Evelyn Waugh: Two Complete Novels

Evelyn Waugh s father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note In fact, his book The Loom of Youth 1917 a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College He said of his time there, the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers it was all we were taught, really He went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he read History When asked if he took up any sports there he quipped, I drank for Hertford In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree After inglorious stints as a school teacher he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and or inebriation , an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, Decline and Fall in 1928 In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930 Waugh would derive parts of A Handful of Dust from this unhappy time His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another From this decade come Vile Bodies 1930 , Black Mischief 1932 , the incomparable A Handful of Dust 1934 and Scoop 1938 After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, Brideshead Revisited, in which his Catholicism took centre stage The Loved One a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947 After publishing his Sword of Honour Trilogy about his experiences in World War II Men at Arms 1952 , Officers and Gentlemen 1955 , Unconditional Surrender 1961 his career was seen to be on the wane In fact, Basil Seal Rides Again 1963 his last published novel received little critical or commercial attention Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.See enpedia wiki Evelyn_W