Amazon.com Review "All over England people were waking up, queasy and despondent."
Few writers have walked the line between farce and tragedy as nimbly as Evelyn Waugh, who employed the conventions of the comic novel to chip away at the already crumbling English class system. His 1934 novel, A Handful of Dust, is a sublime example of his bleak satirical style: a mordantly funny exposé of aristocratic decadence and ennui in England between the wars.
Tony Last is an aristocrat whose attachment to an ideal feudal past is so profound that he is blind to his wife Brenda's boredom with the stately rhythms of country life. While he earnestly plays the lord of the manor in his ghastly Victorian Gothic pile, she sets herself up in a London flat and pursues an affair with the social-climbing idler John Beaver. In the first half of the novel Waugh fearlessly anatomizes the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. Everyone moves through an endless cycle of parties and country-house weekends, being scrupulously polite in public and utterly horrid in private. Sex is something one does to relieve the boredom, and Brenda's affair provides a welcome subject for conversation:
It had been an autumn of very sparse and meagre romance; only the most obvious people had parted or come together, and Brenda was filling a want long felt by those whose simple, vicarious pleasure it was to discuss the subject in bed over the telephone.
Tony's indifference and Brenda's selfishness give their relationship a sort of equilibrium until tragedy forces them to face facts. The collapse of their relationship accelerates, and in the famous final section of the book Tony seeks solace in a foolhardy search for El Dorado, throwing himself on the mercy of a jungle only slightly more savage than the one he leaves behind in England. For all its biting wit, A Handful of Dust paints a bleak picture of the English upper classes, reaching beyond satire toward a very modern sense of despair. In Waugh's world, culture, breeding, and the trappings of civilization only provide more subtle means of destruction. --Simon Leake
Product Description Evelyn Waugh's 1935 novel is a mordantly funny vision of aristocratic decadence and ennui in England between the wars.
It tells the story of Tony Last, an aristocrat who, to the irritation of his wife, in inordinately obsessed with his Victorian gothic country house and life. Bored with her husband's old-fashioned ways, Lady Brenda begins an affair with an ambitious social climber. Faced with the collapse of his marriage and a sudden family tragedy, Tony is driven to seek solace in a foolhardy search for the fabled El Dorado in the wilds of Brazil, where he finds himself at the mercy of a jungle that is only slightly more savage than the one he left behind in England.
Here is a sublime example of the incomparably brilliant and wicked wit of one of the 20th century's most accomplished novelists.
"A Pocketful of Wry"March 5, 2010 Giordano Bruno(Wherever I am, I am.) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Listen Attentively, Former Colonials!
Yes, it's you I mean, Americans! Certain misconceptions need to be addressed before you are primed to read "A Handful of Dust".
1) "Waugh" is not the sound a laborer makes when he swings a sledge hammer; it's a respectable British surname. Use your browser and investigate "The Waugh family name in history."
2) "Evelyn" is a name borne proudly by many males in the United Kingdom. It's not an automatic provocation of playground dust-ups among public school boys.
3) The characters protrayed in this novel are only moderately exaggerated. All of them would have been recognizable to readers in 1934, the year of this book's publication, and acceptable as dining companions. Such readers might have been perplexed, had they been informed that Mr. Waugh was widely perceived to be satirical.
4) In fact, Evelyn Waugh was a fervent Catholic, a staunch conservative, and a man of retiring habits. Some scoffers have rudely attempted to paint him as a religious troglodyte, a hide-bound reactionary, an overt racist, and an abuser of chemical substances, but even those who disdained his notions relished his stylistic grace. George Orwell declared that Waugh was "about as good a novelist as one can be while holding untenable opinions." One critic declared him "the supreme writer of English prose in the twentieth century, even though so many of the wrong people said so."
5) There is a persistent urban legend that Waugh (1903-1966) was the reincarnation of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). An undeniable similarity of literary manner might make such a supposition plausible, but note that the three-year lapse between Wilde's death and Waugh's birth would be inexplicable under any known rubric of the transmigration of souls. Besides, Oscar Wilde was a man of unpardonable skepticism and scorn for all things sacred.
6) The adulteries portrayed in A Handful of Dust are in no way prurient or titillating. They are referenced in the narrative merely because of Waugh's meticulous concern for and commitment to accurate commemoration of the manners and morays of the British upper classes, whose cultural hegemony seemed in his time perilously threatened by vulgar change.
7) The dashing adventures of Sir Tony Last, the protagonist of A Handful of Dust, in the headwaters of the Amazon River are indeed based on the memoirs of the American President Theodore Roosevelt, but any further resemblance must be discounted. Mr. Roosevelt had a notoriously unpleasant speaking voice - twangy and nasal, after the general manner of his countrymen - and it would have been quite out of keeping for him to have read aloud from the works of Charles Dickens to the satisfaction of even the most barbarous auditor.
With those caveats in mind, I should think that most readers of an intellectual bent will derive not a little satisfaction from the title under review herewith.
A Dark, Satirical MasterpieceFebruary 4, 2010 Bill R. Moore(Oklahoma, USA) A Handful of Dust is the apex of Evelyn Waugh's signature acid satire and, except for those who prefer the broader and more ambitious Brideshead Revisited, his masterpiece. It is one of the all-time greatest satirical novels and one of the twentieth century's best overall. Quite entertaining, it pulls us in quickly and keeps us engrossed until the end. Along the way we get much insightful commentary about class; marriage, the family, and other domestic issues; and even a starkly thought-provoking contrast between modern Western society and the developing world. Waugh's vision was dark, and A Handful of Dust is irredeemably bleak - so much so that American publishers insisted on a new ending. This last has thankfully been relegated to an almost literal footnote, letting Waugh's stunning vision shine - not brightly but, as it were, dimly.
Like much of Waugh, the novel deals primarily with the British upper classes' early twentieth century decline. Waugh saw the storied aristocracy, the backbone of British society and culture since before the Modern era, crumbling around him and dramatized it vividly and memorably. Its passing was the death knell not just of a class but of all it stood for; its tastes in politics, art, religion, and even things as fundamental as speech were being ushered out in favor of the middle class ethos that has since dominated. Waugh was somewhat ambivalent about this, lamenting the demise of what he saw as many positive values but also well aware of the class' weaknesses. It was also obvious to him that the upper classes had sown the seeds of their own destruction and made it inevitable by perverse stubbornness; much as he hated to see them go in some ways, he essentially thought they deserved it.
All this comes across in the novel. Waugh's unadorned style lets the downfall more or less speak for itself; liberals may be offended that his depiction is not celebratory, but he was too aware of the tragic in life not to show this angle. A Handful of Dust is thus a curious mix of "you had it coming" mockery that rubs in the plight at least as harshly as a Marxist would and a sentimental, near-Romantic longing for a fabled institution's passing. The appropriately named Last family leaves little doubt as to why the upper classes perished. Vain, selfish, and parochial, they are close-minded and insular to a fault, refusing to let go of an inherited pride distinctly out of place in the twentieth century. They can almost see destruction rushing toward them, but their almost natural arrogance makes them think they will somehow survive. Living a lifestyle that even they know is outdated, they are practically a walking self-parody. Perhaps more significantly, their private life is in shambles. The broken marriage - indeed, the broken family - at the book's center is a bleak portrait of just how miserable marriage can be when partners are incompatible, especially with class issues thrown in. The book runs us through an emotional gamut ranging from pathos to cynical chuckling, moving us and provoking more than a little thought.
This is all the more remarkable in that, as often with Waugh, there is no conventionally likable character. The young John Last is sympathetic, but his role is so minor that he is really little more than fodder for tragedy and underscoring other characters' despicableness. Patriarch Tony Last is sympathetic because he is more sinned against than sinning, but even he is overflowing with vanity and pride. The other major characters - his wife Brenda, her lover John Beaver, family "friend" Jock Grant-Menzies, and the mysterious Mr. Todd - are far worse, though this is not immediately clear with the last two. This makes Tony seem far more decent, but the depiction of him as so naïve as to be fatally manipulated by those he does not even suspect is more pathetic than sad. His relatively minor faults certainly do not warrant his punishment, far less his tragic end, but his fate comes off more as depicting the generally tragic human condition than a tear-jerking individual downfall.
Sharp as they are, satire and social comedy thus do not keep the book from being extremely dark; A Handful of Ashes, the title Waugh wanted, would have been far more appropriate. The last section is one of the bleakest imaginable - dark enough in itself but far more so if taken symbolically as a contrast between supposedly civilized, all-powerful Western society and the mysteriously foreboding rest of the world. If not exactly fatalistic, there is a strong sense that, however powerful and proud the Western world becomes, it will never overcome the dark forces at human nature's heart as personified by Mr. Todd. The satire is thus in a sense double-edged; if true that Waugh feels for what he mocks, it is even truer that he is unafraid to mock everything. His wit is vicious and should be a warning to all.
There are no real complaints; the novel is very tightly written and readable. Some find the closing section a bit forced, specifically thinking Tony's drastic solution uncharacteristically impulsive. This probably comes from the fact that Waugh adapted it from a prior short story. The transition is not perfectly smooth, but the section is in my view written extremely well and put forth convincingly; Waugh certainly gets his point across at any rate. As for style, Waugh is in my view one of modern fiction's great stylists, his conciseness, straight-forwardness, relative lack of allusion, and general avoidance of Modernist techniques making him stand out in an era when literature became ever less accessible. He may lean toward overly simple for some, but he has the great virtue of clearness that I value highly and that is so sorely lacking in much post-nineteenth century literature. That said, what was concise and clear seventy-plus years ago is not exactly so now. Waugh is formal and, in contrast to much subsequent fiction, especially the popular kind, somewhat stiff. He was not really pretentious but can easily come off as such to those not prepared to take him on his own terms. It should also perhaps be pointed out that Waugh was uber-British; the country's culture and history infuse every aspect of the novel, though the themes are universal. This is of course not a bad thing, but those unfamiliar with British culture and literature - or who dislike it - may be somewhat averse to the novel. My advice to them and all others not immediately taken with the book is to stick with it. It is a satirical masterwork that should be read by all fans of that genre as well as anyone interested in English or twentieth century fiction generally. Readers should not let this dust slip through their hands.
Being a GentlemanMay 23, 2009 Mary E. Sibley(Carneys Point, NJ USA) John Beaver, (the worm in the apple), lives with his mother at Sussex Gardens. He saves a substantial amount by staying there with the four servants and furniture from two large houses. His mother seems to know about everyone.
Tony Last likes his estate, Hetton. It is not in style, half-timber and pewter. Tony and his wife Brenda get on well together. They are shocked to learn that John Beaver is on a train heading for a visit with them at Hetton. As a pledge of hospitality there is champagne.
Brenda refers to her husband Tony as madly feudal. When Brenda Last goes to town, John Beaver is pressed into duty as her escort. Everyone talks.
Christmas at Hetton is charades and other festive traditions. Following Christmas it is arranged that Brenda has a flat in town and is scheduled to take a course in economics.
After a tragedy Tony's world ceases to exist. Like Percy Fawcett his lost time is spent in Brazil exploring. There he is immersed in the works of Charles Dickens in a most peculiar way. Hetton, the estate, rounds out the story.
There is cynicism sprinkled about heavily masking the sheer waste, recklessness, and folly surrounding the characters and their pursuits. The book is also very funny.
Suprise endingNovember 25, 2008 Julie Maitra(Washington, DC) For the uninitiated, Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was a man. Today, he is probably best known for his novel Brideshead Revisited, due to the popularity of a 1981 TV mini series adaptation.
His novel A Handful of Dust is a comedy of manners, even a farce, for the first four chapters. Tony Last is devoted to his estate Hetton, with its Victorian Gothic monstrosity of a mansion. His shallow wife Brenda has an affair with John Beaver, a cash-strapped momma's boy. The cuckolded Tony becomes aware of the affair only after the death of their son in a riding accident, when he receives a message from Brenda that she's going to marry Beaver.
The main conflict is between Tony and his devotion to Hetton (three of the chapters are title English Gothic) on one hand and Brenda on the other. Aside from being Brenda's paramour, Beaver's role is incidental.
Brenda makes demands in their divorce case that would compel Tony to sell Hetton. Tony will not acquiesce to her demands, and goes on an expedition to Brazil. He tells Brenda's brother that, upon his return to England, he will divorce Brenda without settlements.
A Handful of Dust takes a dramatic turn beginning with Chapter 5, In Search of a City, when Tony leaves England for Brazil. The pace picks up rapidly, and there is menace and doom as Tony makes his way through the jungles of Brazil with his traveling companion Dr. Messinger. The novel ends with startling turns in the fates of Brenda, Tony, and his beloved Hetton.
A Handful of Dust was slow going and didn't engage me until Chapter 5. There were times I put it aside. I'm glad that I held on to read the surprising ending.
Brideshead Pre-VisitedAugust 27, 2008 bub hub Precursor to Brideshead Revisited. Lacks the spiritual depth of Brideshead, but is a wickedly funny satire of the fall of the post Victorian English society of the idle rich. Lady Brenda Last is based upon Waugh's ex-wife, Evelyn ("She Evelyn" as their friends referred to her) and is one of the coldest characters in twentieth century fiction.
A Handful of Dust has a completely different feel to it than Waugh's other satires like Scoop, Vile Bodies, and Decline and Fall. The characters in A Handful of Dust are the cardboard cut outs that inhabit the other satires.
Neither ending is satisfying, but do provide an interesting look into Waugh's craft.
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