Poll

I may have to change my vote here. My head right now is going with A Handful of Dust, but I think my heart will convince me to change that to Nausea. Trying to think which makes me the most happy!

I have to admit I have not read A Handful of Dust but I have no reservations about supporting Sartre.

I've read Nausea and happy to support that but not so strongly that an advocate of Handful of Dust, which I haven't, couldn't change my mind.

This is a pretty horrible one for me. I love every Evelyn Waugh book I've read, and was planning to read A Handful of Dust in the near future, before the tournament was announced. I hadn't read it before because its plot always sounded pretty boring and conventional-modern-litfic (story of the demise of a marriage) compared to his others I know. It's not one I could vote for based on its blurb.

I thought Nausea was very good and gets unfairly short shrift from people over 30, as if it had nothing to say to those older than their twenties, which I really don't think is the case.

I might abstain for the moment. Or have a look at some of A Handful of Dust before the voting closes if I can fit it in (not the best time for that!)

A Handful of Dust is one of my favourite novels so I'd feel treacherous voting otherwise...

A Handful of Dust is about the dissolution of a marriage but I think it will surprise you where Waugh decides to take that. I will refer to an old review I wrote for it to see if I have anything there to show why I rate it highly. If I don't have anything there, I will still try to put something here.

A Handful of Dust seemed rather dated twenty years ago. It's a book of its time, and a comedy of manners.
There aren't too many funny, amusing, book in this competition. That's why I vote for Evelyn Waugh.

Trevor wrote: "A Handful of adult is about the dissolution of a marriage ..."

Love this as a sort of Freudian slip - the book's premise does sound more grown-up than the other five Waughs I've read.

Having now read the Penguin introduction to AHoD (even that was quite witty, and not just the quotes) plus the first chapter, I wonder why I'm not reading Waugh every few weeks. His style and almost nihilistic ironic detachment is pretty much perfect as far as I'm concerned, and could probably make me riveted by almost anything. So this is a vote for Waugh in general rather than a few pages of this book. I'm now confident I'd enjoy it, even if it may not become my favourite of his.

Ha, yes, when I comment with my iPhone Freud seems to get involved all the time!

But I'm glad you're interested in A Handful of Dust! This competition is working!

Here's my old review of A Handful of Dust. And I encourage people to post their own reviews (or links) to the books we are discussing.

The title comes from one of my favorite poems (and one I’ve hated too), The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot.

I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

I devoted a chapter of my masters thesis on that nasty poem; I can tell you an awful lot about it and its allusions, though I still don’t understand it all and could not explain it. I think we can all agree, though, that it is centered around a dying civilization, or, perhaps better, a decaying civilization — civilization already being dead. Its imagery, both of the city and of sex, and set pieces of conversation between lonely souls feel so sad, so dry. I think it’s beautiful. Leavened with quite a lot more humor, Waugh is taking on the same theme in A Handful of Dust. His isolated characters represent a civilization in decline.

In the novel’s first few pages we meet a young Mr. John Beaver. Beaver is relatively poor and quite lazy and selfish, though to an extent the reader might find him charming as he tells his mother he has accepted an invitation to visit Hetton Abbey, the proud inheritance of Tony Last. Tony, incidentally, did not intend his invitation to be taken literally; it was merely an act of courtesy during a night drinking at the club. Beaver probably knows this, but he is ever the social climber.

While Beaver is travelling to Hetton Abbey, we arrive there first to meet Tony and his wife Brenda. This is Tony Last at his most confident and Brenda Last at her most docile as they discuss their plans. Brenda is bored of Hetton Abbey. Tony cannot comprehend. Tony winces when he realizes that Beaver has taken the invitation seriously and decides to put him in the most uncomfortable room in the house, the room called Sir Galahad.

At this point in the novel, perhaps we can hardly blame Beaver and Brenda for commencing an affair. They flirted slightly during the weekend, and before Beaver left Brenda had already planned to go to London to see him the next weekend. Here is a nice little snippet on their behavior just after Brenda’s sister Marjorie leaves them alone this first weekend together:

They were awkward when Marjorie left, for in the week that they had been apart, each had, in thought, grown more intimate with the other than any actual occurrence warranted.

Their affair suddenly increases everyone’s interest in Beaver; he was below their notice before. That’s not to say anyone really likes him now. Perhaps Brenda herself expresses why best:

Brenda had come into Marjorie’s room and they were having breakfast in bed. Marjorie was more than ever like an elder sister that morning. ‘But really, Brenda, he’s such a dreary young man.’

‘I know it all. He’s second rate and a snob and, I should think, as cold as a fish, but I happen to have a fancy for him, that’s all . . . besides I’m not sure he’s altogether awful . . . he’s got that odious mother whom he adores . . . and he’s always been very poor. I don’t think he’s had a fair deal. I heard all about it last night. He got engage once but they couldn’t get married because of money and since then he’s never had a proper affair with anyone decent . . . he’s got to be taught a whole lot of things. That’s part of his attraction.’

As you can see, there is quite a bit of comedy involved, even when the subject is so sad when we stop to think about it. It is quite some time before Tony finds out about the affair. And the plot itself has a few twists and turns, some tragic, many comic, before he finally agrees to a divorce. And this was, for me, one of the best parts of the novel. Under British law of the time, a divorce was not easily executed. Furthermore, if Mrs. Last is found to be the cause of the severance, the court would grant her next to nothing. It is privately arranged that Mr. Last will be the cause. To this end, Tony seeks a partner in his fraud, some woman who will understand the delicacies of falsifying an affair:

But when he came to discuss the question later with Jock, it did not seem so easy. ‘It’s not a thing one can ask every girl to do,’ he said, ‘whichever way you put it. If you say it is merely a legal form it is rather insulting, and if you suggest going the whole hog it’s rather fresh — suddenly, I mean, if you’ve never paid any particular attention to her before and don’t propose to carry on with it afterwards . . . Of course there’s always old Sybil.’

Old Sybil — that ominous figure in The Waste Land. The book is still just rolling along, but much of the comedy will be absent from what remains. Which brings me to a fascinating tidbit about the novel. Waugh’s first ending takes off as Tony leave England to pursue a hidden country in Brazil, and one could feel the book is almost split in halves that don’t quite balance. I found it fascinating, particularly given the inspiration for the title. This ending was actually written first as a short story called “The Man Who Loved Dickens.” Yes — it takes place in Brazil. Waugh said that he wanted to write the story that preceded “The Man Who Loved Dickens”; hence, A Handful of Dust in its original form.

However, also included in my version, and I hope in most versions, is the alternate ending the American press demanded to give the book more balance. The ending is much shorter, very different, and much more conventional than the original. That it is shorter, different, and conventional is not to suggest it isn’t satisfying. I’m sure there are many who prefer it to the original. I’m not sure where I stand in preference, but I’m glad to have them both. Both endings were for me fantastic expansions on the first part of the novel. One is long and exotic and counterbalanced against the first half of the book; the other is short and bitter tasting, but in a satisfying way.

Here, because I couldn’t find any other place to put it in my review, but because I really just love the dialogue, is another bit of the comedy. It also showcases a bit of Hemingway’s influence on Waugh’s style of dialogue, though thankfully Waugh didn’t give up his British humor.

‘But all the same, making every allowance for your feelings, I do think that you are behaving rather vindictively in the matter.’

‘I’m doing exactly what Brenda wanted.’

‘My dear fellow, she doesn’t know what she wants. I saw this chap Beaver yesterday. I didn’t like him at all. Do you?’

‘I hardly know him.’

‘Well, I can assure you I didn’t like him. Now you’re just throwing Brenda into his arms. That’s what it amounts to, as I see it, and I call it vindictive. Of course at the moment Brenda’s got the idea that she’s in love with him. But it won’t last. It couldn’t with a chap like Beaver. She’ll want to come back in a year, just you see. Allan says the same.’

‘I’ve told Allan. I don’t want her back.’

‘Well, that’s vindictive.’

‘No, I just couldn’t feel the same about her again.’

‘Well, why feel the same? One has to change as one gets older. Why, ten years ago I couldn’t be interested in anything later than the Sumerian age and I assure you that now I find even the Christian era full of significance.’

Jonathan wrote: "A Handful of Dust seemed rather dated twenty years ago. It's a book of its time, and a comedy of manners.
There aren't too many funny, amusing, book in this competition. That's why I vote for Evely..."

I like this! I think A Handful of Dust is the perfect amount of comedy and seriousness (where Brideshead Revisited is so serious (and lovely)).

As a book to simply read, Nausea is not enjoyable at all. As a book to study, sure, it has merit. I haven't read this Waugh, but the ones I have read were both enjoyable and worth thinking about.

I just went and bought the audiobook of AHofD as a result of these comments.

Sara wrote: "I just went and bought the audiobook of AHofD as a result of these comments."

Please do let us know if it's any good, Sara - I wouldn't mind a decent audio version...

Somewhat close here, but it looks like the book I like better is going to take this one! Let's hear it for Waugh! He may never have won the Nobel Prize, but he's done one better: he's taken down a Nobel winner in Mookse Madness!

Fans of A Handful of Dust can start to fret over its fate when it comes up against The Master and Margarita in round 2!

Unless, of course, Nausea can pull this off in the final three hours. Seems unlikely to me with Waugh's book leading 12-7 at the moment.