Product Description
It is with Evelyn Waugh the man as she knew him that Frances Donaldson is principally concerned.His own autobiography covered the first 25 years of his life.This perceptive, affectionate and often vividly illuminating study starts in 1948 and describes their various meetings until his death in 1966.Frances Donaldson describes the writer as family man, friend, host and country neighbour.The man who emerges from these pages and from the photographs which accompany them will amaze and delight those who admired his work but did not know him personally. ... Read more

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For the last decade of his life, Evelyn Waugh experienced the changes being made to the Church's liturgy to be nothing short of "a bitter trial." In Cardinal Heenan he found a sympathetic pastor and a kindred spirit. This volume makes available the previously unpublished correspondence between these prominent Catholics, revealing in both an incisive disquiet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mainly for Waugh fans
Although written with the unmistakable Waugh polished style, this book is mostly composed of previously published material in the various author's correspondence compilations (The Letters of E. W., The Diaries of E. W.,etc).

The reason behind the set of letters compiled for this bookcontributes for the prevailing gloomy mood: by the end of his life Waugh, afervent Catholic and declared conservative, was struggling to his lastbreath to prevent the implementation of the modifications proposed to therites of the Catholic Church after the 2nd Vatican Counsel. It is manifestthroughout the book that Waugh was aware that his was destined to be a lostbattle but that hasn't deterred him to keep on fighting to defend what heconsidered to be of the best interest for the Catholiccommunity.

Nevertheless, as in all of his writings, the reader willalways be met by pearls of wit whose refreshing effect is much enhanced bythe unexpectedness of their appearance amidst the melancholic spirit of thebook. By that alone, the book is worth reading.

Compulsory volume forWaugh fans. ... Read more

Product Description
Myers borrows George Bataille's concept of evil as a convenient way of dealing with the sadism, childish irresponsibility and fascination with lunacy and death found in Evelyn Waugh's work. The author argues that the engagement with the problem of evil in this special sense, illuminates his treatment of the problem - the Christian God's tolerance of the wretchedness of so much of the human condition. Waugh is seen not just as a Catholic moralist, but as a Catholic visionary. ... Read more

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Tells the story, via the letters they wrote to each other, of the relationship between Evelyn Waugh, author of "Brideshead Revisited", and Lady Diana Cooper, actress and hostess. The two endearments of Mr Wu and Mrs Stitch were used in the correspondence for over 30 years. His letters were originally thought to be lost until 20 years after his death in 1966 they surfaced in somewhat mysterious circumstances. When the correspondence opens he was 20 and she was not quite 40. He was restless and impatient. She was a daughter of the eight Duke of Rutland, an actress who married a rising politician, Duff Cooper. The editor of these letters is the granddaughter of Lady Diana Cooper and she argues that the correspondents demanded the best from each other and that neither were afraid of expressing their opinions and feelings. Other books by this writer include "Cairo in the War, 1939-45", "The Diana Cooper Scrapbook" and "A Durable Fire: The Letters of Duff and Diana Cooper". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Waugh's "A Little Learning"
Literary autobiographies can be a problematic genre. I for one find Nabokov's evasiveness in "Speak, Memory" to be aggravatingly coy. Though an avid reader of Waugh's fiction, I was concerned that "A Little Learning" might prove similarly opaque in tone. I was pleased to see that it is a remarkably straightforward text. Though it will not provide any revelations to readers of any biography of the author, "A Little Learning" impressed me with its apparent honesty, frequent self-deprecation, and, perhaps most surprising, its occasional warmth. The last is not an emotion one typically associates with Waugh.

The opening line establishes the bemused tone of the book: "Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography." It is of course unfortunate that Waugh died at the absurdly young age of 63 before producing any further books in what was intended to be a multi-volume autobiography.

As it is, "A Little Learning" takes us through Waugh's early youth and education, concluding during his ignominious experience as a teacher in an obscure boarding school. There, despite his displeasure with the job and seeming bleak prospects in life, Waugh showed the early stirrings of the literary efforts which would eventually make his name.

The concluding episode is the well-known incident in which Waugh attempted to commit suicide (or so he says) by swimming out to sea, only to change his mind after being stung by a jellyfish. This incident was, by the way, also used as a plot element in Anthony Powell's "Afternoon Men." ... Read more