by Luca Fumagalli

Evelyn Waugh is among the greatest authors of twentieth-century English literature and he found in Ann Pasternak Slater an exceptional interpreter, capable of analysing his major works with rare insight. She, moreover, is an expert on his life and work, having taught English literature at Oxford for forty years and serving on the Editorial Board of the 42-volume scholarly edition of The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh, published by Oxford University Press. Therefore, her study, simply titled Evelyn Waugh, is a superb piece of work that deserves to be read by anyone who wants to gain a more precise understanding of the dazzling career of a writer too often underestimated or considered simply a humourist.

Waugh’s first novels, Decline and Fall (1928) and Vile Bodies (1930), are social satires depicting the cynical and frivolous behaviour of the post-war high-society generation. Cocktails replace reality, and the characters use frenetic dances as an opportunity to escape an empty life congested by endless but meaningless parties. If in Decline and Fall vice always triumphs over virtue, in Vile Bodies the two terms no longer have any meaning. These works already possess that melancholic note, with a nostalgic aftertaste, typical of the writer, who was himself a key figure in the London nightlife scene of the “Bright Young Things” in the 1920s.

His conversion to Catholicism, which occurred in 1930, initially seemed to have little impact on his literary output. Black Mischief (1932), for example, although set in Africa, continues the caricature of contemporary society without explicitly stating religious faith.

It would be wrong, however, to classify the novels of the period as mere continuations of previous works.

A Handful of Dust (1934), considered by many critics to be Waugh’s best work, despite not containing explicit Catholic themes, displays an unprecedented depth of writing. The protagonist, Tony Last, leads a seemingly idyllic life, at least until he discovers that his wife, Brenda, is having an affair with John Beaver, a shady social climber. The divorce and the realization that he has been deceived by the person he loved most reveal a bitter truth to Tony: the ideal world to which he believed he belonged, based entirely on chivalry and etiquette, simply does not exist. The ending, unique in the writer’s entire output, is terrible and leaves no room for redemption.

Despite its limitations, A Handful of Dust contains many typical elements of the Catholic novel, such as a sense of precariousness and the anxiety of redemption, which would become the cornerstones of the masterpiece Brideshead Reviseted (1945).

Before this, however, Waugh published Scoop (1938) and Put Out More Flags (1942), two books that, in their farcical portrayal of journalism and the dissipated life of young Basil Seal, return to the satirical tones of his early career.

Brideshead Reviseted, unlike much English apologetic literature, does not assault the reader head-on, dazzling them with overt theses, but the truth of religion emerges gradually as the plot unfolds. The naive Charles Ryder narrates the events surrounding the Flyte family, Catholic aristocrats who live in the splendid mansion of Brideshead. The protagonists, initially adrift, drunk and clutching teddy bears to their chests, manage to rediscover themselves thanks to that divine Grace symbolized by the great mansion, a symbol of order and tradition. The decline of the nobility is the first, worrying sign of the looming anarchic modernity that, in the author’s predictions, will spare nothing and no one.

The Loved One (1948), in which Waugh revealed a certain hostility toward American culture, was followed by Helena (1950), the work he loved most. It is a slim book cantered on Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine; in truth, it is not a particularly brilliant novel, but with its frescoes and repeated anachronisms, it manages to convey at least a sense of the universality of the Church of Rome.

Men at Arms (1952), Officers and Gentlemen (1955), and Unconditional Surrender (1961) constitute the war trilogy republished in 1965 under the title Sword of Honour. Drawing on his personal experience during the Second World War, Waugh crafts an extended narrative featuring the Catholic Guy Crouchback, a proud and courageous man whose lofty ideals clash with the misery of a conflict that rewards the cowardly and exalts the selfish. Betrayed and abandoned by all, Crouchback humbly carries the cross of events, tearfully reciting the beads of his rosary. A small consolation comes at the end, when the fruit of sin providentially becomes the seed of new hope.

In almost every book, Waugh thus offers a merciless portrayal of the human race. His vision is conditioned by nostalgia for an ideal past, for a golden age that perhaps never existed. The present, in this sense, is characterized by an evil capable of subverting traditional virtue. But he was also self-deprecating—as demonstrated in The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957), a picaresque story of a depressed Catholic novelist—and his laughter, however bitter at times, mingled with the grotesque and the camp, never gives way to pessimism. The Catholic faith, in fact, is a powerful antidote. One of the reasons the English writer loved the Roman liturgy was precisely the sense of certainty it emanated (hence his visceral hatred for the reforms promoted by the Second Vatican Council).

The promise of happiness that Waugh delivers to the reader, also evidenced in various short stories and essays, is not a matter of human compassion. It is based entirely on the acceptance of religion as the truth that reconciles man with the defeats and pains of life. In the comedy of existence, the role assigned to each is the way through which God guides his creatures. Mystery and redemption, fortunately, are the only two forces that animate the universe and that count for something on the path of destiny.

The book: Ann Pasternak Slater, Evelyn Waugh, Liverpool Univ Press 2018, 325 pages, £18.39

Purchase link: https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9780746312049

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