Evelyn Waugh Summary

Biography EssayArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was born on 28 October 1903 in Hampstead, England, and grew up in a comfortable middle-class London suburb, the son of Arthur Waugh, a well-known literary c... Read more

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh grew up in a comfortable middle-class London suburb, the son of Arthur Waugh, a well-known literary critic and publisher, and Catherine Charlotte Raban Waugh. He recalled ... Read more

A major figure in twentieth-century British literature, Evelyn Waugh captured in his novels the attitudes, foibles, and virtues of the British upper classes. From the nostalgic romanticism of Brideshe... Read more

In the following review of Scott-King's Modern Europe, Orwell argues that Waugh's work is conservative in outlook and lacks necessary elements of political satire. Mr. Evelyn Waugh&#x... Read more

In the following excerpt, Stopp discusses Scott-King's Modern Europe and Love Among the Ruins, which he finds to be sad but humorous, and lacking in brutality or sentimentalism. Scott-King&#... Read more

In the following introduction to Decline and Fall, Hollis places the novella in the context of Waugh's life and writings. The younger generation came in his last years to think of Evelyn Wau... Read more

In the following essay, Blayac argues that as a metaphor for changing social conditions “Bella Fleace Gave a Party” ranks among Waugh's best works of short fiction. In his some... Read more

In the following review of Charles Ryder's School Days and Other Stories, Donaldson states that while the collection is of mixed quality, “Mr. Loveday's Little Outing,” and... Read more

In the following essay, Davis argues that a comparison of the original typescript and the final version of Waugh's frame story “Period Piece” reveals that his revisions, extended ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Stannard discusses some of the short stories as they relate to Waugh's development as a writer and his career as a novelist. The ‘novel’ which had beg... Read more

In the following excerpt, Davis examines an untitled early fragment of a story and “Charles Ryder's Schooldays” in an attempt to discern the autobiographical nature of Waugh... Read more

In the following essay, Beaty analyzes the ironic tone of Decline and Fall. For Decline and Fall, in manuscript subtitled “The Making of an Englishman,” Waugh invents a complex of sho... Read more

Critical Essay by Stephen Jay Greenblatt Evelyn Waugh, like Charles Ryder [the narrator of Brideshead Revisited], is an architectural painter who sees, with anger, horror, and a kind of fascination, ... Read more

Critical Essay by R. J. Macsween [Waugh's] travelogues are of a very special kind: they do not shout aloud. They present Waugh at his most unobtrusive. He ignores, ordinarily, the famous sites... Read more

Critical Essay by Clive James Unless the telephone is uninvented, [The Letters of Evelyn Waugh] will probably be the last collection of letters by a great writer to be also a great collection of lett... Read more

In the following essay, Lynch contends that Waugh's lack of didacticism in his early novels points to his view of the limited ability of fiction to express permanent, meaningful ideas. Apart... Read more

Dooley is a Canadian writer and educator. In the following essay, Dooley examines instances of black humor in Waugh's writing and suggests possible influences to Waugh's comic sensibilit... Read more

In the following essay, Blayac explains the classical meaning of "humor," rooted in the theory of the four humors of the human body, and applies it to Waugh's novels. Humour, E... Read more

Critical Essay by Michael Howard Evelyn Waugh was forty-one when the war—his war—ended in 1945. It is an age when most successful professional men have achieved their first senior posit... Read more

Critical Essay by V. S. Pritchett About Evelyn Waugh as a novelist: It is certain that he was a master in the hardheaded and militant tradition of English social comedy, of which both wit and the fan... Read more