321. Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall
Evelyn Waugh
1928
Around 300 pages

And we are back to fussy Englishmen. I like this one okay; he's a memorable quote machine. If only he had lived in the Twitter era. As droll (and that's the only word for it) as Evelyn Waugh can be, his writing leaves me a little wanting.

Paul Pennyfeather (yes, he's a fop) is one of those bumbling characters who stumbles through a story and doesn't incite much action by himself. Things happen to him. I prefer when the protagonist is driving the narrative, but oh well. He gets caught up in a wacky human trafficking scandal. 

It's amusing, but to me Waugh never reached the comic heights of people like Dorothy Parker, Douglas Adams, P.G. Wodehouse. I like that he is commenting on the absurdity of the world he lives in. Oxford is a weird place.

I also don't think he writes women well, but that's a topic for the Brideshead Revisited post.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Waugh's first published novel. He had a previous manuscript that he destroyed and was basically suicidal over the criticism it received from his friend. Girl, I get it.

Dedicated to Harold Acton, a member of the Bright Young Things.

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