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Work Suspended & Other Stories Including Charles Ryder's Schooldays
Mr Loveday's Little Outing, Cruise, Period Piece, On Guard, An Englishman's Home, Excursion in Reality, Bella Fleace Gave A Party, Winner Takes All, Work Suspended, Scott-King's Modern Europe, Basil Seal Rides Again, Charles Ryder's Schooldays
317 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
10 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Evelyn Waugh
361 books2,995 followersEvelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youth” (1917) a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers; it was all we were taught, really.” He went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he read History. When asked if he took up any sports there he quipped, “I drank for Hertford.”
In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall” in 1928.
In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust” from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.
During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies” (1930), “Black Mischief” (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust” (1934) and “Scoop” (1938). After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,” in which his Catholicism took centre stage. “The Loved One” a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy” about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms” (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen” (1955), “Unconditional Surrender" (1961) - his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again” (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.
Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_W...
In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall” in 1928.
In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust” from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.
During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies” (1930), “Black Mischief” (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust” (1934) and “Scoop” (1938). After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,” in which his Catholicism took centre stage. “The Loved One” a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy” about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms” (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen” (1955), “Unconditional Surrender" (1961) - his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again” (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.
Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_W...
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
February 15, 2013
One story in and it's definitely worth it.
ETA: Ok, I stalled out for awhile in the middle of Scott-King's Europe, but have rallied and finished.
For some reason I wasn't expecting Martha Gellhorn to show up in the middle of an Evelyn Waugh book. And why not? He put practically everybody else in early 20th century Europe into his books.
I have been veering steadily away from my previous "I hate short stories ugh ugh" stance and toward a new "hey, short stories are pretty good when they're good, like everything else in the world" position. This definitely gave me another nudge in that direction.
ETA: Ok, I stalled out for awhile in the middle of Scott-King's Europe, but have rallied and finished.
For some reason I wasn't expecting Martha Gellhorn to show up in the middle of an Evelyn Waugh book. And why not? He put practically everybody else in early 20th century Europe into his books.
I have been veering steadily away from my previous "I hate short stories ugh ugh" stance and toward a new "hey, short stories are pretty good when they're good, like everything else in the world" position. This definitely gave me another nudge in that direction.
March 6, 2014
BBC R4 - Evelyn Waugh's 'Mr Loveday's Little Outing'
Adapted by Jonathon Holloway
Directed by David Hunter
Broadcast July 30, 1998
Coded from tape at 128/44.1
Roald Dahl type comedy chiller
An apparantly sane assylum inmate is released.
Two hours later he returns for good.
Cast
Mr. Loveday - Ian Masters
Lady Moping - Barbara Leigh-Hunt
Lord Moping - James Taylor
Angela - Charlotte Attenborough
Doctor Browne - Tom Smith
Doctor Black - David Antrobus
Sir Roderick - David Timpson
McKay - Stephen Thorne
Adapted by Jonathon Holloway
Directed by David Hunter
Broadcast July 30, 1998
Coded from tape at 128/44.1
Roald Dahl type comedy chiller
An apparantly sane assylum inmate is released.
Two hours later he returns for good.
Cast
Mr. Loveday - Ian Masters
Lady Moping - Barbara Leigh-Hunt
Lord Moping - James Taylor
Angela - Charlotte Attenborough
Doctor Browne - Tom Smith
Doctor Black - David Antrobus
Sir Roderick - David Timpson
McKay - Stephen Thorne
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2011
I've never come across an Evelyn Waugh I can't recommend. This is no exception. Short stories make good read-aloud fare.
March 1, 2025
There’s a lot of toffery going on here.
At first I thought I basically just had some slightly extended and rather less acerbic Saki on my hands, which merited no more than three stars, though it was amusing enough.
Then I came to the novella“Work Suspended”, which was not only very funny in places, but also quite beautiful, exploring how a writer of detective novels coped with the aftermath of his father’s death on the eve of the Second World War. Comfort and self-possession overcome and undone, but neither excessive nor wallowy, and psychological depth was mingled with social insight.
The extras in this edition were “Charles Ryder’s Schooldays”, which I guess you have to be a Waughvian or at least someone who has read Brideshead Revisited to truly appreciate — I found it a rather depressing and tedious exposition of pettiness and snobbery being put through their paces among the young, unredeemed by its brief flashes of morality or aesthetics — “Basil Seal Rides Again”, which was rather witty and enjoyable, a polished piece of self-parody, and “Scott-Knight’s Modern Europe”, which was fabulous.
At first I thought I basically just had some slightly extended and rather less acerbic Saki on my hands, which merited no more than three stars, though it was amusing enough.
Then I came to the novella“Work Suspended”, which was not only very funny in places, but also quite beautiful, exploring how a writer of detective novels coped with the aftermath of his father’s death on the eve of the Second World War. Comfort and self-possession overcome and undone, but neither excessive nor wallowy, and psychological depth was mingled with social insight.
The extras in this edition were “Charles Ryder’s Schooldays”, which I guess you have to be a Waughvian or at least someone who has read Brideshead Revisited to truly appreciate — I found it a rather depressing and tedious exposition of pettiness and snobbery being put through their paces among the young, unredeemed by its brief flashes of morality or aesthetics — “Basil Seal Rides Again”, which was rather witty and enjoyable, a polished piece of self-parody, and “Scott-Knight’s Modern Europe”, which was fabulous.
February 25, 2025
This is a fairly obscure collection of some of Evelyn Waugh’s shorter fiction. It came to my attention when I found that Waugh had written a partial prequal to Brideshead Revisited , Charles Ryder’s Schooldays , and went searching for it. Since I regard Brideshead as amongst Waugh’s best writing and found Charles an interesting character, I thought it would be entertaining to see how the author envisioned the younger Charles.
Overall, the collection did not offer me much, though. There are eleven other pieces as well as the Charles Ryder.
“Mr Loveday’s Little Outing” is amusing in a Roald Dahl unpleasant-ending type of way. “Cruise” has some amusing character portraits but is flimsy. “Period Piece” is a diverting portrait of Lady Amelia, a type from the early 20th century, the portrait coming entirely from her own foolish words. Satirically it is probably much less effective than it would have been at the time, but one can still admire Waugh’s caustic precision.
“On Guard” has some writing which might be considered typical Waugh, although at times it does lack economy and editing: “But the feature which, more than any other, endeared her to sentimental Anglo-Saxon manhood was her nose./ It was not everybody’s nose; many prefer one with greater body; it was not a nose to appeal to painters, for it was far too small and quite without shape, a mere dab of putty without apparent bone structure; a nose which made it impossible for its wearer to be haughty or imposing or astute. It would not have done for a governess or a ’cellist or even for a post office clerk, but it suited Miss Blade’s book perfectly, for it was a nose that pierced the thin surface crest of the English heart to its warm and pulpy core; a nose to take the thoughts of English manhood back to its schooldays, to the doughy-faced urchins on whom it had squandered its first affection, to memories of changing room and chapel and battered straw boaters. Three Englishman in five, it is true, grow snobbish about these things in later life and prefer a nose that makes more show in public – but two in five is an average with which any girl of modest fortune may be reasonably content.”
The anthropomorphic treatment of the dog, Hector (there is also a human Hector) as he tries to manage Amelia’s romances is probably the strongest part of the story. The dog “found a carrion in the park and conscientiously rolled in it – although such a thing was obnoxious to his nature – and, returning, fouled every chair in the drawing-room;” There are other clever features as well.
“An Englishman’s Home” is mildly amusing, about a group of self-assured, self-centred bourgeois landowners in a salubrious area, as they are bettered by a developer. The characters are well-enough drawn but the plot is slight.
I am not sure what “Excursion in Reality” was ultimately about: the vicissitudes of being a writer? The transience of the film industry? It contained little real humour, the characters were boring, and the purpose unclear.
“Bella Fleace Gave a Party” was slightly odd with a final twist which was not all that much of a twist. Bella was a quirky eccentric but not interesting enough to carry the story. “Winner Takes All” was a faintly amusing story of an aristocratic mother who organises her family minutely. The twist at the end was apparent from some time off. The mother was reasonably entertaining, the other characters barely visible.
“Work Suspended” was more interesting. It was interesting that the father-son relationship had clear echoes of Charles Ryder and his father: “as an occasional visitor I strained and upset my father’s household… ‘My dear boy,’ he would say on my first evening, ‘Please do not misunderstand me. I hope you will stay as long as you possibly can, but I do wish to know whether you will still be here on Thursday the 14th, and if so whether you will be in to dinner.’ So I took to staying at my club or with more casual hosts”. From time to time, there was a pretty piece of writing, Lucy is a fan of the protagonist’s writing: “‘ My word, this is exciting,’ said Julia, and settled down to enjoy me as though I were a box of chocolates open on her knees.” And, “‘It’s extraordinary,’ he said. ‘I’ve got absolutely no feeling about this baby at all. I kept telling myself all these last months that when I actually saw it, all manner of deep-rooted, atavistic emotions would come surging up. I was all set for a deep spiritual experience. They brought the thing in and showed it to me. I looked at it and waited – and nothing at all happened. It was just like the first time one takes hashish – or being ‘confirmed’ at school.’”
I was disconcerted that the narrative point of view seemed to drift at times from conventional first person to an illogical omniscience.
The story’s Postscript has a definite Brideshead feel to it. “Neither book – the last of my old life, the first of my new – was ever finished. As for my house, I never spent a night there. It was requisitioned, filled with pregnant women, through five years bit by bit befouled and dismembered. My friends were dispersed. Lucy and her baby moved back to her aunt’s. Roger rose from department to department in the office of Political Warfare. Basil sought and found a series of irregular adventures. For myself playing regimental soldiering proved an orderly and not disagreeable way of life./I met Atwater several times in the course of the war – the Good-scout of the officer’s club, the Under-dog in the transit camp, the Dreamer lecturing troops about post-war conditions. He was reunited, it seemed, with all his legendary lost friends, he prospered and the Good-scout predominated. Today, I believe, he holds sway over a large area of Germany. No one of my close acquaintance was killed, but all our lives, as we had constructed them, quietly came to an end. Our story, like my novel, remained unfinished – a heap of neglected foolscap at the back of a drawer.”
“Scott-king’s Modern Europe” is a moderately satisfying story, the first part being a mild satire of a character typical in certain schools half a century ago, a self-enclosed, almost monomaniacal classics teacher; the second part moves away to satirise nations which might or might not have been typical in the Balkans at around the same time. Some of the satire works quite well.
“Or the Rake’s Regress” seemed a rather pointless exercise to bring together two of Waugh’s characters from other works, Peter Pastmaster and Basil Seal. Much of the story is set in the sort of wealthy sanatorium just then becoming popular amongst the classes with too much money; the rest dabbles in modern young people’s entertainment of the time: “happenings” and the like. This is another of the stories with a faint twist at the end, as Basil plays a trick to frustrate his daughter’s romance plans. Dreary reading, I’m afraid.
“Charles Ryder’s Schooldays” is quite interesting as an account of Charles’s middle years at school. If taken as a prelude to Brideshead Revisited, it gives some extra depth to Charles in ways not really suggested by the novel. However, very few readers of Brideshead would read it, certainly not before reading the novel. On its own, it is an interesting enough account of an adolescent’s time at an English public school, although its protagonist could as easily have been given a different name. It rather feels as though Waugh was capitalizing on the success of the novel.
Charles is presented as a quite dark but artistic, impenetrable and reclusive individual who is just starting to make independent decisions about how to behave. He has been passed over for a leadership role in his house and effects to be unconcerned. He is unpleasant to one who was chosen and rejects both that boy’s and the housemaster’s requests to support him. The story is replete with arcane public school jargon; it has a little of the feel of his brother, Alec Waugh’s Loom of Youth .
As is probably apparent from my over-use of “mildly” and “amusing”, this book is not one I would recommend to anyone looking for reading with some depth. It is a divertissement.
Overall, the collection did not offer me much, though. There are eleven other pieces as well as the Charles Ryder.
“Mr Loveday’s Little Outing” is amusing in a Roald Dahl unpleasant-ending type of way. “Cruise” has some amusing character portraits but is flimsy. “Period Piece” is a diverting portrait of Lady Amelia, a type from the early 20th century, the portrait coming entirely from her own foolish words. Satirically it is probably much less effective than it would have been at the time, but one can still admire Waugh’s caustic precision.
“On Guard” has some writing which might be considered typical Waugh, although at times it does lack economy and editing: “But the feature which, more than any other, endeared her to sentimental Anglo-Saxon manhood was her nose./ It was not everybody’s nose; many prefer one with greater body; it was not a nose to appeal to painters, for it was far too small and quite without shape, a mere dab of putty without apparent bone structure; a nose which made it impossible for its wearer to be haughty or imposing or astute. It would not have done for a governess or a ’cellist or even for a post office clerk, but it suited Miss Blade’s book perfectly, for it was a nose that pierced the thin surface crest of the English heart to its warm and pulpy core; a nose to take the thoughts of English manhood back to its schooldays, to the doughy-faced urchins on whom it had squandered its first affection, to memories of changing room and chapel and battered straw boaters. Three Englishman in five, it is true, grow snobbish about these things in later life and prefer a nose that makes more show in public – but two in five is an average with which any girl of modest fortune may be reasonably content.”
The anthropomorphic treatment of the dog, Hector (there is also a human Hector) as he tries to manage Amelia’s romances is probably the strongest part of the story. The dog “found a carrion in the park and conscientiously rolled in it – although such a thing was obnoxious to his nature – and, returning, fouled every chair in the drawing-room;” There are other clever features as well.
“An Englishman’s Home” is mildly amusing, about a group of self-assured, self-centred bourgeois landowners in a salubrious area, as they are bettered by a developer. The characters are well-enough drawn but the plot is slight.
I am not sure what “Excursion in Reality” was ultimately about: the vicissitudes of being a writer? The transience of the film industry? It contained little real humour, the characters were boring, and the purpose unclear.
“Bella Fleace Gave a Party” was slightly odd with a final twist which was not all that much of a twist. Bella was a quirky eccentric but not interesting enough to carry the story. “Winner Takes All” was a faintly amusing story of an aristocratic mother who organises her family minutely. The twist at the end was apparent from some time off. The mother was reasonably entertaining, the other characters barely visible.
“Work Suspended” was more interesting. It was interesting that the father-son relationship had clear echoes of Charles Ryder and his father: “as an occasional visitor I strained and upset my father’s household… ‘My dear boy,’ he would say on my first evening, ‘Please do not misunderstand me. I hope you will stay as long as you possibly can, but I do wish to know whether you will still be here on Thursday the 14th, and if so whether you will be in to dinner.’ So I took to staying at my club or with more casual hosts”. From time to time, there was a pretty piece of writing, Lucy is a fan of the protagonist’s writing: “‘ My word, this is exciting,’ said Julia, and settled down to enjoy me as though I were a box of chocolates open on her knees.” And, “‘It’s extraordinary,’ he said. ‘I’ve got absolutely no feeling about this baby at all. I kept telling myself all these last months that when I actually saw it, all manner of deep-rooted, atavistic emotions would come surging up. I was all set for a deep spiritual experience. They brought the thing in and showed it to me. I looked at it and waited – and nothing at all happened. It was just like the first time one takes hashish – or being ‘confirmed’ at school.’”
I was disconcerted that the narrative point of view seemed to drift at times from conventional first person to an illogical omniscience.
The story’s Postscript has a definite Brideshead feel to it. “Neither book – the last of my old life, the first of my new – was ever finished. As for my house, I never spent a night there. It was requisitioned, filled with pregnant women, through five years bit by bit befouled and dismembered. My friends were dispersed. Lucy and her baby moved back to her aunt’s. Roger rose from department to department in the office of Political Warfare. Basil sought and found a series of irregular adventures. For myself playing regimental soldiering proved an orderly and not disagreeable way of life./I met Atwater several times in the course of the war – the Good-scout of the officer’s club, the Under-dog in the transit camp, the Dreamer lecturing troops about post-war conditions. He was reunited, it seemed, with all his legendary lost friends, he prospered and the Good-scout predominated. Today, I believe, he holds sway over a large area of Germany. No one of my close acquaintance was killed, but all our lives, as we had constructed them, quietly came to an end. Our story, like my novel, remained unfinished – a heap of neglected foolscap at the back of a drawer.”
“Scott-king’s Modern Europe” is a moderately satisfying story, the first part being a mild satire of a character typical in certain schools half a century ago, a self-enclosed, almost monomaniacal classics teacher; the second part moves away to satirise nations which might or might not have been typical in the Balkans at around the same time. Some of the satire works quite well.
“Or the Rake’s Regress” seemed a rather pointless exercise to bring together two of Waugh’s characters from other works, Peter Pastmaster and Basil Seal. Much of the story is set in the sort of wealthy sanatorium just then becoming popular amongst the classes with too much money; the rest dabbles in modern young people’s entertainment of the time: “happenings” and the like. This is another of the stories with a faint twist at the end, as Basil plays a trick to frustrate his daughter’s romance plans. Dreary reading, I’m afraid.
“Charles Ryder’s Schooldays” is quite interesting as an account of Charles’s middle years at school. If taken as a prelude to Brideshead Revisited, it gives some extra depth to Charles in ways not really suggested by the novel. However, very few readers of Brideshead would read it, certainly not before reading the novel. On its own, it is an interesting enough account of an adolescent’s time at an English public school, although its protagonist could as easily have been given a different name. It rather feels as though Waugh was capitalizing on the success of the novel.
Charles is presented as a quite dark but artistic, impenetrable and reclusive individual who is just starting to make independent decisions about how to behave. He has been passed over for a leadership role in his house and effects to be unconcerned. He is unpleasant to one who was chosen and rejects both that boy’s and the housemaster’s requests to support him. The story is replete with arcane public school jargon; it has a little of the feel of his brother, Alec Waugh’s Loom of Youth .
As is probably apparent from my over-use of “mildly” and “amusing”, this book is not one I would recommend to anyone looking for reading with some depth. It is a divertissement.
May 11, 2020
I believe I have a bit of an odd edition, an old hardcover one (1949) containing the following stories:
- Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
- Cruise
- Period Piece
- On Guard
- An Englishman's Home
- Excursion in Reality
- Bella Fleace Gave a Party
- Winner Takes All
- Work Suspended
Out of all of them, I enjoyed the really short ones the best, like Cruise, and didn't like the longest one, Work Suspended, so much.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these and how funny I found them as I previously didn't get on with Waugh at all (I read Vile Bodies and found it, well, vile). I would definitely recommend this to readers who are new to Waugh.
- Mr. Loveday's Little Outing
- Cruise
- Period Piece
- On Guard
- An Englishman's Home
- Excursion in Reality
- Bella Fleace Gave a Party
- Winner Takes All
- Work Suspended
Out of all of them, I enjoyed the really short ones the best, like Cruise, and didn't like the longest one, Work Suspended, so much.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these and how funny I found them as I previously didn't get on with Waugh at all (I read Vile Bodies and found it, well, vile). I would definitely recommend this to readers who are new to Waugh.
April 12, 2015
This collection of Waugh's short fiction is slight but entertaining. Most of the stories are sketches - about 12 pages long, ending with a nasty twist - which starts to get formulaic. The title work, which at 90 pages is more of a novella, is more fully fleshed out and easily the best part of this collection.
July 23, 2024
Nice way to get acquainted to Waugh with these early career short stories. Witty, dark humour on the obsession of upper-class characters to keep up appearances above all else.
Work suspended is maybe the only work foreshadowing Waugh’s Brideshead, with a more melancholic touch and deeper reflection on how disconnected from real life these characters are.
Work suspended is maybe the only work foreshadowing Waugh’s Brideshead, with a more melancholic touch and deeper reflection on how disconnected from real life these characters are.
April 8, 2025
Some first rate short stories and two painfully short excerpts of unfinished novels. There isn’t always the greatest amount of polish and sometimes the writing is a little boring at times but there’s a lot which is first rate packed in here. The short stories are quite clever and amusing, Winner Takes All gives a brilliant albeit fictional insight into Waughs relationship with his brother as a child. Scott Kings Modern Europe was a little boring for me in the middle but still acts as a brilliant thought piece on the modern world and education. The two masterpieces here are Work Suspended and Charles Ryder’s Schooldays it was a matter of extreme sadness to me that both these beginnings never grew into whole novels because they are so so beautiful and interesting. Charles Ryder’s Schooldays is a backdrop to Brideshead and begins to explain the Charles who steps into the beginning of that novel, especially the circumstances leading to the deficiencies he has as a character - coldness and emptiness in particular as well as the growth of his artistic faculties. Work Suspended shows Waughs first effort to write an explicitly Catholic work and it is masterful. A deliberate sense of dryness, emptiness and disillusion with the modern world permeates the work which creates the space for religion to enter the novel. One can see many of the ideas of Brideshead already at play here.
February 15, 2024
Here is a sentence or two on each story (or what I can remember of them):
Mr Loveday's Little Outing: 6/10
Jolly fun, mildly criminal. Dahlian.
Cruise 8/10
Short epistolary comic lark of postcard returning from a cruise ship.
Period Piece 5/10
And old dear relays a story of inheritance which has not stayed with me well.
On Guard 6/10
The dog and the nose, a cautionary tale. Mildly amusing
An Englishman's Home 7/10
Planning, class, envy and pride in the Cotswolds. Dahlian.
Bella Fleace Gave a Party 6/10
The story of a sad old dear.
Winner Takes All 6/10
Vaguely morose and slightly heartening.
Work Suspended 7/10
Well told, serious: love, death, and eccentric fathers. Would love to have read the finished work.
Scott-King's Modern Europe 9/10
Classic Waugh comic romp - invented country, adventure on the high seas, all-as-not-as-it-seems characters. Redolent of Scoop.
Mr Loveday's Little Outing: 6/10
Jolly fun, mildly criminal. Dahlian.
Cruise 8/10
Short epistolary comic lark of postcard returning from a cruise ship.
Period Piece 5/10
And old dear relays a story of inheritance which has not stayed with me well.
On Guard 6/10
The dog and the nose, a cautionary tale. Mildly amusing
An Englishman's Home 7/10
Planning, class, envy and pride in the Cotswolds. Dahlian.
Bella Fleace Gave a Party 6/10
The story of a sad old dear.
Winner Takes All 6/10
Vaguely morose and slightly heartening.
Work Suspended 7/10
Well told, serious: love, death, and eccentric fathers. Would love to have read the finished work.
Scott-King's Modern Europe 9/10
Classic Waugh comic romp - invented country, adventure on the high seas, all-as-not-as-it-seems characters. Redolent of Scoop.
Want to read
December 16, 2021#2
This is the Sphinx. Goodness how Sad.
#5
‘That field has always been known as Lower Grumps,’ said the Colonel, reverting to his former and doubly offensive line of thought. ‘It's not really her chicken.’
‘It is all our chickens,’ said Mr Metcalfe, getting confused with the metaphor.
#7
‘Indeed!’ said her butler. ‘And for what would you want to be dancing at your age?’ But as Bella adumbrated her idea, a sympathetic light began to glitter in Riley's eye.
This is the Sphinx. Goodness how Sad.
#5
‘That field has always been known as Lower Grumps,’ said the Colonel, reverting to his former and doubly offensive line of thought. ‘It's not really her chicken.’
‘It is all our chickens,’ said Mr Metcalfe, getting confused with the metaphor.
#7
‘Indeed!’ said her butler. ‘And for what would you want to be dancing at your age?’ But as Bella adumbrated her idea, a sympathetic light began to glitter in Riley's eye.
October 4, 2022
Work Suspended is a novella of about 100 pages, and contains some distinctly strange characters, to whom I couldn't warm at all.
The other stories in this collection are all much shorter, and I found many of them to be quite odd, particularly On Guard and Excursion in Reality. But I enjoyed reading Evelyn Waugh again, especially as I had not come across this volume before.
The other stories in this collection are all much shorter, and I found many of them to be quite odd, particularly On Guard and Excursion in Reality. But I enjoyed reading Evelyn Waugh again, especially as I had not come across this volume before.
November 12, 2025
A fun mix of short and mid length stories that hits all the tropes of Waugh. Much more of a fan of the longer stuff which just gave you more time to savour the humour so big yeses to Work Suspended and Scott-King's Modern Europe. Of The shorter ones I liked Charles Ryder's Schooldays most though possibly because it was separate from the others so felt more unique idk. Not necessarily a book I'd recommend unless you enjoy Waugh but good stuff if you do
August 10, 2023
Excellent - just like his novels in short form. “Work Suspended” is more like Brideshead Revisited, and the other title story is just like the two previous basil seal novels. Would have loved another collection to get through, but I suppose rereading Waugh’s novels is good enough.
June 20, 2024
I love Evelyn Waugh's writings, and he never disappoints.
September 14, 2024
A real mixed bag. Some of the shorter stories are a bit too pat. The longer ones make up for it with ambition and interest.
May 7, 2024
Mixed bag. I find I enjoy Waugh more the less funny he is trying to be. Sick to death of hearing about Lady Metroland.
November 10, 2024
POST-CARD
"This is the Sphinx. Goodness how Sad."
"This is the Sphinx. Goodness how Sad."
August 31, 2019
The shorter the short story, the more I loved it. The shortest were at the start, and so past-me excitably recommended the book to anyone who’d listen. The longer of the stories began about a third of the way through and from then on it was more of a slog; perhaps because Waugh’s characters are intentionally vapid, selfish, and/or unfeeling and so one doesn’t want to spend too much time in their company. That being said, there were still some thoroughly splendid moments scattered throughout the second two thirds. Five stars for the first third, three and a half stars for the rest, which equals four overall.
November 10, 2020
The longer-form stories are very well written and develop aspects of well-known characters (Charles Ryder; Basil Seal) in interesting ways. The standout story from a purely creative perspective is ‘Scott-King’s Modern Europe’ - an allegorical tale of an English schoolmaster’s trip abroad to the fictional state of Neutralia. The shorter stories felt that they lacked the depth of the longer-form stories and, whilst they were pleasant enough to read, didn’t leave the same lasting impression.
February 15, 2021
This volume contains some stories by Waugh. They brim with comedy, charm, wit, and a huge, edifying vocabulary. Unfortunately I delayed writing a review of the book for too long after I read it to give a very complete account of it but I remember that it was full of all the things I love about Waugh.
Want to read
August 24, 2025Read so far:
Mr. Loveday's little outing --3
*Cruise
Period piece
*On guard
An Englishman's home--part of Put Out More Flags
*Excursion in reality
Bella Fleace gave a party --3
Winner takes all
Work suspended
Scott-King's modern Europe
*Basil Seal rides again
Charles Ryder's schooldays
***
Manager of the Kremlin --2
Tactical exercise --3
Mr. Loveday's little outing --3
*Cruise
Period piece
*On guard
An Englishman's home--part of Put Out More Flags
*Excursion in reality
Bella Fleace gave a party --3
Winner takes all
Work suspended
Scott-King's modern Europe
*Basil Seal rides again
Charles Ryder's schooldays
***
Manager of the Kremlin --2
Tactical exercise --3
June 24, 2023
A collection of short stories fills out space left in an unfinished novel first published during the war when the author was otherwise engaged. Luckily, the novel is essentially two short stories with connected characters, so it all fits together very well. You can sense the changes in style over the dozen years, with his different post-war works ahead.
January 25, 2024
I’m not a big reader of short stories, but I throughly enjoyed this collection. For many of the short stories the payoff was clear from early on, but Waugh writes so well that it really didn’t matter to me.
May 11, 2010
I read Charles Ryder's Schooldays, and one other short story which I did not enjoy, and Charles more for the memories than anything else. I'm always greedy for more details of characters I've loved.
May 8, 2012
I'm not a big fan of satire in general - I don't enjoy the constant picking on weaknesses - but Waugh's writing is excellent.
July 1, 2016
Disappointing. Some of the shorter stories, like cruise, were good but by and large these were unexceptional
April 8, 2016
Fantastic writing, very funny.
July 25, 2022
Excelente humor y temas presentados de manera brillante.
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