In 1946 Evelyn Waugh declared that 20th-century society – ‘the century of the common man’, as he put it – was so degenerate that satire was no longer possible. But before reaching that conclusion he had written several novels taking aim at his ‘crazy, sterile generation’ with a sparkling, acerbic and increasingly reactionary wit. In this episode, Colin and Clare look at A Handful of Dust (1934), a disturbingly modernist satire divorced from modernist ideas. They discuss the ways in which Waugh was a disciple of Oscar Wilde, with his belief in the artist as an agent of cultural change, and why he’s at his best when describing the fevered dream of a dying civilisation.
Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/4dbjbjG
In other podcast apps: lrb.me/closereadings
Further reading in the LRB:
Seamus Perry:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n16/seamus-perry/isn-t-london-hell
John Bayley:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n20/john-bayley/mr-toad
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
