. It concentrates rather about the bungling of the call to the citizenry for enlistment, creation of organization amid chaos, and the common call by the leadership.But amid the bureaucratic buffoonery lies the noble state of all for one and one for all. Each man has a call, one which requests an honorable response.And, like the vast majority of the citizens of England, the privileged and spoiled Basil responds nobly to the greatest call of his life and to those of his generation - which includes the author, another veteran of World War II.

Put Out More Flags
I was listening to NPR and the author being interviewed mentioned how much he enjoyed reading this book. I suggested it to my Book Club. I think it was rather humorous but not as funny as I had expected it to be.

Fun in the Phony War
The eight months between the declaration of the Second World War in September 1939 and the German invasion of France in May 1940 were referred to, even at the time, in Britain as "the phony war." Military conscription began, blackouts and food rationing were imposed, and many families with children were evacuated from the cities, but there were no air raids and no major deployments of British forces overseas. So many wealthier people who had shut up their London houses in the autumn returned there for the winter season. Evelyn Waugh's satirical account of the period, written only a couple of years later, deals with a group of upper-class Englishmen and women for whom the whole period was mainly a matter of dressing up as soldiers, and "doing one's duty" was an opportune antidote to boredom.

This is a very funny book, but it may not be accessible to everyone. Here, as a kind of litmus test, is a passage from the beginning of the book. One of the characters, a society hostess, has just heard the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, announce the declaration of war over the radio:

"It was quite true, thought Lady Seal; Neville Chamberlain had spoken surprisingly well. She had never liked him very much, neither him nor his brother -- if anything she had preferred the brother -- but they were uncomfortable, drab fellows both of them. However, he had spoken very creditably that morning, as though at last he were fully alive to his responsibilities. She would ask him to luncheon. But perhaps he would be busy; the most improbable people were busy in wartime, she remembered."

That "most improbable" made me laugh loud enough to disturb several neighboring diners, but I recognize that the patronizing understatement is a very British sort of humor. If you find this passage funny, then by all means read the book; it is a masterpiece. Otherwise, be warned. It is not just the humor that may be impenetrable, but the large cast of characters, whose social status and interconnections are indicated in the most subtle ways, by the kinds of names they are given or the addresses at which they live. This is a book that really cries out for an annotated edition, giving lists of characters and family trees, explanations of the historical events taking place offstage, and notes on the numerous cultural matters that are referenced obliquely; the leftist poets Parsnip and Pimpernell who have emigrated to America, for instance, must surely be a sly dig at Auden and Isherwood. And yet the novel would sink under the weight of such an apparatus criticus; it is a soufflé of frivolity topped with meringue.

But not quite a soufflé. Reviewing Waugh's A HANDFUL OF DUST (1934) a year or so ago, I remarked that a book which began with the farcical doings of a group of upper-class drones who might have come straight out of P. G. Wodehouse changed half-way to develop something of the moral weight of Graham Greene. Hearing PUT OUT MORE FLAGS talked about, I expected a similar tragicomic trajectory. The book does indeed get more serious as it goes on, but in a less obvious way which I think makes it the greater novel. The reader knows that the war will not remain phony for long, and this makes the melodramatic events that produced the climax in the earlier book quite unnecessary here. Secondly, even in its frivolous early stages, the book shows a breadth of cultural awareness, nicely balanced between real-world events and dinner-table conversation, that gives it dimension from the start. Thirdly, there is the moral element; Waugh, another Catholic, is as much of a moralist as Greene, only with a lighter touch. As they are affected by the war, many of the characters take surprising turns which reveal them as moral individuals, sometimes weaker than we had thought, but often stronger, and always more sympathetic. Or almost always; Waugh maintains a rather disturbing sense of moral ambiguity. Basil Seal, the cheerful sponger antihero of the novel, is as much fun as Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, and the war gives him opportunity for increasingly audacious schemes. But by the end, real people are getting hurt by them. You root for him, you laugh at his successes, but then you wonder if you should be laughing.... I am still working that one out.

"Basil needs this war.He's not suited to peace."
Basil Seal, familiar to readers of Black Mischief (1932) as the man hired by one of his Oxford friends, the ruler of an African nation, to modernize it, has returned to England, his ludicrous efforts at modernization for naught.It is the autumn of 1939 (in this 1942 novel), just as war is breaking out, and Basil, one of the "bright, young things" on whom Waugh casts his satiric eye and biting wit, is bored.Penniless, he accepts his sister Barbara's suggestion to help her to place urban children with rural families to protect them from the incipient bombings.Soon he has turned this in to a profitable business--country house residents are more than willing to pay Basil NOT to bring three especially monstrous children, to live with them.

Strong on character, grim humor, and satire, and short on overall plot, Waugh has created in this novel characters who represent the worst of upperclass young people--their shallow interests, indifferent education, frivolous behavior, lack of long-term goals, and seeming absence of any values except pleasure.Basil has had a long affair with Angela Lyne, but dallies with other women.Angela's cuckolded husband Cedric enlists in the war effort, while she, lonely, turns to drink.Ambrose Silk, half-Jewish and openly gay, works to establish a literary magazine until he runs afoul of the censors (in the person of Basil).Two writers, Parsnip and Pimpernel, reputed to have been modeled on W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, run off to the States to avoid the war completely.

As the novel moves from autumn, 1939, to the summer of 1940, when the mobilization is fully underway, Waugh skewers the naivete of his subjects and their universal desire to use the war to get ahead.None of them take the war seriously, nor do they realize that the very fabric of their country is at stake.Basil and friends want to be among "the hard-faced men [of 1919] who did well out of the war."Image is more important than reality, which they seem determined to ignore.

The last of Waugh's satiric novels (since his later novels become far more serious), this one is full of ironic humor directed at the (usually) wealthy young people who allow life to happen to them, assuming that they will always be able to make lemonade from lemons.In the course of the novel, all will come to new understandings, and when France falls, the scene is set for reversals and revelations.Fun to read and historically important for the attitudes it records among this group, Put Out More Flags is classic Waugh satire.n Mary Whipple

Black Mischief
The Loved One (Penguin Modern Classics)
Brideshead Revisited

... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Collected for the first time in a single volume: all of the short fiction by one of the 20th century's wittiest and most trenchant observers of the human comedy. ... Read more

Product Description
Thirty years' worth of Evelyn Waugh's inimitable travel writings have been gathered together fo the first time in one volume.

Waugh's accounts of his travels--spanning the years from 1929 to 1958--describe journeys through the West Indies, Mexico, South America, the Holy Land, and Africa. And justas his travels informed his fiction, his novelists's sensibility is apparent in each of these pieces. Waugh pioneered the genre of modern travel writing in which the comic predicament of the traveler is as central as the world he encounters. He wrote with as sharp an eye for folly as for foliage, and a delight in the absurd, not least where his own comfort and dignity are concerned.

From his fresh take the well-traveled and hence alread "fully laveled" Mediterranean region in LabelsI, to a close-up view of Haile Selaissie's coronation in Remote People, from a comically miserable stint in British Guiana in Niney-two Days, to a sharp-eyed tour of The Holy Places, the seven travel books collected here provide a feast of literary adventures--as light, bright, sharp, and invigorating as Waugh's fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Waugh Of The World
"Every Englishman abroad, until it is proved to the contrary, likes to consider himself a traveler and not a tourist." (Labels, 1930)

Throughout his first full decade as a novelist, Evelyn Waugh kept up a second career as a writer of travel books, getting double-duty from the locales he used to spruce up his fiction. "Waugh Abroad" collects the five travel books he wrote in the 1930s, as well as brief essay on holy places from 1952 and a last travel book published in 1960, six years before his death.

For Waugh aficionados like me, "Waugh Abroad" is required reading, especially since three of the books, "Remote People" (1931), "Ninety-Two Days" (1934), and "Waugh In Abyssinia" (1936) detail travels Waugh used for setting his novels "Black Mischief", "Handful Of Dust", and "Scoop," respectively.

What you get is a vast sampling of Waugh at near his best as a writer as well as at his very worst. That's true from the very first book, "Labels." In his introduction, Nicholas Shakespeare calls it the "best of his travel books," and though I don't agree, it's certainly his most accessible, featuring Waugh aboard a Norwegian passenger ship for an extended Mediterranean jaunt.

Waugh fills the canvas in an entertaining way, from encountering a Naples pimp ("All-a-girls naked. Vair artistic, vair smutty, vair French") to the then-young architecture of Gaudi in Barcelona, which entrances the young conservative to some of his finest descriptive prose. Then you get Waugh the embarrassing snob, sniffing at Muslim art and expressing British superiority with less nuance than he ever did in his fiction.

"Remote People" is even worse in this respect, and "Waugh In Abyssinia" gasp-inducing. In fact, Waugh's African visits point up the thin line between racialism and racism all-too-well; Waugh writing for pages about the land and the politics while giving short shrift to the people.

At least "Abyssinia" showcases Waugh's misanthropy to far better advantage in discussing the tenuous link between factual accuracy and the press. He used this same focus in his novel "Scoop," but it comes off to better effect here: "We could retail their lies, even when we found them most palpable, with the qualification, 'It is stated in some quarters' or 'I was unofficially informed.'"

Only "Ninety-Two Days," informed by Waugh's new Catholicism and a sense of curiosity for the vast mystery of British Guiana, really holds together well from beginning to end as a record of Waugh engaging himself in a specific locale and its people, investing you in the experience the same way he pulls you into the fictional world of "Brideshead Revisited." Writing of the jungle, "the tartarean plunge on entering the forest and of the bird-like sense of liberation on leaving it," Waugh makes you feel the sweat and mosquito bites.

Too bad it's only part of "Waugh Abroad." You also get Waugh's take on Mexican socialism in 1939, "Robbery Under Law," which manages to transform a perfectly sound argument into a repetitive screed and is much worse than "A Tourist In Africa," a tired though occasionally shimmering final outing for Waugh's travel-writing, nowhere more so than when he writes of the folly of Rhodesian apartheid, "that preposterous frontier," which shows quite a different Waugh than you might imagine from reading the other books here.

Though never dull, Waugh is writing here for a more transitory audience, and it shows.

What Waugh Saw...
I purchased Waugh Abroad: Collected Travel Writing : The Collected Travel Writing by Evelyn Waugh because I was looking for a copy of ROBBERY UNDER THE LAW by Waugh and that book was contained in this collection.Waugh's travel writing is informative and comical.He tells it as he sees it in that mid-20th century English style.There is a little bit of the "We've got an empire to look after" attitude in Waugh's travel writing.But, that is a small price to pay for Waugh's analysis of world events and how they affected the countries he visited.His writing is insightful and he does a good job of describing travelling, geography, history, and the good and bad folks within and without of the places he visited.When you finish one of Waugh's travel books you feel like you have visited the country or area with him.This book is a good read and should be on the shelf of all those who enjoy good travel writing.

A Welcome Return
All of Waugh's travel books have been out of print for years, with the exception of brief excerpts he included in an anthology called "When the Going Was Good."(Which is well worth reading if for nothing other than Waugh's caustic preface.)Even then one of his travelogues, "Robbery Under Law," was not excerpted at all.
"Waugh Abroad" changes that, and God Bless Everyman's Library for bringing all these books back in print in their completeness.For Waugh used his travels as a source for much of his fiction, and much of his private life--particularly his disasterous first marriage--is chronicled pseudononymously as well (see "Labels").Aficionados of the novel "Scoop" will easily recognize the "real" events portrayed in "Waugh in Abyssinia"."Robbery Under Law" is particularly interesting, not merely for it's prior rarity but because it features Waugh at his most bilious--full of invective and outright hatred for the anti-Catholic Socialist dictatorship then in power in 1940's Mexico.Yet these books feature not only Waugh at his best, they also show him at his worst:long winded and occasionally boring, something he very, very rarely was in fiction, but is more often in these travel books.But great treasures lie within. ... Read more

Product Description
If there is a literary gene, then the Waugh family most certainly has it—and it clearly seems to be passed down from father to son. The first of the literary Waughs was Arthur, who, when he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry at Oxford in 1888, broke with the family tradition of medicine. He went on to become a distinguished publisher and an immensely influential book columnist. He fathered two sons, Alec and Evelyn, both of whom were to become novelists of note (and whom Arthur, somewhat uneasily, would himself publish); both of whom were to rebel in their own ways against his bedrock Victorianism; and one of whom, Evelyn, was to write a series of immortal novels that will be prized as long as elegance and lethal wit are admired. Evelyn begat, among seven others, Auberon Waugh, who would carry on in the family tradition of literary skill and eccentricity, becoming one of England’s most incorrigibly cantankerous and provocative newspaper columnists, loved and loathed in equal measure. And Auberon begat Alexander, yet another writer in the family, to whom it has fallen to tell this extraordinary tale of four generations of scribbling male Waughs.

The result of his labors is Fathers and Sons, one of the most unusual works of biographical memoir ever written. In this remarkable history of father-son relationships in his family, Alexander Waugh exposes the fraught dynamics of love and strife that has produced a succession of successful authors. Based on the recollections of his father and on a mine of hitherto unseen documents relating to his grandfather, Evelyn, the book skillfully traces the threads that have linked father to son across a century of war, conflict, turmoil and change. It is at once very, very funny, fearlessly candid and exceptionally moving—a supremely entertaining book that will speak to all fathers and sons, as well as the women who love them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

the untalented waugh
Unfortunately, Alexander Waugh--author of this family autobiography--doesn't live up to the examples of his father (Auberon)and grandfather (Evelyn). The writing is convoluted, the ego is unwarrantedly huge. Skip this, and go straight to Evelyn Waugh's books.

To Waugh or Not to Waugh, That is the Question
I'm sorry to report that I collapsed under the weight of the very personal details Alexander Waugh presented about his famous family. Although the author has an engaging style and a good sense of humor, he uses this book to settle some personal scores and to indulge himself about his family a bit too much for this reader's patience level. I made it through almost 200 pages, but then could not find the point of my continuing. I admit I have not read much of Evelyn Waugh's works, so I did not feel invested in the basic content. I was brought to this work by Alexander Waugh's far more engaging "House of Wittgenstein," where so much more is going on.

If you are not a big Waugh fan, don't enter these pages. If you are, you'll love this bit of intimacy with the family tree and all its odd fruits.

A talented and honest review of a literary family

A beautifully written detailed account of the professional, social and family lives of four generations of writers. From Dr. Alexander Waugh to Alexander Waugh, the writer of this saga, through Evelyn and Auberon, his grandfather and his father. It is a raw and objective account of the dysfunctional members of a family who functioned as a family in spite of their oddness and their neurotic eccentricity. Sadism, bisexuality, a passion for words, poetical and psychological acumen enhance this wonderfully in-depth and multi layered story.

Well written, entertaining, but a tad, tedious
Alexander Waugh writes with intimacy and honesty about his lineage. Stocked with access to intimate family papers and diaries of his father (Auberon Waugh), grandfather (Evelyn Waugh), Uncle Alec (Evelyn's author brother), and,great grandfather (Arthur Waugh), the author tenaciously keeps to his theme of the influence of fathers upon sons,all to the exclusion of other family members. He dwells too long on his grandfather and his offspring. At the end, however, he writes movingly about his famous father, Auberon Waugh, the more admirable person. Regrettably,the book skimps on "Bron" Waugh, the better father, the funniest and most entertaining, and a man of "greater stature than his father,"according to A.N.Wilson and V.S.Naipaul."Evelyn was an ogre; a supercilious prig whose chilly personality and misanthropy can not be downplayed despite his art and the ameliorating attempts by his grandson to do so as Evelyn approaches death.

Fathers and Sons
You will find very few books that can match Fathers and Sons as a revealing family biography. The Waughs have been one of England's most literary families for four generations. This effort by Alexander is a fascinating study of their filial relations. Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) is the best known of the family, though his father, brother, son and grandsons have all turned out well-crafted prose. What was not well-crafted was their relationships. Evelyn was an irritable being and he could suffer no foolishness. Since all the principals kept diaries and corresponded frequently, we have a shocking record of their foibles and failures as well as their obvious talents. (All the Waughs wrote entertainingly, even in casual notes.)

Is this biography by a family member to be judged unbiased? An adversarial opinion draws strength from the author's comment to his mother-in-law who had inquired what sex he hoped his in utero child would be. 'I don't particularly mind so long as it's a liar' he replied. And then, "a child is no good unless it is charged with fantasy and confidant enough to foist it upon others."

In many ways, this gives insight into what propelled the whole clan. While they thought they were acting justifiably in embroilments, they were primarily responding to what their circle expected of them. And that was to produce well-written and entertaining prose. Much of this book consists of long quotations from the authors' works, including diary entries and correspondence. The relationship between Evelyn and his father is the best developed and the old man's preference for Evelyn's less renoun brother Alec is deeply elaborated. Be assured that the author spares nothing for relations sake. At one point, he criticizes another contemporary biographer for describing a family member's genitals and concedes that this is beyond the pale. However, thanks to decades of journal-keeping and inter-generational speculation, the Waughs are presented more nakedly than any camera could reveal. I blushed for them repeatedly.

I don't know if this is a true picture of how things were, but I do know that I've read a thoroughly engrossing family tale that gives superb insight into the social and literary events of twentieth century England. Fathers and Sons is required reading for all future explorations of Waviana. ... Read more

Product Description
One climbed to the very top of the social ladder, the other chose to live among tramps. One was a celebrity at twenty-three, the other virtually unknown until his dying days. One was right-wing and religious, the other a socialist and an atheist. Yet, as this ingenious and important new book reveals, at the heart of their lives and writing, Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell were essentially the same man.

Orwell is best known for Animal Farm and 1984, Waugh for Brideshead Revisited and comic novels like Scoop and Vile Bodies. However different they may seem, these two towering figures of twentieth-century literature are linked for the first time in this engaging and unconventional biography, which goes beyond the story of their amazing lives to reach the core of their beliefs–a shared vision that was startlingly prescient about our own troubled times.

Both Waugh and Orwell were born in 1903, into the same comfortable stratum of England’s class-obsessed society. But at first glance they seem to have lived opposite lives. Waugh married into the high aristocracy, writing hilarious novels that captured the amoral time between the wars. He converted to Catholicism after his wife’s infidelity and their divorce. Orwell married a moneyless student of Tolkien’s who followed him to Barcelona, where he fought in the Spanish Civil War. She saved his life there–twice–but her own fate was tragic.

Waugh and Orwell would meet only once, as the latter lay dying of tuberculosis, yet as The Same Man brilliantly shows, in their life and work both writers rebelled against a modern world run by a privileged, sometimes brutal, few. Orwell and Waugh were almost alone among their peers in seeing what the future–our time–would bring, and they dedicated their lives to warning us against what was coming: a world of material wealth but few values, an existence without tradition or community or common purpose, where lives are measured in dollars, not sense. They explained why, despite prosperity, so many people feel that our society is headed in the wrong direction. David Lebedoff believes that we need both Orwell and Waugh now more than ever.

Unique in its insights and filled with vivid scenes of these two fascinating men and their tumultuous times, The Same Man is an amazing story and an original work of literary biography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

ORWELL AND WAUGH - 2 SIDES OF THE SAME LITERARY COIN
I think this would have been a more accurate title.The major obstacle in accepting Mr. Lebedoff's hypothesis is although both were once considered literary equals Waugh can now only be enjoyed as a chronicler of the traits of an extinct upper-class English species whereas George Orwell is an internationally famous prophet whose unerringly correct predictions are part of our everyday language - encapsulated with one word "Orwellian'.

As in most Orwell biographies Mr. Lebedoff pays scant attention to his time spent at Eton. But it was only during those 4 years that his stoic characteristics were formed.As Waugh pointed out in "Decline and Fall" "anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison". For both Orwell and Waugh the chief benefit of this near-Dickensian educational system was they entered "real life" with an unusually strong sense of self-belief - because they knew the worst was over.

In Orwell's case this gave him the resilience to survive 5 years in Burma and on his return choose to "go native in his own country" rather than join the despicable English class system. Waugh took the more conventional social-climbing route. Ironically it was his temporary embarrassing need to teach at a seedy Welsh prep-school which gave him the ideal (non-snobby) thread which makes "Decline and Fall" one of the most re-readable books ever committed to paper.

Every fan of these 2 authors will notice Mr.Lebedoff's omissions. Not one word about "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" with Orwell's wonderful description of what it felt like to be intelligent yet miserably poor and living in squalor in the mid-30's. No space either for his other semi-autobiographical novel "Coming up for Air" where he contrasts trashy modernity with childhood memories of a golden innocent past.

"The Loved One" was also ignored - perhaps because it has nothing nice to say about America. Although Waugh's inventive genius took full flight after his visits to Forest Lawn his recalcitrant attitude represents a watershed moment when America supplanted England as the predominate world power. Waugh's worst miscalculation was making his cynical English guy a hero and the sweet naïve American girl a figure of fun.

Despite many omissions when Mr.Lebedoff is tracing their separate careers this book is a fast enjoyable read. But in his summing-up chapter he goes out on a limb suggesting underneath their social differences they shared the same list of complaints about an inevitable decline of moral values.One notes his selection of grouses are so generalized they've been expressed (less eloquently) by half the Britsh population ever since the loss of the British Empire. But when it comes down to their raison d'etres Waugh was a collosal snob and Orwell "a man of the people" (not a socialist as peceived by most Americans). Making then diametrically opposite - both in subject matter and political views.

Orwell also wrote "1984" and Waugh didn't. Thus lumping Orwell in with Colonel Blimp type reactionaries like Evelyn Waugh is a huge stretch - and an insult to the only writer in the 20th century who forecast exactly what could go wrong 60 years later. One of his most prescient predictions - those who control TV own the current truth (or lies).

Which is why for 3 months so many millions are spent on alternating TV commercials portraying opposing candidates (for a handful of Senate seats) as heinous individuals intent on destroying freedoms all Americans' hold dear. For "1984" readers this frenzy will come as no surprise. 1) Such wildly exaggerated tirades are today's equivalent of "Hate Week". 2) "Fear" of rabid extremists has replaced civilized debate between left and right wing factions. 3)These huge sums are spent to acquire Power.Power to distribute money to those who funded the winning side.

None of these potential developments were of the slightest interest to Waugh who like most Brits thought Orwell was writing science fiction a la H.G.Wells and Aldous Huxley. In hindsight it can be seen Orwell's decision to go to one of the most inhospitable places in Britain to write "1984" was driven by public schoolboy bravado and (despite not being a god-fearing Christian) because he knew he had "a divine mission" to warn mankind what might transpire after WW2.In this respect "1984" is one of the most important religious books ever written.

A Little Thin
Other than both writers being excellent prose stylists, anti-communists and born in 1903, the idea that they are "the same man" is something that never would have occurred to me.

I've read everything Orwell wrote many times (especially his essays) as well as several of his biographies, and Lebedoff's comments on him strike me the same as when you read something you have personal knowledge of in a newspaper:The writer barely knows what he is talking about.

Waugh's novels I've read perhaps two or three times each as well as the collected essays and reviews volume a couple of times.I know nothing other than what Lebedoff tells me about his life and personality. It is significant that what he says about that life seems believable.It takes an intellectual effort to realize that these views are almost certainly as useless as those on Orwell.

There is also, BTW, an irritating North American undergrad feel about Lebedoff's writing, as well as a shocking ignorance of England and English ways and history.

Orwell to me is his non-fiction and his beautiful writing style.Most of his novels are pretty good.I love "Coming Up For Air" and "Burmese Days", but compared to Waugh or Maugham or Greene or Wodehouse they are second rate at best, as he himself knew.

Waugh is perhaps the greatest novelist of our century, but I can't quite put my finger on why.Is it simply his prose rhythm?Is it the worldly, slightly disgusted way in which his stories often meander along punctuated here and there with an extraordinarily funny scene or conversation?

Waugh's weak point of course, like Greene's, is the Catholic guff that pops up a little too often, but is easily skimmed over.

Mr. Lebedoff seems to me to not really get it.His pitch to his publishers was probably joyfully accepted, but he and they are, IMO, semi-educated dolts well out of their league.

Anyway, one can't help but be curious about a book linking these two writers, but I was disappointed, inevitably, since the book's premise is untenable.

Big Virtues, Big Faults
The book is an odd mixture of excellent and starkly unconvincing. Fortunately the two are kept relatively quarantined. I give two stars because this will be the most negative review posted here so far.

The two short parallel lives themselves are excellent and very appropriate for the reader who wants something in the useful but too seldom filled niche between full-bore biography and Wikipedia sketch. I like the way Lebedoff picks out the important points and uses them to structures the lives. Thus, Waugh assertedly was, first ofall, a social climber. A major motivation in both his marriages was the brides'Herbert family connections to the high aristocracy. Both Lebedoff and Christopher Sykes (Evelyn Waugh: A Biography) quote the verdict of Lady Victoria Herbert, aunt to both brides: "I thought we'd heard the last of that young man."But in Sykes it comes across merely as an amusing anecdote founded on a coincidence. It helps when the story is told with its themes.

Of course, this is interpretation, but mostly plausible. He's easy on Waugh's deplorable attitude towards his children--it was just an act. He's easy on Waugh in general: the lifelong alcoholic, drug addict, and sadistic bully. The masochistic Orwell with his loathing of power is more to my tastes (although his rants about bearded vegetarians in sandals and his homophobia, to name two, are less attractive). Waugh takes the laurel as a writer. Lebedoff is less convincing in his chapter on Orwell's essays, seeming to strain for superlatives.

But Lebedoff never brings off the argument that they were "the same man." Waugh dismissed the world as irredeemably fallen and sought his answer in religion. Orwell had no religion and chose the world. Orwell hated status; Waugh craved it. Waugh was a political reactionary (to the extent he was political at all); Orwell was a socialist, not devoid of revolutionary sentiments in the record. Such obvious incompatibilities are supposedly reconciled by the greater virtues that both were Moralists and disapproved of Moral Relativism and thought the future was the enemy of "faith or tradition or common sense or decency." But this shared moral core is so general that its purported heroes can not be distinguished from anyone else, particularly at that time. There is nothing remarkable about finding two writers during the inter-war and after who were moralists; every novelist and certainly every political commentator makes and made at least implicit moral judgments (and Waugh is at his worst, not best, when he becomes most propagandistic, as in Helena, Love Among the Ruins, and Brideshead Revisited.) And far from (implicitly) bravely opposing moral relativism, nearly everybody is a moral relativist, including these two, even if they don't realize it. I suppose that in the inter-war period the absolute pacifists would be the closest candidates for moral absolutism, but aside from the odd Aldous Huxley here and there they were all gone by 1939, and before that their pacifism, to the extent they engaged in thought at all, balanced the risks of not facing up to Hitler's militarism against the benefits of supposedly ending war by refusing to participate in it. As Richard Overy examines at great length in his new study The Morbid Age (retitled The Twilight Years for the squeamish U.S. audience), everybody in inter-war Britain had a big social critique and feared for the future; nearly everyone was anti-modernist in the span encompassing both Waugh and Orwell. H.G. Wells is criticized by Lebedoff for taking comfort in a vision of steady upward progress (p. 204), but this certainly isn't the Wells of 1895 (The Time Machine) or 1945 (Mind at the End ofIts Tether).

The important point about moralism is where it takes you, not that you have it. And moral virtue probably has something to do with where you started from, and what you knew or should have known, and when. Being critical of Mussolini was an easy choice for Orwell; harder for Waugh; of Stalin, easy for Waugh, harder for Orwell. Neither is quoted as saying anything about the extensive U.S. and British bombing of civilians, which sounds pretty morally relativistic to me.

Lebodoff finally gets down to more specifics about what he means in his last chapter. The problem is in trying to assimilate these two writers to his own odd gallimaufry of crotchets andgrievances, and it won't wash.We get a rant against intellectuals and elites and "the new class" and evils like email (I should be posting this with a quill pen), and in favor of reading the classics (don't get confused: those intellectuals are the good guys), and George Will, and so on: all sorts of code words and abbreviations that evidently mean a great deal to the author but have no reliable connection to the heroes ofthis book.

Two cheers
While I was fascinated by much of the biographical detail in this comparative study and am entirely sympathetic to Lebedoff's critique of the intellectual elites and the pc dogma & moral relativism that flow from their arrogant self-regard, I found his "same man" thesis to be contrived and unconvincing. By forcing Orwell and Waugh into the "same man" construct, Lebedoff (totally without intent) demeans Orwell whose extraordinary political courage, character and legacy remain unequalled and have no comparable analogue in Waugh who is little read today and who, even in his day, was not much more than an uncommonly fine prose stylist with an ostentatiously idiosyncratic lifestyle.

`They shared the same roots..'
I was intrigued by the title of this book, and interested to read the case being made for the similarities between George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh.Based on my admittedly fairly superficial knowledge of the private men behind the published authors, I could see more disparity than similarity.

The obvious similarities I see are in their broadly contemporaneous life experience and the world events seen, Janus-like, from different perspectives.The point made by Mr Lebedoff which most appealed was the role of faith (or lack thereof) in each man's interpretation of the world and approach to the future.In Orwell's case, according to Lebedoff, it was his lack of faith which led him to choose this world over the next and he `sacrificed' his health (and ultimately) his life to try to change it.In Waugh's case, his belief in the hereafter influenced his view and portrayal of the world he lived in.I would need to read and reflect further to see whether I completely agree with this, but instinctively it appeals.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is specifically interested in comparing Waugh and Orwell or to readers who are more generally interested in the different forms that writer observation and motivation may take.The book is neither long nor difficult to read and whether you share all, some or any of Mr Lebedoff's conclusions, there is food for thought.For myself, I ended up with a greater liking for Orwell than for Waugh but I am now going to test this by reading more of the works of each of them.Both, in my view, are great authors.While I think that some of Mr Lebedoff's conclusions are too neat, I admire the way in which he has reached them.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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Customer Reviews (4)

A compelling Witness for Belief
I first read this book after having exited the anguish of a doubting Christianity into the calm of a composed agnosticism 40 years ago.

I return to this book again and again and probably re-read it every 3-4 years. Never missing an opportunity to recommend it.

It reads like a thriller. The story unfolds inexorably to its inevitable climax, from the scholarly peace of Oxford where Campion was a foremost scholar of genius in the early part of Queen Elizabeth's reign, to its ultimately savage and bloody end on the gallows at Tyburn.

The story could be seen by some as one of undoubting faith. By others, perhaps, as a story of a scholar obligated by an absolute intellectual integrity and then driven helplessly, to his destiny, by an academicallyremorseless logic after his conclusion of the fallibilities of the reformation.

Whichever view one takes Campion was a hero in voice and in deed. His life was a poem. His writings those of genius - his ringing words still echo.

Evelyn Waugh, a convert himself, tells a story as good as any fiction but far more compelling and sobering because of the true biography that it is.

Jesuit & Martyr
If there is a fault to this book, it is that it is too short.Waugh writes this work of history as one would a novel.However, there is plenty of historical detail.Nonetheless, in an effort to make the book more readable, Waugh has left out the footnotes and endnotes.

That being said, it is probably the best book we presently have on St. Edmund Campion.Edmund Campion was well known amongst Elizabethan circles, including Queen Elizabeth herself.He was lauded for his intelligence and wit and no one could match him in debate.

Edmund gave up what looked like a promising career in academics to become a Catholic.He studied at the College at Douai and became a Jesuit.However, at this time, it was like trading one acadamic pursuit for another.

Edmund was doing quite well at a professorship in Prague when he was called to go to England to minister to the Catholics who had not forgotten their faith.He was not sent as a spy but as a minister to the faithful.

This Edmund did.He did it so well, traveling about in disguise, that he eluded capture for some time.In the end, Edmund comes to a martyr's death (I leave it to Waugh to explain the details).

I judge a book, mainly, on whether I have attained anything good from its contents.Waugh's telling of the story of Edmund Campion has moved me.St. Edmund Campion died as did Christ, asking the forgiveness the very men who were to so cruelly slay him in front of a jeering public.

I'm very pleased I was able to find a copy of this book for my library.Most importantly, I'm very happy that I was able to learn something about this great saint.Your effort to do the same will be well worth it.

Starts slow but wll worth it
Waugh's details of Campion's European whereabouts gets a bit tedious but once Campion returns to England you can't put the book down.Waugh leaves you thinking which queen rightfully deserves the adjective Bloody.

Terse But Sketchy Biography of a Great Saint
Edmund Campion is a saint more often enshrined in myth and legend than he is in historical fact, andit is for this reason that Evelyn Waugh states in his introduction why he set out to write this book about (at that time)a nearly forgotten martyr.Yet Waugh's training as a novelist rather thana historian begins to show quite quickly as one flies through the wellwritten but shallow history of England's greatest martyr, save ThomasBecket and Thomas More.The scant historical depth to the biography mayeither be a product of Waugh's instinctive tendency to tell a story ratherthan teach, or, more appropriately, the lack of hard data on the life ofCampion.Mind you, this book is definitely a good read and worth buying,but to the reader uneducated in Elizabethan England this book may not gohistorically far enough.My congratulations and gratitude are nonethelessgiven to Waugh for providing us with the only biography of a historicallyneglected saint. ... Read more

Product Description
The fullest account of Evelyn Waugh yet published, rejecting the stereotyped image of Waugh and revealing a more complex and serious artist behind the malicious clowning. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Penetrating, Fascinating
As literary biographies go, this is pure excellence.One gains a better understanding of not just Waugh's writing, and not just the personality behind the writing, but also the social and historical context that helped shapeWaugh.Martin Stannard has done an incredibly comprehensive job. But the fascinating Evelyn Waugh stands up to such scrutinizing detail.

disappointing
Very verbose, little power, read Patey if you are truly interested in Waugh. It is a pity someone of such little breeding has addressed Waugh at all. ... Read more

Product Description
Guy Crouchback has lost his Halberdier idealism. A desk job in London gives him the chance of reconciliation with his former wife. Then, in Yugoslavia, as a liaison officer with the partisans, he finally becomes aware of the futility of a war he once saw in terms of honour. ... Read more