Sunday, July 15, 2007

Evelyn Waugh

...most critics regard Helena as one of Waugh’s minor works. On the contrary, it’s both an interesting experiment in literary postmodernism or metafiction and a devastating critique of gnosticism. --George Weigel, What to Give a 'First Things' Reader, First Things, December 2008


On the recommended works by this author:

In Brideshead Revisited, Rex Mottram is determined to become a Catholic--for reasons that have nothing to do with faith. Actually Rex has no interest whatsoever in questions of faith, and consequently he is quite happy to profess whatever beliefs are required of him. --Diogenes, Rex Mottram, model for the Catholic laity, Off the Record, Posted Mar. 6, 2009 3:27 PM

Animal Farm and Brideshead Revisited, published in the same year of 1945, might seem worlds apart, and yet both are biting parables of disenchantment. --Eric Ormsby, Against the Day, The New York Sun, July 30, 2008, review of The Same Man: George Orwell & Evelyn Waugh in Love and War, by David Lebedoff

Unlike Charles’ [Charles Ryder's] upbringing, which tried to reduce the complexity of existence to a logical equation, the Flytes are guided by a faith that makes claims on their every thought, word and deed. --David Luhrssen, Brideshead is back: Revisiting a Classic, review of Brideshead Revisted (2008), Milwaukee Shepherd Express, Wednesday, July 30, 2008

But do not, when attempting any course of reading aimed at appreciating Waugh's wit, give undue attention to Brideshead Revisited, a misfit of a book, much loved, and often loved in the wrong way, as the vomitous stupidity of Miramax's new film adaptation attests.--Troy Patterson, Brideshead Revisited Revisited: How to watch Evelyn Waugh, Slate. Posted Friday, July 25, 2008, at 3:08 PM ET.

A Companion to Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, British Edition, by David Cliffe


On this author:

Although Waugh despaired about the future, he saw the Catholic Church as an enduring bulwark against chaos. His moral order was backed by divine authority. Orwell too was a passionate believer in objective truth, including moral truth. But unlike Waugh, Orwell did not attribute transcendent power to the truth; indeed, he feared that it might ultimately prove impotent in history. --Jim Holt, Two of a Kind, The New York Times, August 29, 2008, review of The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War, by David Lebedoff

Waugh Stories by Joan Acocella, review of Fathers and Sons by Alexander Waugh, The New Yorker, July 2, 2007
(via Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor)

Why I love Evelyn Waugh, Posted by Pertinacious Papist at 10:28 AM March 4, 2007

Fathers, sons, feuds and myths, interview by Sam Leith of Alexander Waugh, Daily Telegraph, January 9, 2004

Waugh: What is he good for? Absolutely everything, by Brian Mortan, The Scotsman, October 28, 2003

Oh what a lovely Waugh, by Owen Richardson, The Age, October 26, 2003

Evelyn Waugh topples charlatans from their pedestals, by Gerald Warner, The Scotsman, October 26, 2003

The spoils of Waugh: on the essence of Evelyn Waugh, the anniversary of whose birth falls next week, by W.F. Deedes, The Spectator, October 25, 2003

Literary Scamp Evelyn Waugh by Arthur Jones, Notre Dame Magazine, Autumn 2003

Evelyn Waugh, Reconsidered, by Judith Shulevitz and Christopher Caldwell, Salon, August 5, 2003

Behind the pose: A hundred years after the birth of Evelyn Waugh, we need to get beyond his elaborate persona and focus on the fiction, by William Boyd, The Telegraph, May 10, 2003

Evelyn Waugh: Author Evelyn Waugh served honorably in the British Army as an SAS Commando, by Paul S. Burdett, Jr., World War II Magazine, May 1999, at About.com

Waugh Revisited, by Kenneth R. Craycraft Jr., First Things, June/July 1998

St. Evelyn Waugh, by George Weigel, First Things, May 1993

Evelyn Waugh, by Joseph Pearce, Lay Witness magazine

Doubting Hall: A guided tour around the works of Evelyn Waugh, by John Porter

An Evelyn Waugh Website, by David Cliffe

Evelyn Waugh by Petri Liukkonen, Authors' Calendar


On other works by this author:

Orwell had fought in the Spanish civil war; his disillusion with that cause is chronicled in “Homage to Catalonia”. Waugh was part of an ill-fated military mission to the cynical, wily Communist partisans in Yugoslavia. His disillusion is told in his masterpiece, the “Sword of Honour” trilogy... .--The Economist, Fighting against the future, August 21, 2008, review of The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War, by David Lebedoff

When the Going Was Bad, review by David B. Hart of Waugh Abroad: Collected Travel Writing, by Evelyn Waugh, First Things, May 2004

Reading Africa in Waugh: What Evelyn Waugh can tell us about contemporary Africa, by James Panero, The New Criterion, Summer 2003

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