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253:, in 1928, praised the book as "a great lark; its author has an agreeable sense of comedy and characterisation, and the gift of writing smart and telling conversation, while his drawings are quite in tune with the spirit of the tale". The newspaper also compared the superficial presentation in the novel to that employed by
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running a chain of high-class brothels in Latin
America. She however wants to marry him. First he has to fly to Marseille, where a consignment of her girls bound for Brazil has been held up by the police, who need bribing. Paul's activities there are shadowed by his college friend Potts, who now works for the
235:
Back in London, he is arrested on the morning of the wedding and, taking the fall to protect his fiancée's honour, is sentenced to seven years in prison for traffic in prostitution. In jail he meets several former staff from
Llanabba, which has been closed. Unable to wait seven years, Margot marries
227:
Attracted to the mother of one of his pupils, a wealthy widow called the
Honourable Margot Beste-Chetwynde, he is delighted to be hired by her as tutor to her son during the vacation. Living in her country mansion, he becomes aware of her lovers and drug use but fails to realise that her business is
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Waugh read both Gibbon and
Spengler while writing his first novel. Waugh's satire is unambiguously hostile to much that was in vogue in the late 1920s, and "themes of cultural confusion, moral disorientation and social bedlam ... both drive the novel forward and fuel its humour". This "undertow
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Deciding to resume his interrupted theological studies, Paul grows a heavy moustache and applies under his own name to Scone, saying he is a distant cousin of the dead criminal. The novel ends as it started, with Paul sitting in his room listening to the distant shouts of the
Bollinger Club.
223:
without his trousers. Having thereby defaulted on the conditions of his inheritance, he is forced to take a job teaching at an obscure private school in Wales called
Llanabba, run by Dr Fagan. Paul soon discovers that the other masters are all failures in life.
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called it "delicately constructed and pitch-perfect." Ellen E. Jones remarked on the show's "many enjoyable performances," especially that of Hodge as the "drink-soaked deviant" Captain Grimes, adding, "Give him a spin-off series immediately."
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a government minister, who arranges for Paul to be rushed from prison to a private clinic for an urgent operation. The clinic is run by Dr Fagan, who certifies that Paul died under anaesthetic and puts him on a boat to Greece.
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of moral seriousness provides a crucial tension within , but it does not dominate them". Waugh himself stated in his author's note to the first edition "Please bear in mind throughout that IT IS MEANT TO BE FUNNY".
189:(1918–1922), which first appeared in an English translation in 1926 and which argued, among other things, that the rise of nations and cultures is inevitably followed by their eclipse.
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visited me and brought a copy. He began to read out some favourite passages and was literally unable to read them to the end because he and I were so overcome by laughter."
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as the book he would take to a desert island, calling it "one of the funniest books I've ever read" and "exactly the sort of novel I would like to have written."
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In the text of the 1962 Uniform
Edition of the novel Waugh restored a number of words and phrases which he had been asked to suppress for the first edition.
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as Mr
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that employs the author's characteristic black humour in lampooning various features of
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hailed it as "an uncompromising and brilliantly malicious satire" and the writer
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Jones, Ellen E (31 March 2017). "Twenties school daze for Whitehall".
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called it Waugh's "most perfect novel ... a ruthlessly comic plot."
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David Bradshaw xxv/xxvi introduction 2001 Penguin edition
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The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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It was dramatised again in 2015 by BBC Radio 4, with
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568:"Decline and Fall: Evelyn Waugh's orgy of bad taste"
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David Bradshaw, Introduction p. xviii Penguin 2001,
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720:McKay, Alastair (7 April 2017). "Catch up TV...".
179:The title alludes also to the German philosopher
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312:The novel was dramatised as the 1969 film
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439:. London: Everyman's Library. p. x.
279:recalled, "I was in a nursing home when
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1240:Novels set in the University of Oxford
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646:"Desert Island Discs – David Mitchell"
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556:, Evelyn Waugh Newsletter, Winter 1974
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696:"Meet the cast of Decline and Fall"
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611:Quoted in Martin Stannard(editor),
219:for running through the grounds of
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215:and is subsequently expelled from
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489:The Writings of Evelyn Waugh
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404:as Margot Beste-Chetwynde,
390:three-part TV dramatisation
388:In 2017 the BBC produced a
346:as Margot Beste-Chetwynde,
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958:Unconditional Surrender
435:Kermode, Frank (1993).
408:as Captain Grimes, and
186:The Decline of the West
1235:Novels by Evelyn Waugh
950:Officers and Gentlemen
534:Memoirs of an Aesthete
513:evelynwaughsociety.org
396:as Paul Pennyfeather,
1230:British comedy novels
1199:Aloysius (teddy bear)
290:In a 2009 episode of
1203:Brideshead Revisited
1094:Brideshead Revisited
1054:Brideshead Revisited
1019:The Temple at Thatch
895:Brideshead Revisited
624:Sykes, Christopher.
326:production starring
146:The Temple at Thatch
19:For other uses, see
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1003:A Tourist in Africa
572:The Daily Telegraph
381:as Prendergast and
293:Desert Island Discs
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887:Put Out More Flags
383:Geoffrey Whitehead
244:Critical reception
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871:A Handful of Dust
468:978-0-14-118090-8
361:as Pennyfeather,
330:as Pennyfeather,
277:Christopher Sykes
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1030:Adaptations
979:Other books
942:Men at Arms
855:Vile Bodies
680:3 September
585:3 September
518:3 September
379:James Fleet
373:as Grimes,
365:as Margot,
334:as Grimes,
324:BBC Radio 4
318:, starring
285:Tom Driberg
125:Vile Bodies
56:Illustrator
1219:Categories
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1150:Alec Waugh
1134:(grandson)
1105:(TV, 2017)
1057:(TV, 1981)
786:Faded Page
700:RadioTimes
655:2 November
628:. p. 85.
615:, RKP 1984
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423:References
385:as Fagan.
377:as Peter,
363:Emilia Fox
354:as Peter.
274:journalist
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544:), p. 203
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