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Evelyn Waugh (Author study)

External Links

A Handful of Dust Novel

By Delaney Zartman

Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust is a story about one character's decision to have an affair and the effects this decision has on the other characters within the story. Waugh opens the novel describing the relationship between Tony and Brenda Last. They have been married for eight years. They have a son named John Andrew Last and they all live on a wealthy London estate located in Hetton. Waugh interrupts this ideal image when she inserts John Beaver into the storyline. He is a friend of Tony's and spends much time with his wife gossiping about the social scene. But it is Brenda who is first attracted to John and initiates an affair with him. She lies to her husband about her whereabouts and activities in London, giving Tony the impression that she is taking classes. Tragedy befalls the family when the son dies; his death motivates Brenda to ask for a divorce and marital compensation. Because Tony finds Brenda's demands to be unreasonable, he leaves town. Waugh shifts the setting from a wealthy estate to an unknown territory, signifying the character's mental and emotional state. In this context, Waugh introduces another character who is an old illiterate man; the man nurses Tony back to health and subsequently imprisons him. By the end of A Handful of Dust, Tony spends the rest of his life trapped, Brenda remarries to an old friend of Tony's, and Beaver moves to New York.

A film version, directed by Charles Sturridge, was released in 1988, with James Wilby as Tony, Kristin Scott Thomas as Brenda, Judi Dench as Mrs. Beaver and Alec Guinness as Mr. Todd.

Evelyn Waugh

Works Cited

A Brideshead Revisited Novel

“Brideshead Revisited Summary.” Shmoop University. Shmoop University, 2016.

Web. 14 Mar. 2016. <http://www.shmoop.com/brideshead-revisited/summary.html>

jerome. "Brideshead Revisited Cover. Photograph. Specs and Price. 12 Apr. 2016. 13

May 2016. <http://2016carreleasedate.com/tag/brideshead-revisited-evelyn-waugh-9780316216456-amazon->

Lowres Picture Cabinet. Web. 12 May 2016. <http://lowres-picturecabinet.com.s3-

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The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and

Purdue U, 2008. Web. 3 May 2016. <https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/>

Rolo, Charles J. “Evelyn Waugh: The Best and the Worst.” The Atlantic Monthly

Online Digital Edition 10.54 (October 1954): n.4 pg.80-84. Web. 8 Apr. 2016. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/54oct/rolo.htm>

Salisbury, John. “Aberon Waugh Remembers Evelyn Waugh 1987.” Online video

clip. YouTube. YouTube, 1 June 2014. Web. 2 May 2016. <

Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 2012.

Print.

---. EVELYN WAUGH: A Biography. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 2012. Print.

---. A Handful of Dust. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 2012. Print.

---. A Little Learning. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 2012. Print.

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (October 28, 1903 – April 10, 1966), was an English writer of novels, biographies and travel books. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer of books.

Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by Evelyn Waugh, and it was first published in 1945. The action of this novel describes providence, grace, and the redemption through suffering of a jaded, often hilarious modernism.This is achieved by an examination of the Roman Catholic, aristocratic Marchmain family, as seen by the narrator, Charles Ryder.

An English military officer, Ryder is stationed at a country estate that has been converted into a military base. At Oxford, Charles strikes up a friendship with Lord Sebastian. Charles is captivated by the splendor of Sebastian's life at his family's Brideshead Castle, while Sebastian hits the bottle. Charles develops an infatuation with Sebastian's sister, Julia. Also present at Brideshead is Sebastian and Julia's mother, Lady Marchmain. Though bitter, the matriarch perceives Charles as an emotional anchor for the increasingly unstable Sebastian, and therefore suggests that Charles join Sebastian and Julia on a trip to see their father. Unfortunately, the romantic bond between Charles and Julia deepens, which threatens to destroy Sebastian.

Brideshead Revisited was brought to the screen in 1981 in a dramatic serialization on TV, produced by Granada Television. A film adaptation of the book was released in July 2008. The book was also dramatized episodically as a BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Evelyn Waugh's Literature

Waugh's Literary Significance

Biography

  • Decline and Fall (1928)
  • Vile Bodies (1930)
  • A Handful of Dust (1934)
  • Black Mischief (1932)
  • Scoop (1938)
  • Put Out More Flags (1942)
  • His most popular novel, Brideshead Revisited (1945)
  • His novella, The Loved One (1948)
  • The Sword of Honour Trilogy, his three World War II novels, Men at Arms (1952), Officers and Gentlemen (1955) and The End of the Battle (1961)
  • In addition to these and other works of fiction, he wrote amusing travel books, biographies of Rossetti (1928) and Edmund Campion (1935), and the autobiographical, A Little Learning (1964)

(Disclaimer: I chose Evelyn Waugh because i knew absolutely nothing about him to begin with, and I wish it would have stayed that way.)

Waugh's importance to modern English literature owes much to his style and craftsmanship. Earlier works were characterized by clever phrasing and broadly humorous plots, but in later works he translated his observations into complex ironic structures. Some critics say that Waugh's books are timeless because their worlds duplicate current history. Others believe his writing will not endure because of his nostalgic preoccupations, the rigidity of his opinions and outlook, and the restricted range of his intellectual and political focus.

In 1945 Waugh published his most overtly Catholic novel, Brideshead Revisited, (front cover upper left) which was both his greatest commercial success and his most controversial work. Brideshead Revisited traces events in the lives of a wealthy English Catholic family, the Marchmains, and their involvement with Charles Ryder—a non-Catholic.

The son of a publisher, Waugh was educated at home when he was a boy. He went to Lancing College and then to Hertford College, Oxford, and briefly worked as a schoolmaster before he became a full-time writer. In the 1930s, he traveled extensively, often as a special newspaper correspondent. He served in the British armed forces throughout the Second World War (1939–1945), first in the Royal Marines and then in the Royal Horse Guards. He was a perceptive writer who used the experiences and the wide range of people he encountered in his works of fiction, generally to humorous effect.

After the failure of his first marriage, Waugh converted to Catholicism in 1930. After his death in 1966, he acquired a following of new readers through the film and television versions of his works, such as the television serial Brideshead Revisited (1981).

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