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Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited
Graham Greene called him ‘the greatest novelist of my generationâ€; Hilaire Belloc thought he was possessed by the devil. Written with the familyâ€s support and drawing on unpublished letters, diaries and memoirs, the compelling new biography reassesses the life and career of the author of Brideshead his troubled relationship with his father, his early homosexual affairs, his conversion to Catholicism, his wartime service, his happy second marriage, his drug-induced madness, and his sharp tongue and devastating wit.
432 pages, Paperback
First published July 7, 2016
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May 11, 2018
Evelyn Waugh has been one of my favourite authors since I was a child, first allowed to venture into the adult section of the library and discovered, largely by chance, the work of both him and W. Somerset Maugham. Simply for this reason, the two authors have always been linked somehow in my mind; a feeling which was confirmed when I read the excellent biographies of both by Selina Hastings.
This is the first, new biography, of Waugh since Selina Hastings work in 1994. As such, I was interested to see if there was anything new in this and, having read it, I feel that it has both positive and negatives, in terms of what it offers the reader. On the plus side, it offers some more information on Waugh’s short lived marriage to Evelyn Gardener (She-Evelyn), but, the great weakness is the way that Eade concentrates on the personal over the professional.
As a biography, this is – much like Waugh himself – gossipy and judgemental. It is obvious, at least, that Eade likes Waugh; or, at least, respects and attempts to understand him. So we have Waugh’s childhood, his difficult relationship with the father who much preferred his older brother, Alec, and whose sentimentality led Waugh to downplay his own emotions, often coming across as cold and callous. There is his time at school, the influential years of Oxford, his short lived career as a school-master, his initial success as a novelist, first marriage, conversion to Catholicism, second marriage to Laura Herbert, time in the Second World War (“I am Waugh weary,” declared Randolph Churchill), relationships and friendships and his increasingly irascible behaviour as he aged.
Of the books, though, there is really not enough. I recently re-read, “Mad World,” by Paula Byrne, which looks at the family, “Brideshead Revisited,” is based upon. However, although this biography does touch upon Waugh’s relationship – one of many with families he seemed to adore over his own – there is not nearly enough detail. His writing is obviously central to his life, but, again, this biography is interested in Waugh’s life, rather than his work, and so there is little in terms of critical appreciation, which is a shame. However, I suppose you must take this as what it is – an account of a life.
Waugh was snobbish, irritable, described as priggish, even as a child. He was notoriously rude and difficult, happily offending people and making outrageous remarks. He certainly hurt his father (although that may have been a two way thing) and it is easy to quote him in ways which make him sound uncaring, unkind and bullying. Yet, he certainly adored his wife, cared for his friends and those who served in the army with him denied that he was disliked by his men. In other words, there is conflicting evidence and, like most of us, he probably had difficult relationships, as well as close ones. Certainly, he inspired loyalty. Nancy Mitford, who had shared a flat with Evelyn Gardener, never saw her again after she left ‘He-Evelyn,’ and became Waugh’s life-long friend. He was a product of his time, and class, but – whatever his faults – his writing has given me endless pleasure over the years. This really did not tell me anything new, but is a well written account of the life of this difficult, gifted and fascinating man.
This is the first, new biography, of Waugh since Selina Hastings work in 1994. As such, I was interested to see if there was anything new in this and, having read it, I feel that it has both positive and negatives, in terms of what it offers the reader. On the plus side, it offers some more information on Waugh’s short lived marriage to Evelyn Gardener (She-Evelyn), but, the great weakness is the way that Eade concentrates on the personal over the professional.
As a biography, this is – much like Waugh himself – gossipy and judgemental. It is obvious, at least, that Eade likes Waugh; or, at least, respects and attempts to understand him. So we have Waugh’s childhood, his difficult relationship with the father who much preferred his older brother, Alec, and whose sentimentality led Waugh to downplay his own emotions, often coming across as cold and callous. There is his time at school, the influential years of Oxford, his short lived career as a school-master, his initial success as a novelist, first marriage, conversion to Catholicism, second marriage to Laura Herbert, time in the Second World War (“I am Waugh weary,” declared Randolph Churchill), relationships and friendships and his increasingly irascible behaviour as he aged.
Of the books, though, there is really not enough. I recently re-read, “Mad World,” by Paula Byrne, which looks at the family, “Brideshead Revisited,” is based upon. However, although this biography does touch upon Waugh’s relationship – one of many with families he seemed to adore over his own – there is not nearly enough detail. His writing is obviously central to his life, but, again, this biography is interested in Waugh’s life, rather than his work, and so there is little in terms of critical appreciation, which is a shame. However, I suppose you must take this as what it is – an account of a life.
Waugh was snobbish, irritable, described as priggish, even as a child. He was notoriously rude and difficult, happily offending people and making outrageous remarks. He certainly hurt his father (although that may have been a two way thing) and it is easy to quote him in ways which make him sound uncaring, unkind and bullying. Yet, he certainly adored his wife, cared for his friends and those who served in the army with him denied that he was disliked by his men. In other words, there is conflicting evidence and, like most of us, he probably had difficult relationships, as well as close ones. Certainly, he inspired loyalty. Nancy Mitford, who had shared a flat with Evelyn Gardener, never saw her again after she left ‘He-Evelyn,’ and became Waugh’s life-long friend. He was a product of his time, and class, but – whatever his faults – his writing has given me endless pleasure over the years. This really did not tell me anything new, but is a well written account of the life of this difficult, gifted and fascinating man.
July 9, 2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07j3mv1Description: Hailed by Graham Greene as 'the greatest novelist of my generation', yet reckoned by Hilaire Belloc to have been possessed by the devil, Waugh's literary reputation has risen steadily since Greene's assessment in 1966. Philip Eade revisits the life of Evelyn Waugh for a new and revealing biography.
Waugh's Estate has released previously unseen letters and there is new personal testimony from those who knew and worked with him. The book spans the whole of Waugh's life, presenting new details of his difficult relationship with his embarrassingly sentimental father, his love affair with Alastair Graham at Oxford, his disastrous marriage to Evelyn Gardner and its complicated annulment, his dramatic conversion to Roman Catholicism and his chequered wartime career.
School boy persecution by EW towards Cecil Beaton.Up to Oxford to read history in 1922By 1928, EW had finished Decline and FallGood bio of a fantastic novelist and less than alluring man.
July 10, 2017
While this is not quite a perfect book, I get to my rating because at the end what one has learned about Waugh makes it appropriately difficult to judge him. Eads has done impressively exhaustive research, and we see a human being depicted in full complexity in the pages he has written. To Eads' credit, I finished the book preoccupied with Waugh rather than with the biography, and tried for a while to puzzle out who he was and how I react to him. That seems to me what a biography should aim to generate.
In addition, through the lens on Waugh's life provided by Eads, the reader gets a compelling and comprehensive history of Britain's upper classes in the first half of the Twentieth Century.
The downside to Waugh is voluminous, and I gather that it has been the stuff of his previous biographies. He was cruel in many ways: (1) In conversation, with friends and with people he perceived as inferior to him; (2) In reckless social behavior which could have a devastating impact on events he attended; and (3) In his writing, where he only superficially disguised in characters whom he mocked and belittled the individuals whom he knew or had known with whom he continued to bear grudges.
Beyond that, he was not quite an alcoholic, since he could lay off the booze when he decided to, but in one year he reports having consumed 300 bottles of wine (and who knows how much of spirits) and even as late as 1960 when he was about 57 he was drinking a bottle of wine and half a bottle of spirits daily. He was almost always self-indulgent, traveling when he wanted to, avoiding family gatherings, and having relatively little interest in his children until they were adult.
He was also astonishingly self-absorbed, and almost anything which happened seemed in his eyes to be about him. He felt slighted often and never forgot. Rarely did he do something because someone else wanted him to. He was unusually moody, and seems to have spent a fairly large portion of his life depressed.
Finally, he was (despite his eldest son's denial of this) preoccupied with social class, though this was hardly unusual for someone born in the upper middle class in the England in which he grew up.
So far this sounds a lot like F. Scott FitzGerald.
But there is something redeeming about him. I'm not convinced he was a great author, but he was a gifted letter-writer and could really turn a phrase in conversation. He was, albeit in his way, a devoted husband to his second wife. While his parenting will strike most of us as odd, his children as adults were deeply devoted to him.
Also, what is missing in Waugh is the virulent racism and anti-Semitism so common in the British upper classes for most of the century. He was certainly not without prejudice, and was close to some people whose views in this respect were troubling (and that's hyperbole), but he seemed a lot freer of this kind of sentiment that would have been typical for someone of his background.
He seems a lonely man in these pages. He knew just about everyone of consequence in England during his life, but there does not seem to have been much intimacy. I found it interesting that the large number of letters Eads quotes are almost entirely from women. He spent a great deal of time hanging out with his male buddies, but there is no sense in this book of any deep friendships with men.
In the end, there is a sadness to this story. Waugh, from his frustration with his father while growing up through the rest of his life, seems to have been disappointed. He sought some kind of grail he never seemed to find. Somehow there is a poignancy to the story of his life which ends up moving me.
My only criticism of the book (and it is relatively unimportant) is that it borders on TMI. The cast of characters is endless, and it is not easy to keep all of them straight. Eads is also meticulous in tracking even small events, and some of this seems a bit "show-offy." Still, the book is readable and rarely dragged for me, and I am grateful to have met a man in its pages who seems well worth writing about. This is a good and worthy read.
In addition, through the lens on Waugh's life provided by Eads, the reader gets a compelling and comprehensive history of Britain's upper classes in the first half of the Twentieth Century.
The downside to Waugh is voluminous, and I gather that it has been the stuff of his previous biographies. He was cruel in many ways: (1) In conversation, with friends and with people he perceived as inferior to him; (2) In reckless social behavior which could have a devastating impact on events he attended; and (3) In his writing, where he only superficially disguised in characters whom he mocked and belittled the individuals whom he knew or had known with whom he continued to bear grudges.
Beyond that, he was not quite an alcoholic, since he could lay off the booze when he decided to, but in one year he reports having consumed 300 bottles of wine (and who knows how much of spirits) and even as late as 1960 when he was about 57 he was drinking a bottle of wine and half a bottle of spirits daily. He was almost always self-indulgent, traveling when he wanted to, avoiding family gatherings, and having relatively little interest in his children until they were adult.
He was also astonishingly self-absorbed, and almost anything which happened seemed in his eyes to be about him. He felt slighted often and never forgot. Rarely did he do something because someone else wanted him to. He was unusually moody, and seems to have spent a fairly large portion of his life depressed.
Finally, he was (despite his eldest son's denial of this) preoccupied with social class, though this was hardly unusual for someone born in the upper middle class in the England in which he grew up.
So far this sounds a lot like F. Scott FitzGerald.
But there is something redeeming about him. I'm not convinced he was a great author, but he was a gifted letter-writer and could really turn a phrase in conversation. He was, albeit in his way, a devoted husband to his second wife. While his parenting will strike most of us as odd, his children as adults were deeply devoted to him.
Also, what is missing in Waugh is the virulent racism and anti-Semitism so common in the British upper classes for most of the century. He was certainly not without prejudice, and was close to some people whose views in this respect were troubling (and that's hyperbole), but he seemed a lot freer of this kind of sentiment that would have been typical for someone of his background.
He seems a lonely man in these pages. He knew just about everyone of consequence in England during his life, but there does not seem to have been much intimacy. I found it interesting that the large number of letters Eads quotes are almost entirely from women. He spent a great deal of time hanging out with his male buddies, but there is no sense in this book of any deep friendships with men.
In the end, there is a sadness to this story. Waugh, from his frustration with his father while growing up through the rest of his life, seems to have been disappointed. He sought some kind of grail he never seemed to find. Somehow there is a poignancy to the story of his life which ends up moving me.
My only criticism of the book (and it is relatively unimportant) is that it borders on TMI. The cast of characters is endless, and it is not easy to keep all of them straight. Eads is also meticulous in tracking even small events, and some of this seems a bit "show-offy." Still, the book is readable and rarely dragged for me, and I am grateful to have met a man in its pages who seems well worth writing about. This is a good and worthy read.
November 21, 2024
From early in the pages I looked forward to Waugh's death, as it would mean the end of a bully people made excuses for (but those who were bullied didn't forget), and as time went on also the end of a snob to people not Catholic (I've known too many of those) or below him in some other way, to a writer of some talent but not the startling originality that would earn him the reputation, in this book, as one of the best 20th century british writers. Waugh's life didn't have much in it beyond fighting with many people and barely able to see the ones he said he loved, apart from his second wife. Eade presents this life well enough and in a biography of just the right length. As usual in biographies, the last decade goes by in a rush.
July 9, 2016
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Hailed by Graham Greene as 'the greatest novelist of my generation', yet reckoned by Hilaire Belloc to have been possessed by the devil, Waugh's literary reputation has risen steadily since Greene's assessment in 1966. Philip Eade revisits the life of Evelyn Waugh for a new and revealing biography.
Waugh's Estate has released previously unseen letters and there is new personal testimony from those who knew and worked with him. The book spans the whole of Waugh's life, presenting new details of his difficult relationship with his embarrassingly sentimental father, his love affair with Alastair Graham at Oxford, his disastrous marriage to Evelyn Gardner and its complicated annulment, his dramatic conversion to Roman Catholicism and his chequered wartime career.
Read by Nickolas Grace
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Directed by Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07j3mv1
Hailed by Graham Greene as 'the greatest novelist of my generation', yet reckoned by Hilaire Belloc to have been possessed by the devil, Waugh's literary reputation has risen steadily since Greene's assessment in 1966. Philip Eade revisits the life of Evelyn Waugh for a new and revealing biography.
Waugh's Estate has released previously unseen letters and there is new personal testimony from those who knew and worked with him. The book spans the whole of Waugh's life, presenting new details of his difficult relationship with his embarrassingly sentimental father, his love affair with Alastair Graham at Oxford, his disastrous marriage to Evelyn Gardner and its complicated annulment, his dramatic conversion to Roman Catholicism and his chequered wartime career.
Read by Nickolas Grace
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Directed by Celia de Wolff
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07j3mv1
July 27, 2017
A well-written, well-researched, accessible and enjoyable biography – what more is there to say? There are a lot of Evelyn Waugh biographies out there and I’m not knowledgeable enough to detect whether this one adds anything new, but nevertheless I remain convinced that no biography could make Waugh out to be in any way likeable; he seems to me to have been a deeply unpleasant man. However, the purpose of a biography is not to make the subject likeable – although I get the impression Philip Eade is quite a fan. The book concentrates on the life rather than the work, and rattles along at a good pace. Nice selection of photos too. All in all, a worthy and very readable biography.
November 24, 2016
Excellent, Mr Eade has clearly made considerable efforts to uncover the truth regarding Evelyn Waugh's early life and war record.
July 10, 2017
This book was hilarious and full of boners.
Eade did a good job of recounting Waugh's life with an equal measure of sincerity and absurdity. Waugh himself being sincere and absurd, it suits.
Eade offers his own insights where there are few surviving records, and provides counter arguments to damning Waugh contemporaries. The extensive bibliography section shows not just research on Waugh himself but that of people in his social circle, friends and enemies.
My favorite chapters are from his Oxford years. The correspondence included are a riot of flamboyance and tortured longing. To quote a friend, "it was all very Greek, darling."
If you are even remotely interested in Evelyn Waugh or just really like biographies, this is an excellent read.
Eade did a good job of recounting Waugh's life with an equal measure of sincerity and absurdity. Waugh himself being sincere and absurd, it suits.
Eade offers his own insights where there are few surviving records, and provides counter arguments to damning Waugh contemporaries. The extensive bibliography section shows not just research on Waugh himself but that of people in his social circle, friends and enemies.
My favorite chapters are from his Oxford years. The correspondence included are a riot of flamboyance and tortured longing. To quote a friend, "it was all very Greek, darling."
If you are even remotely interested in Evelyn Waugh or just really like biographies, this is an excellent read.
December 21, 2016
I'm not much for biographies, but this one held my attention because it was rather more quickly paced and not exactly exhaustive. Lots of gossipy stuff. Maybe what I liked most was finding out where the books came from, who the characters are based on, etc. There could have been a lot more about that, in my view.
I definitely feel like he gives you a good idea of the type of person Waugh was, but of course how would I know if it's accurate or not?
I definitely feel like he gives you a good idea of the type of person Waugh was, but of course how would I know if it's accurate or not?
August 2, 2023
I'm going to round this up from 3.5 stars. The writing style is first rate, and Waugh's soap opera life made for some interesting reading...but honestly, this man is an egotistical alcoholic dick & a sexual schizophrenic -- how did anyone sober actually like this man? A very palatable tale about an unpalatable person.
June 21, 2019
A fair and affectionate story of Evelyn Waugh's life. A very interesting man.
February 10, 2017
A breezy book. Good biography of Waugh. My problem is with Waugh himself, not Eade's book.
I thought maybe if I read about Waugh's early years, I would understand him better. Specifically, I don't understand his religious life. The crowd of the Bright Young Things appears to me to be principally a symptom of the waning and corrupt British upper classes in between the wars.
I thought maybe if I read about Waugh's early years, I would understand him better. Specifically, I don't understand his religious life. The crowd of the Bright Young Things appears to me to be principally a symptom of the waning and corrupt British upper classes in between the wars.
June 29, 2020
Philip Eade's excellent biography of Evelyn Waugh manages to navigate a true course between literary biography and the purely personal biography, while at the same time combining the best elements of both. What can one say about Evelyn Waugh that has not already been said? What new revelations remain to be discovered among his papers in the university of Texas? That his novels become more entertaining the older one gets? That he is undoubtedly a master of a particular literary style, sadly lost?
Waugh was certainly a complex character, in the same way that Aleister Crowley was a complex character. One is impressed by the enormous circle of friends that he maintained; in the days before social media this meant writing a lot of letters simply to stay in touch, and Waugh was certainly a consummate letter writer.
Although having been "forced" to read him at university, one found as the exposure to his writings developed, and continued to this day, that this was clearly a long lasting and beneficial discipline.
Strangely most of what he stood for, what he believed in was becoming unfashionable in his own life and is utterly alien today. His Catholicism seems mawkish and his love of the aristocracy smacks of the social climbing of the parvenu, yet it is his sincerity that clearly saves him from criticism. Graham Greene abhorred most of his views yet though him the greatest living English novelist.
Eade's biography leaves one finally feeling that further Waugh reading would be beneficial, and his letters to Nancy Mitford would probably be a good start.
Waugh was certainly a complex character, in the same way that Aleister Crowley was a complex character. One is impressed by the enormous circle of friends that he maintained; in the days before social media this meant writing a lot of letters simply to stay in touch, and Waugh was certainly a consummate letter writer.
Although having been "forced" to read him at university, one found as the exposure to his writings developed, and continued to this day, that this was clearly a long lasting and beneficial discipline.
Strangely most of what he stood for, what he believed in was becoming unfashionable in his own life and is utterly alien today. His Catholicism seems mawkish and his love of the aristocracy smacks of the social climbing of the parvenu, yet it is his sincerity that clearly saves him from criticism. Graham Greene abhorred most of his views yet though him the greatest living English novelist.
Eade's biography leaves one finally feeling that further Waugh reading would be beneficial, and his letters to Nancy Mitford would probably be a good start.
June 5, 2021
I have long been looking for a good biography on Evelyn Waugh and this hit the proverbial nail on the head.
Waugh is a very difficult character to pigeonhole as there as so many different facets to his character. He could be immensely woumding, sympathetic, irritable, full of high spirits, humorous - depending on his mood and circumstances - and I think Philip has done a good job in capturing this, showing his character warts and all. He was, for example, very nasty towards his father whom he thought too overemotional and only towards the end of his father's life did he seem to make an effort to be warmer towards him.
What comes across is that he really did put a lot of work into his writing, shutting himself off for long periods of time in different country houses, hotels and inns so as not to be distracted from his writing. He was also a great man of letters, and a lot of the information in the biography seems to be gleaned from his correspondence to his various acquaintances.
I am now starting to watch the fascinating BBC 4 Arena 3-part series compiled by Nicholas Shakespeare about Evelyn Waugh's life, and will then start to reread his novels once again.
Waugh is a very difficult character to pigeonhole as there as so many different facets to his character. He could be immensely woumding, sympathetic, irritable, full of high spirits, humorous - depending on his mood and circumstances - and I think Philip has done a good job in capturing this, showing his character warts and all. He was, for example, very nasty towards his father whom he thought too overemotional and only towards the end of his father's life did he seem to make an effort to be warmer towards him.
What comes across is that he really did put a lot of work into his writing, shutting himself off for long periods of time in different country houses, hotels and inns so as not to be distracted from his writing. He was also a great man of letters, and a lot of the information in the biography seems to be gleaned from his correspondence to his various acquaintances.
I am now starting to watch the fascinating BBC 4 Arena 3-part series compiled by Nicholas Shakespeare about Evelyn Waugh's life, and will then start to reread his novels once again.
February 26, 2022
I’ve always wanted to like Evelyn Waugh, since I Iove his writing. Sadly, this biography, sympathetic though it is to its subject, demonstrates how unworthy this great 20th century novelist was of consideration as a decent human being. It’s a great shame. Waugh was without equal as the savage dissector of appalling antediluvian aristocratic attitudes, which he nevertheless appears to have admired and wished to perpetuate. He showed huge personal courage in his Second World War military activities, yet could not bring himself to enter into any close or intimate relationship with his own family (including six surviving children) other than by occasional and planned sexual relations with his wife. His Catholicism appears to have involved nothing but an attachment to dogma, and no humility or charity at all. The overall impression given by this very well researched document is that Waugh was exactly the social climber, snob, arrogant psychological inadequate, and personal failure that hostile commentators have claimed, and which I suspect he feared he was, despite the extraordinary legacy of masterly novels he left behind him.
July 31, 2022
As is apparent by my profile I am obsessed with Waugh and this biography only made me love his work more.
I can also now recognize how much of a great “character” the man was. Not so much a great friend, husband, and father though. He truly was an arse. A very funny arse. Towards the end of his life, he had promised to write a book about the crusades but never did. When the publisher grew impatient, he wrote “tell them I have temporarily lost my reason as the result of the Vatican Council”. Didn’t we all?
He engaged in degeneracy both before and well after his conversion to Catholicism. Regardless, he died on Easter Sunday after receiving holy communion and supposedly praying for death at mass.
This was more of a review of the man than it was of the biography was it not? Oh well, interesting book.
I can also now recognize how much of a great “character” the man was. Not so much a great friend, husband, and father though. He truly was an arse. A very funny arse. Towards the end of his life, he had promised to write a book about the crusades but never did. When the publisher grew impatient, he wrote “tell them I have temporarily lost my reason as the result of the Vatican Council”. Didn’t we all?
He engaged in degeneracy both before and well after his conversion to Catholicism. Regardless, he died on Easter Sunday after receiving holy communion and supposedly praying for death at mass.
This was more of a review of the man than it was of the biography was it not? Oh well, interesting book.
Read
June 7, 2017so far it's about dysfunctional families, drinking, sex, and tragedy. not so much about his actual writing.
I got a little lost with all the names and places and particularly the references to stuff in the ether that i have no clue what they mean. Sure, it's good to have literary references or famous people or whatever is relevant, and i'm usually aware of those, but this was not in my pay grade.
I'm sure it was well researched and it's written with care. I enjoy reading Waugh even if i don't get all the humor. I think his work is written more for the times they lived in rather than a universal outlook.
One thing that really bothered me was what seemed like continual mentioning of sexual preference. I know it was a factor in his life, but i felt that it was on every page. Was that necessary? Does it matter that much? Can't we just all live our lives whatever we are?
I got a little lost with all the names and places and particularly the references to stuff in the ether that i have no clue what they mean. Sure, it's good to have literary references or famous people or whatever is relevant, and i'm usually aware of those, but this was not in my pay grade.
I'm sure it was well researched and it's written with care. I enjoy reading Waugh even if i don't get all the humor. I think his work is written more for the times they lived in rather than a universal outlook.
One thing that really bothered me was what seemed like continual mentioning of sexual preference. I know it was a factor in his life, but i felt that it was on every page. Was that necessary? Does it matter that much? Can't we just all live our lives whatever we are?
August 21, 2017
This is not a 'critical' biography of either the man or his work but the author makes that clear in a preface. Eade has written a very enjoyable book that certainly illuminates some less than savory aspects of Waugh's character while, ultimately, allowing the benefit of the doubt. No harm in that as the reader can reach his or her own conclusions.
June 21, 2018
This was a joy to read. Evelyn Waugh as a person is not without controversy but Philip Eaves draws a sympathetic portrait of an irascible genius without falling in to the trap of judging him through modern eyes where his attitudes and behaviours would be found wanting. I laughed out loud at a number of anecdotes and appreciated the insights this biography gave us into his writing and his life.
December 17, 2021
Very well written biography. It served to reinvigorate my interest in this author and now I want to go back and re-read Brideshead Revisited, the only one of his novels I've yet read. Considered by many to have been one of the finest writers of English prose, Waugh is obviously an author worth reading more of.
February 26, 2022
I loved this biography! Extremely well-written, and did a very good job of describing Evelyn as a human being, to the point where I felt I had a good grasp of his character. Especially appreciated the lack of moral judgement, and the inclusion of all the sordid details (anyone who says they don't love that in a biography is a liar).
March 2, 2022
Finished reading Evelyn Waugh A Life Revisited by Philip Eade. I don't normally read biographies, but I have throughly enjoyed this one. "I shall not visit my children during Christmas...I can’t afford to waste any time on them which could be spent on my own pleasures. I have sent them some kippers as compensation."
May 3, 2018
A detailed, readable, and sympathetic bio of one nasty, little shit. Waugh lacks compassion, overflows with arrogance, and is unable to understand the 20th century. He was recognized as a great stylist and a diligent worker (when he was in the mood). Now to find a critical bio. Any suggestions?
May 13, 2019
He didn't seem to be a very likeable person. He lived a very full life and knew a great many people of the important and influential people of that. This book gives great incite to a period of time I know little about.
December 18, 2017
a fantastic account of his life
March 28, 2019
Only read 39% of this book. Hated it and would have given it a zero.
March 17, 2020
This was a very well-rounded, well- researched book about an eccentric author. It is worth the read. I got an ARC free for my honest review.
February 8, 2023
I could do without hearing so much about his love life, he frankly comes across as a bit of a pervert. Still, all is fair in love and Waugh
September 12, 2016
I was thrilled to have been awarded an advance copy of "Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited" via Goodreads competition. It's not that I am a Waugh scholar -- but peculiarly, I refer to him as "Cousin Evelyn", as on my father's side, an ancestor in the Carolinas in the 1700s, a Samuel Waugh, a gentleman whose behests included a falcon, may or may not have been at all connected to this writer's genealogy! So, my claim is at best whimsical, though in our own time and place, both Evelyn and I have been, are, writers of both fiction and non-fiction. Newspapering stuff, though after reading Philip Eade's gossipy compilation of the life and times of one of England's most popular and respected novelists, I'll wager my own regional work for newspapers included much more actual day to day reporting! A funny look back on Evelyn's initiation is one of Eade's gems. My own introduction to Evelyn Waugh, who died in 1966, the same year I graduated from J. Z. George High in North Carrollton, Miss., USA, was his satirical novel, "The Loved One". It was a bump to realize "Evelyn" was a chap, not a female, by the way. I appreciated Eade's handling of his subject's early life and ancestry and the muddling through of so many relationships as he developed his vast and storied repertoire from which he (Waugh) drew as a fiction writer. I was often shaking my head, amazed that what with all the routine imbibing, Waugh was able to keep his brain cells working at warp speed for so long as he did! I do pray that with the publication of Eade's revisitation of Waugh's personal and professional involvements and outpourings, there will also be a revival of Waugh's novels, shorter fiction, memoirs, and some of the other writings that in his own time, were excellent interpretations of society and history. I wonder just what Evelyn Waugh, however, would have to say about all of this!
November 19, 2016
A highly enjoyable, smooth and easy read despite the enormous cast of characters who come so thick and fast, especially in the early chapters, when it often becomes necessary to flip back and forth a lot to remind oneself who is who and what part they play. The style is wonderfully uncomplicated, almost gossipy - like the conversations and the parties and the subsequent letters between Evelyn’s set. So many letters - and thank goodness for that; every joke, every comment, detail seems set down in the plethora of correspondence these people engaged in on a daily basis. Philip Eade follows all their histories as they flow and mix and mingle with Evelyn’s - from birth and early life, to school, to Oxford and out into the world: the events that shaped the man and his work as he moved from light comedy to sterner, darker works - though even his earliest, most comical novels were deeply satirical and thoroughly laced with bile and vitriol; names always had to be changed as lawsuits threatened.
Evelyn Waugh, a Life Revisited is the perfect title. Philip Eade has written a pretty radical work, highly revisionist and much kinder to its subject than previous biographers. Eade pitches a very different interpretation of Waugh’s part in the ignominious operations on Crete in WW2. I don’t know enough to comment; I’m afraid this - and indeed, all the chapters dealing with Evelyn’s war - was the least interesting part for me, but it’s inclusion is clearly important and brings much food for thought for the more military minded and historians.
Is this a truer picture than the studies that have gone before? No one can accuse this author of not having done the necessary research. There is so much detail here, such an extraordinary wealth of investigation and thought It is an impressive feat by the author and such a refreshing change of gear in the thinking about this seminal author and man of his times.
Is it a truer picture? Waugh was such a complicated and perplexing figure. A man capable of great kindness but often also atrociously cruel. Hilaire Belloc said he was possessed by the devil. Diana Cooper said that Graham Greene was 'a good man possessed of a devil' but that Waugh was 'a bad man fro whom an angel is struggling'. His agent, AD Peters said that Evelyn was ‘unfailingly kind and generous me during the whole of the forty years that I knew him - never a a harsh word or a rebuke, even when I deserved them. The world that did not know him had, I’m afraid, a distorted picture of him which he himself took some trouble to paint. But the real Evelyn was a very fine man. I loved him and I shall miss him for the rest of my life.’ A wonderful read for anyone who loves Waugh; a terrific Christmas gift.
Evelyn Waugh, a Life Revisited is the perfect title. Philip Eade has written a pretty radical work, highly revisionist and much kinder to its subject than previous biographers. Eade pitches a very different interpretation of Waugh’s part in the ignominious operations on Crete in WW2. I don’t know enough to comment; I’m afraid this - and indeed, all the chapters dealing with Evelyn’s war - was the least interesting part for me, but it’s inclusion is clearly important and brings much food for thought for the more military minded and historians.
Is this a truer picture than the studies that have gone before? No one can accuse this author of not having done the necessary research. There is so much detail here, such an extraordinary wealth of investigation and thought It is an impressive feat by the author and such a refreshing change of gear in the thinking about this seminal author and man of his times.
Is it a truer picture? Waugh was such a complicated and perplexing figure. A man capable of great kindness but often also atrociously cruel. Hilaire Belloc said he was possessed by the devil. Diana Cooper said that Graham Greene was 'a good man possessed of a devil' but that Waugh was 'a bad man fro whom an angel is struggling'. His agent, AD Peters said that Evelyn was ‘unfailingly kind and generous me during the whole of the forty years that I knew him - never a a harsh word or a rebuke, even when I deserved them. The world that did not know him had, I’m afraid, a distorted picture of him which he himself took some trouble to paint. But the real Evelyn was a very fine man. I loved him and I shall miss him for the rest of my life.’ A wonderful read for anyone who loves Waugh; a terrific Christmas gift.
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