SOURCE: “Evelyn Waugh's ‘Ryder by Gaslight’: A Postmortem,” in Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 31, No. 4, Winter, 1985, pp. 399–409.

In the following essay, Meckier posits that, although “Ryder by Gaslight” is well-written, Waugh was correct not to publish it.

Truly posthumous writings, by the author himself, raise different questions than writings about him issued after his death.¹ One could ask, for example, which, if any, of the strictly posthumous materials—letters, diaries, and a chapter of Charles Ryder's Schooldays—did Waugh wish succeeding generations to see?² “Ryder by Gaslight” poses subtler problems than the diaries or letters: namely, does one help or hinder a novelist's growing posthumous reputation by printing a story he seems to have considered a misfire?

Michael Sissons, who gave “Ryder by Gaslight” to the Times Literary Supplement, conjectures that Waugh never went on with the story because “the time wasn't ripe” or else A. D. Peters, his...