The Seriousness of Evelyn Waugh

Typically, Evelyn Waugh’s fictional heroes move from a condition of stability and security to one of radical disorder. In the earlier novels, up through A Handful of Dust, the radical disorder prevails. After that, there occurs a movement toward recovery, and in the recent trilogy about World War II Guy Crouchback recognizes in the end an order that transcends the absurdities of history.

Waugh’s first novel, for example, Decline and Fall, is circular in shape: the riotous party of the Oxford Bollinger Club, which in the opening chapter precipitates the hero into his Candide-like adventures, has begun again in the last chapter: “Outside there was a confused roaring and a breaking of glass.” From such circles, we understand, there is no escape. In other early novels, the concluding episode epitomizes the radical breakdown of order that has been implicit in what has gone before: the hero eats his girl friend at a cannibal feast, or is forced to end his days reading and rereading Dickens to a maniac in the depths of the jungle. The first volume of Waugh’s autobiography, superbly written and restrained in manner, describes a similar movement from stability to disorder.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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Typically, Evelyn Waugh’s fictional heroes move from a condition of stability and security to one of radical disorder. In the earlier novels, up through A Handful of Dust, the radical disorder prevails. After that, there occurs a movement toward recovery, and in the recent trilogy about World War II Guy Crouchback recognizes in the end an order that transcends the absurdities of history.

Waugh’s first novel, for example, Decline and Fall, is circular in shape: the riotous party of the Oxford Bollinger Club, which in the opening chapter precipitates the hero into his Candide-like adventures, has begun again in the last chapter: “Outside there was a confused roaring and a breaking of glass.” From such circles, we understand, there is no escape. In other early novels, the concluding episode epitomizes the radical breakdown of order that has been implicit in what has gone before: the hero eats his girl friend at a cannibal feast, or is forced to end his days reading and rereading Dickens to a maniac in the depths of the jungle. The first volume of Waugh’s autobiography, superbly written and restrained in manner, describes a similar movement from stability to disorder.