Decline and Fall Chapter Summary & Analysis | Prelude

Prelude Summary

Decline and Fall follows Paul Pennyfeather through his time as a student in Scone College, Oxford; a schoolmaster in South Wales; a famous society bridegroom in London; and later, a prisoner for white slave trafficking. Finally, having been sprung from jail by his former fiancye's new husband, he returns to Scone, his identity hidden behind a heavy mustache, and resumes his theological studies.

Decline and Fall opens in the room of the Junior Dean, Scone College, Oxford on the night of the semi-annual meeting of the college's Bollinger Club. Infamously raucous and counting kings among its past members, the Bollinger Club is a society for the aristocratic and social elite of Scone. As usual, the Bollinger Club members crash into the rooms of the college's unpopular undergraduates, destroying expensive china, works of art, and other possessions. Having completed that part of their routine, the Club spill back out into the...
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