Evelyn Waugh's second novel, VILE BODIES, is his tribute to London's smart set. It introduces us to society as it used to be but that now is gone f...
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Nov 05, 2011
Shovelmonkey1
rated it: 
"Ooooh what's that shiny thing, it's hurting my eyes."
"Sorry, that'd be me, I'm a bright young thing. Avert your eyes lest they be burned from their sockets."
"Wow, so what is a bright young thing then? Forgive my ignorance but I'm just not that cultured."
"Don't worry, its an easy premise to grasp - here, let me explain... we bright young things are an erudite group of social laaah-de-dahs who favour a bohemian life style. We like t More...
"Sorry, that'd be me, I'm a bright young thing. Avert your eyes lest they be burned from their sockets."
"Wow, so what is a bright young thing then? Forgive my ignorance but I'm just not that cultured."
"Don't worry, its an easy premise to grasp - here, let me explain... we bright young things are an erudite group of social laaah-de-dahs who favour a bohemian life style. We like t More...
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Aug 15, 2010
Evan
rated it: 
Up til now I was 0-2 with Waugh, which might elicit a "Waugh is me," which, alas, it just did...
"The Loved One," his famous satire of the death business in the USA mildly amused me in high school. I found it at least more interesting than "Scoop," a look at the news biz that I barely remember anything about at all other than the lingering memory of being bitterly disappointed by it.
"Vile Bodies" is often said to be his masterpiece, More...
"The Loved One," his famous satire of the death business in the USA mildly amused me in high school. I found it at least more interesting than "Scoop," a look at the news biz that I barely remember anything about at all other than the lingering memory of being bitterly disappointed by it.
"Vile Bodies" is often said to be his masterpiece, More...
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Mar 22, 2011
Nicole
rated it: 
I often wonder about book blurbs, because really how many times can you describe a book with the words funny and hilarious and have the book actually be funny and hilarious. My edition of this book has a blurb by the New York Time's that says "It may shock you, but it will make you laugh". Well New York Times, let's see the tally shall we: times I was shocked by this book = zero; times I laughed = maybe two and a half, but it wasn't a hearty laugh, it was more of a sarcastic "Ha
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Mar 30, 2008
Kristopher
rated it:
Vile Bodies is no Brideshead Revisited, but then, if you read my (much) earlier post on Brideshead, you'll know that even Brideshead itself didn't quite live up to it's own first 100 pages for me. What I'd really like to do is just read the beginnings of Evelyn Waugh novels from now on. From the first pages of Vile Bodies I was filled with the delicious anticipation of forthcoming satirical wit, but just as I experienced with Brideshead, Handful of Ashes, and even Decline and Fall, the rest of t
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Apr 03, 2010
Elliott
rated it:
Instead of writing an original review of "Vile Bodies," I'm honoring the time-tested, market-approved hip-hop methodology of sampling by cribbing choice bits from someone else's review (thank you Evan Gilling for being articulate where I was not) and reproducing them here in a whimsically context-free yet strangely coherent way. If recent musical trends are any indication, this should be fun and profitable.
"I find it equal parts infuriating and engaging..." " More...
"I find it equal parts infuriating and engaging..." " More...
Jan 11, 2008
Chris
rated it:
I finally get to post something.
Took a long time to get through this book, and I'm still not entirely sure why. Part of it, I believe, is me, not Mr. Waugh. A good book really is the right match between the author's words and the reader's willingness to succumb to it, and I haven't been lately.
But the end of this lighthearted farce came with a little more of a bittersweet ending than I expected. It takes a look at a decadent class of people as they flitter through situati More...
Took a long time to get through this book, and I'm still not entirely sure why. Part of it, I believe, is me, not Mr. Waugh. A good book really is the right match between the author's words and the reader's willingness to succumb to it, and I haven't been lately.
But the end of this lighthearted farce came with a little more of a bittersweet ending than I expected. It takes a look at a decadent class of people as they flitter through situati More...
May 03, 2011
Katie
rated it:
First impression? Hilarious. Total spot-on satire of 1930s, pseudo/wannabe posh society in Britain - and I can say that with such confidence because I was there and all. Well, no, not quite, not by about 53 years and an ocean, but I do live in New York, where desperate social climbers - the "see and be seen-ers" - and tacky people with a bit of money proliferate against my wishes.
The difference is that somewhere along the road, we stopped satirizing these people and took t More...
The difference is that somewhere along the road, we stopped satirizing these people and took t More...
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Apr 07, 2011
Scott
rated it:
"Who's that awful looking woman?"
"She's no one. Mrs. Panrast she's called now."
"She seems to know you."
"Yes. I've known her all my life. As a matter of fact, she's my mother."
"My dear, how too shaming."
If you've got a taste for Ronald Firbank's prose and you enjoy seeing Thomas Hardy getting skewered, I think you'll gleefully sink your teeth into Waugh's Vile Bodies (1930). The book's a nice slab of satir More...
"She's no one. Mrs. Panrast she's called now."
"She seems to know you."
"Yes. I've known her all my life. As a matter of fact, she's my mother."
"My dear, how too shaming."
If you've got a taste for Ronald Firbank's prose and you enjoy seeing Thomas Hardy getting skewered, I think you'll gleefully sink your teeth into Waugh's Vile Bodies (1930). The book's a nice slab of satir More...
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May 09, 2010
ElSeven
rated it:
I really wish I could rate by half stars too. This is really a Three-and-a-half star book.
I enjoyed this. It was fairly typical of pre-war Waugh. It's light, breezy, wonderfully written, and takes itself about as seriously as its characters take themselves. What it felt like, really, was a Wodehouse novel with a mean streak.
Much of Waugh's social critique could be leveled at today's society as well. His characters seemed, for all their dated speech and clothing, to be pe More...
I enjoyed this. It was fairly typical of pre-war Waugh. It's light, breezy, wonderfully written, and takes itself about as seriously as its characters take themselves. What it felt like, really, was a Wodehouse novel with a mean streak.
Much of Waugh's social critique could be leveled at today's society as well. His characters seemed, for all their dated speech and clothing, to be pe More...
Dec 03, 2009
Jennifer (JC-S)
rated it:
‘All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I’d sooner go to my dentist any day.’
Adam Fenwick-Symes is an unheroic hero. Adam’s engagement to Nina Blount is called off when the manuscript of his book is burned by a customs official. Adam’s livelihood depends on this manuscript and the customs official’s ‘livelihood depends on stopping works like this coming into the country.’ Alas, poor Adam. On the periphery of the Bright Young Things, in that hectic period bet More...
Adam Fenwick-Symes is an unheroic hero. Adam’s engagement to Nina Blount is called off when the manuscript of his book is burned by a customs official. Adam’s livelihood depends on this manuscript and the customs official’s ‘livelihood depends on stopping works like this coming into the country.’ Alas, poor Adam. On the periphery of the Bright Young Things, in that hectic period bet More...
Jul 16, 2009
Trena
rated it:
I don't know that this "classic" has stood the test of time so well as true classics. I am sure it was hysterically funny at the time it was written, but it got only a single snicker from me (though several inward smiles). When I compare to much older books that are still hilarious (Henry Fielding comes to mind), it falls a bit flat.
But it is still a solid three star read. The Absurdism is absurd, the adventures madcap, the names clever, and the love story thread quite amu More...
But it is still a solid three star read. The Absurdism is absurd, the adventures madcap, the names clever, and the love story thread quite amu More...
Jan 02, 2008
Sara
rated it:
What is this book even about? It seemed like a best-of British one-liners from the interwar era. After putting down the book in a kind of daze, we happened to pick up Bright Young Things on TiVO. I wondered what they could possibly put in a film. But it was line-by-line accurate, and to my surprise, beautiful, evocative, and sort of touching. Not only was it better as a film, but my post-partum brain actually needed the film to show me what was in the book. "How shaming."
Jan 04, 2012
Melanie
rated it: 
I recommended this book to two friends to read for discussion during a girls' weekend. When I started it, I thought, Uh oh! What have I gotten us into? But I kept reading and was glad I did.
This book is an incredibly evocative look at the upper classes in England during the time just before the Second World War. The ennui and dissolution of an entire generation of a certain class is dissected and satirized. Waugh injects some bizarre elements, but no more so than can be found in m More...
This book is an incredibly evocative look at the upper classes in England during the time just before the Second World War. The ennui and dissolution of an entire generation of a certain class is dissected and satirized. Waugh injects some bizarre elements, but no more so than can be found in m More...
Jul 21, 2011
David
rated it:
Having read, and loved, Brideshead Revisited, I decided to read one of Waugh's earlier novels, namely Vile Bodies. Set in the 1920's amongst the so-called 'Bright Young Things' the book follows various characters as they flit about London society with seemingly not a care in the world for anyone but themselves. The opening of the book can seem quite off putting with it's short staccato paragraphs and odd collection of names as they travel back to England from the continent aboard a boat caught i
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Jun 04, 2010
Dana
rated it:
A friend of mine read this and told me that it was very funny - so I came to it with some hefty expectations. It wasn't laugh out loud funny for me (which was a little disappointing) but definitely had me smirking on the inside at various points.
Like a few others here - I found that the book snuck up on me and although feeling a little lost with all the characters at first I was strangely hooked by about page 100.
I think this is a book I will appreciate much more on a se More...
Like a few others here - I found that the book snuck up on me and although feeling a little lost with all the characters at first I was strangely hooked by about page 100.
I think this is a book I will appreciate much more on a se More...
Aug 01, 2011
Deeply satirical, 'Vile Bodies' epitomises the Bright Young Things of the 1920s, the rich, privileged young men and women who live their hedonistic lives to excess.
Adam and Nina are in love, but there is a problem. Adam has no money to speak of and therefore can’t settle on Nina. Throughout the course of the novel, this story weaves and twists and Adam finds riches and loses them again… a number of times! However, the story is about so much more than Adam and Nina’s relationship.
My favourit More...
Adam and Nina are in love, but there is a problem. Adam has no money to speak of and therefore can’t settle on Nina. Throughout the course of the novel, this story weaves and twists and Adam finds riches and loses them again… a number of times! However, the story is about so much more than Adam and Nina’s relationship.
My favourit More...
Jan 02, 2010
Paula
rated it:
I seem to have a habit of reading books that I don't much enjoy on January 1. Last year it was Lord of the Flies which left such a bad taste in my mouth I still remember the depth of my dislike.
At least Vile Bodies wasn't too terribly bad, for my taste, it was more that it was a style of writing to which I am not much accustomed. Waugh seemed to jump right into a scene in life with a mash of characters, and never stepped back to set the stage in a way that I normally like. It was no More...
At least Vile Bodies wasn't too terribly bad, for my taste, it was more that it was a style of writing to which I am not much accustomed. Waugh seemed to jump right into a scene in life with a mash of characters, and never stepped back to set the stage in a way that I normally like. It was no More...
Nov 09, 2010
Claire
rated it:
The dialog is probably the best thing about the book, it sparkles and makes you laugh out loud, as do the names of the characters which paint wonderfully visual pictures ... Lady Circumference, Miss Runcible, and Mr Throbbing for example. If you fancy a quick read that immerses you in the tumultuous world of fading aristocracy, bright social lights, louche moral characters and all in a terribly, terribly English accent, you will enjoy this book.
Here's an extract that sums up the More...
Here's an extract that sums up the More...
Jan 09, 2012
Tfitoby
rated it:
I very much enjoyed this classic from Waugh. I've only been waiting over a year to read it after letting someone borrow it (and they didn't even read it!) and promptly devoured it upon it's return.
Of course I very much enjoyed Stephen Fry's movie version and Scoop gave a hint of the playful nature of Waugh's writing style but there's really no comparison when it comes to reading about Adam and Nina and Agatha and Miles and Lottie and The Major and Colonel Blount and all these fun littl More...
Of course I very much enjoyed Stephen Fry's movie version and Scoop gave a hint of the playful nature of Waugh's writing style but there's really no comparison when it comes to reading about Adam and Nina and Agatha and Miles and Lottie and The Major and Colonel Blount and all these fun littl More...
Sep 14, 2007
Julie
rated it:
As my Waugh-coach John observed, this book speaks truths as apropos now as they were between the two World Wars. I think that high-waisted jeans may be the "black suede shoes" of today. As for "green bowler hats", may I suggest, well, green bowler hats? Kate Moss is a fan, I hear. Waugh is such fun because his snark is surreal, not ironic, though I didn't really get the Ms. Melrose Ape storyline.
Sep 09, 2008
Michel
rated it:
Waugh is as cruel and observant as Agatha Christie, but his characters are hollow: they are what they do.
Quite probably an accurate portrait of high society in the twenties, amoralized by the great war, gutted of compassion and weary of human interaction.
I enjoyed the book and had a few laughs, but the dispassionate humor leaves an ashy, cynical aftertaste.
Quite probably an accurate portrait of high society in the twenties, amoralized by the great war, gutted of compassion and weary of human interaction.
I enjoyed the book and had a few laughs, but the dispassionate humor leaves an ashy, cynical aftertaste.
Jul 13, 2008
Zepp
rated it:
Edgeless sandy satire- laughing fires punctuate an otherwise unfancied landscape.
But it does include my new favorite expression, which is Ginger up! and I don't know what it means but it works in just about any mood room smile situation.
Only three stars because this is the same guy who wrote Brideshead...
But it does include my new favorite expression, which is Ginger up! and I don't know what it means but it works in just about any mood room smile situation.
Only three stars because this is the same guy who wrote Brideshead...
Sep 11, 2007
Eleni
rated it:
This is one of those books that I didn't really enjoy at the time that I was reading it, but have since appropriated just about every possible pull-quote from my now dog-eared and underlined-to-death copy. Waugh delivers fantastic dialogue that remains with you long after your initial read.
Oct 30, 2009
Maureen
rated it:
well, this was my first waugh, and he came highly recommended by mr. p.g. wodehouse, so my expectations were high. despite the fact that there is an author's note saying you don't need to have read his previous novel "decline and fall" before reading this one, though they share similar characters, i had trouble keeping all of the characters straight, especially since they quite often acted in very similar ways. lord metroland and lord monomark were especially hard to distinguish, and
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Feb 18, 2008
Eric
rated it:
The finest Waugh. The funniest 20th century novel, in my opinion. Too many people buy Brideshead and fall asleep in it. Skip that and read this. Read Decline and Fall first though. Waugh at his brisk, bright, unsentimental best.
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Apr 19, 2009
Mary Anne
rated it:
This book is mentioned in Bright Young People which I just finished reading. It is a fictional description of youthful society in London in the 1920s. The author was a member of that society as well as a chronicler
of their exploits in the gossip columns of the newspapers just as his protagonist, Adam.
The romance between Adam and Nina mirrors the Evelyn Waugh's own romance and first short-lived marriage to a woman also named Evelyn (referred to by friends as He-velyn and She-velyn). More...
of their exploits in the gossip columns of the newspapers just as his protagonist, Adam.
The romance between Adam and Nina mirrors the Evelyn Waugh's own romance and first short-lived marriage to a woman also named Evelyn (referred to by friends as He-velyn and She-velyn). More...
Jan 07, 2012
Margaret1358
rated it:
This satirical look at the post-WW1 generation of 'lost souls' is a wonderful treatment of the zeitgeist of over-the-top anxiety and subsequent excesses committed by sophisticated, monied youth who, with no sense of life's real value, threw themselves headlong into debauchery. Waugh's idea seems to be that the atrocity that was WW1 led to a failure in the normal inter-generational transmission of meaningful moral sense to the youth of the next generation. Waugh's writing has an electricity and
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Sep 13, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
Meh. I don't know why I didn't like this more. It's very different from Brideshead Revisited, the only other Waugh that I've read, but it's in his more traditional mode as chronicler of the bright young things. But I didn't find it funny, or charming. Or even amusingly eccentric, the way Waugh's contemporary Nancy Mitford is. Perhaps it was to some extent the lack of plot; there really isn't one, but I've enjoyed other novels in which nothing much happens. And while the characters aren't really
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Sep 22, 2010
Ron
rated it:
I was looking to see proof of Waugh's golden reputation, witty and bright and sophisticated. It had a witty quality overall, with no pointed examples of it, but an overall "sparkling" quality, of the party lives of the bright young things which was alternately fascinating and irritating, but always engaging. Bright in the skillful, almost joyful use of the language, a real pleasure to read, and just off enough to tread the ambiguous ground between arcane and modern. Sophisticated in
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Sep 27, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
The novel is set in London in the 1920's and it is a biting satire of the young and well connected (today they are known as Sloanies). The main characters are Adam Fenwick-Symes and his fiancee, Nina Blount. They drift in and out of parties, jobs and relationships, and seem strangely disconnected from everything. The characters are all drunk, senile or intensely disillusioned.
Waugh is one of my favorite writers, but i prefer the improbable and mildly funny books over the hilariously More...
Waugh is one of my favorite writers, but i prefer the improbable and mildly funny books over the hilariously More...
