Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Life (Literary Lives) Book

Evelyn Waugh "was not very good at invention," asserts David Wykes, "but he was unsurpassed at embroidery." For readers interested in learning how Waugh's life shaped his writing, Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Life is a handy short reference. Wykes's focus on the relationship between biographical events and literary output means that Evelyn Waugh is not, strictly speaking, a biography (and Wykes is the first to recommend the preexisting biographies, especially the two-volume life by Martin Stannard); rather, it is a work of literary criticism--and, for that matter, one in which Wykes has quite firm opinions about which of Waugh's books stand the test of time. Still, there is the occasional fun biographical fact to be gleaned, such as the story of how, determined to revenge himself upon Americans, who loved Brideshead Revisited for what he considered all the wrong reasons, Waugh finagled a free trip to Los Angeles out of a film studio. Visiting Forest Lawn Cemetery, he developed the idea for a brutally scathing satire, The Loved One ... in love with which American readers promptly fell. (Note: some of the stories that Wykes described as having never been republished are, in fact, included in the 1999 anthology The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh.)Read More