Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Life (Literary Lives) [Hardcover]

David Wykes (Author)

Book Description

Series: Literary Lives | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Waugh's life and his literary life exist in fascinating, dynamic relationship. Virtually all of his fiction was autobiographical, yet he maintained that his novels were "objects," unrelated to the life of their author. This study traces the shifting relationship of ascertainable fact and imaginative fiction throughout Waugh's career, focusing on the endless negotiation he conducted between life and art, and on why, from being author of the anarchic, hilarious Decline and Hell, he transformed himself into the author of the romantic, eschatological Brideshead Revisited.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Evelyn Waugh "was not very good at invention," asserts David Wykes, "but he was unsurpassed at embroidery." For readers interested in learning how Waugh's life shaped his writing, Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Life is a handy short reference. Wykes's focus on the relationship between biographical events and literary output means that Evelyn Waugh is not, strictly speaking, a biography (and Wykes is the first to recommend the preexisting biographies, especially the two-volume life by Martin Stannard); rather, it is a work of literary criticism--and, for that matter, one in which Wykes has quite firm opinions about which of Waugh's books stand the test of time. Still, there is the occasional fun biographical fact to be gleaned, such as the story of how, determined to revenge himself upon Americans, who loved Brideshead Revisited for what he considered all the wrong reasons, Waugh finagled a free trip to Los Angeles out of a film studio. Visiting Forest Lawn Cemetery, he developed the idea for a brutally scathing satire, The Loved One ... in love with which American readers promptly fell. (Note: some of the stories that Wykes described as having never been republished are, in fact, included in the 1999 anthology The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh.)

From Library Journal

In his portrait of Evelyn Waugh (1903-66), Wykes (literature, Dartmouth Coll.) strikes a balance between chronicling his subject's life and examining his work. Wykes traces Waugh's emotional and creative life from birthAhe was the second son of well-known publisher and critic Arthur Waugh (a "literary businessman")Athrough adulthood. The elder Waugh made no secret of the fact that his firstborn son Alec (also a novelist) was his favorite. This early rejection, Wykes argues, helped cultivate the cynicism and dark humor that were so much a part of young Evelyn's Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934). Waugh attended Oxford, worked as a teacher and journalist, and married twice. In 1930, in perhaps the most pivotal move in his life, he converted to Roman Catholicism. This conversion, Waugh believed, helped impose an "eternal order" on the "frantic aimlessness" of his life and his workAespecially his "eschatological" masterpiece Brideshead Revisited (1945). A concise, readable piece of Waugh scholarship that deserves a place in all library collections; highly recommended. [The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh was published in September by Little, Brown, ISBN 0-316-92546-2, $24.95.AEd.]ADiane Gardner Premo, Rochester P.L., N.
-ADiane Gardner Premo, Rochester P.L., NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 238 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312225083
• ISBN-13: 978-0312225087
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,959,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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