Comments on: Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited

By: Evelyn Waugh’s The Loved One « The Mookse and the Gripes

Evelyn Waugh’s The Loved One « The Mookse and the Gripes — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:23:49 +0000

[...] The Loved One Posted by Trevor Berrett under Waugh Evelyn I only recently read Brideshead Revisited, my first encounter with Evelyn Waugh’s work. That book displayed an impressive amount of [...]

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:05:46 +0000

Rob: According to William Best’s introduction in my Everyman’s Library edition, the book was serialized in a magazine (not named) in the U.S. and Waugh could not use the Dickens ending because the short story had been published in another magazine. This ending is quite short (seven pages) — Tony’s gone on a tourist trip to South America after agreeing to the divorce, returns to find Brenda (and her trunks) at the dock in Southhampton. They return to Hatton. A few months later, Brenda, saying she no longer uses the flat, sends him up to London to sublet it. He doesn’t — and there is an implication he will now be using it for affairs of his own (as Best points out, thus making him as responsible for his miserable fate — as opposed to being a victim — as she is). Like Max and I, Best prefers this ending — and Waugh did include it as an appendix in his 1963 edition. If you can find the Everyman’s Library edition, it has the alternate ending in it — and it can be read quickly enough in the bookshop that you don’t have to buy the whole book again.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:07:55 +0000

I’d forgotted that there are two endings to A Handful of Dust. The ‘Dickens’ ending is the original, although it was apparently a short story that he grafted into place. He then had to write a new ending for the American market, either to make it more upbeat, or because the short story he used had already been published there. I don’t think I’ve read the US ending, so I always think of Handful of Dust ending with the Dickens story.

(Above information courtesy of a quick Google search, so by all means correct it…)

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:12:55 +0000

Like Max, I prefer the alternate ending to A Handful of Dust — and we will never know if Waugh meant that to be the real ending. I do think his strength as a writer is reflected in the different selection of favorites in these comments — he had a very perceptive eye (any writer who comments both on the English aristocracy and Hollywood development is setting a high bar) and, for the most part, he delivered well.

By: Trevor Berrett

Trevor Berrett — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:58:33 +0000

I haven’t got A Handful of Dust yet, but I’m anxious to see how it plays with me. I think your comment might help me go into it with some healthy lower expectations.

About drowning in honey – I didn’t remember it off the top of my head, but it sure is there:

The fortnight in Venice passed quickly and sweetly; I was drowning in honey, stingless.

Waugh then had Ryder describe some of their activities, making ties to Byron. I definitely think that the way Waugh describes this lethargic summer, the type of summer that is really only available in youth.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:47:56 +0000

I tend to see Brideshead as a eulogy for the English aristocracy, who Waugh saw as essentially doomed.

Of course, it turned out they weren’t, so it’s a eulogy for a group that are still with us much as they were when he wrote it.

I enjoyed it, but not as much as Sword of Honour or A Handful of Dust (though I vastly prefer the generally little liked alternate ending to Handful, I thought the original ending trite more than anything else). I wouldn’t go as far as John does, but it definitely wasn’t my favourite Waugh.

Doesn’t Brideshead have a wonderful line about drowning in honey? I seem to recall it is tremendous at capturing a certain sort of Summer, a little like the Whit Stillman movie Metropolitan.

By: Trevor Berrett

Trevor Berrett — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:30:27 +0000

That's good news for me. I just bought the Everyman's Library edition that includes Black Mischief, Scoop, The Loved One, and The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold. I also have A Handful of Dust on the way, John, so I'll see if I side with you or Kevin and Rob. Looks like I've got some pleasant time in front of me!

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:18:59 +0000

It is worth reading again. And I suspect you can find a Mars bar to chomp away on while you read it.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 21:29:57 +0000

Scoop! I haven’t read that for years. I think my old copy was a wartime Penguin, with adverts in the back, including one for Mars bars that apologised for wartime shortages of their product, and finished: “So here’s to a quick victory… and plenty of Mars for everybody!”

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:57:50 +0000

Rob: And then of course there is Scoop. Always topical.