The second and final installment of Stannard's monumental,
definitive biography (Evelyn Waugh, 1987) of one of the 20th
century's most accomplished - and, apparently, misanthropic -
writers. Stannard (English/Univ. of Leicester) incorporates
hundreds of previously unpublished documents and unreported
interviews in picking up Waugh's tale on the eve of WW II. Britain
plunges into the war, and Waugh wangles his way into one of the
elite (i.e., aristocrat-led) military units. Thus, army life did
nothing to temper Waugh's all-pervasive hauteur. His military
career, however, was little short of disastrous, as the writer -
surly, snobbish, and almost perpetually soused - was deemed unfit
to command a regiment, a fact that rankled and eventually
embittered him. With war's end, Waugh's moat subtly wrought novel,
Brideshead Revisited, was published to widespread acclaim both in
Britain and the US. Royalties poured in, and the author was
launched on a spendthrift's path to penury. The Loved One, a satire
of America's bizarre funerary fashions, proved an even greater
success in 1948, and soon Waugh was moving in exalted circles. His
fellow-Catholic author Graham Greene was an intimate; Thomas Merton
confided in him; Ian Fleming's wife, Ann, according to Stannard no
slouch herself at backbiting, kept Waugh supplied with vicious
gossip. An especially engrossing section here deals with Waugh's
bout with psychosis, during which he heard voices accusing him of
worthlessness and perversity. Stannard's depiction of his subject's
unconventional home life is equally revealing. A no-holds-barred
yet ultimately moving portrait of a major literary talent. (Kirkus
Reviews)
The "Collected Critical Heritage II" comprises 40 volumes covering
19th and 20th century European and American authors. These volumes
will be available as a complete set, mini boxes sets (by theme) or
as individual volumes. This second set compliments the first 68
volume set of "Critical Heritage" published by Routledge in October
1995. The Critical Heritage series gathers together a large body of
critical figures in literature. These selected sources include
contemporary reviews from both popular and literary media. This
volume covers English novelist Evelyn Waugh.
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