This collection covers the period from 1911, when Waugh was seven, to 1966, a few weeks before his death. Despite occasional gaps, the diary presents a continuous record of the thoughts and acts of the tantalizingly complex man whom Graham Greene saluted as 'the greatest novelist of my generation.' Here also is an unparalleled day-to-day portrait of the crumbling, giddy society that Waugh's fiction recreated with all 'the defiant hilarity of a dance on a sinking ship,' as well as glimpse of the real people behind the characters who have become permanent part of modern literature.
Above all, here is Evelyn Waugh himself, from the independent schoolboy too prone to notice oddities and comment on them, to the exuberant 'enfant terrible' who was known to shout 'sustain the mood' through hundreds of inebriated lunches and dinners at Oxford, to the crusty, forbidding elderly figure who portrayed himself as 'shocked by a bad bottle of wine, an impertinent stranger, or a fault in syntax.'
To those Waugh aficionados seeking an authentic guide to the ways in which the writer drew on his experiences to create his fictional world, to those intrigued by the well-publicized Waugh legend, to those who relish graceful writing laced with malice, and to those looking for a remarkable 'inside' view of England's social and literary landscape from the early twenties on, 'The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh' are simply not to be missed.
Michael Davie, who edited the 'Observer' excerpts, provides succinct introductions for the seven time periods into which he has divided the diaries entries, together with a wealth of footnotes identifying personalities mentioned by the author and explaining the sometimes obscure subjects to which Waugh refers.
Above all, here is Evelyn Waugh himself, from the independent schoolboy too prone to notice oddities and comment on them, to the exuberant 'enfant terrible' who was known to shout 'sustain the mood' through hundreds of inebriated lunches and dinners at Oxford, to the crusty, forbidding elderly figure who portrayed himself as 'shocked by a bad bottle of wine, an impertinent stranger, or a fault in syntax.'
To those Waugh aficionados seeking an authentic guide to the ways in which the writer drew on his experiences to create his fictional world, to those intrigued by the well-publicized Waugh legend, to those who relish graceful writing laced with malice, and to those looking for a remarkable 'inside' view of England's social and literary landscape from the early twenties on, 'The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh' are simply not to be missed.
Michael Davie, who edited the 'Observer' excerpts, provides succinct introductions for the seven time periods into which he has divided the diaries entries, together with a wealth of footnotes identifying personalities mentioned by the author and explaining the sometimes obscure subjects to which Waugh refers.
