Product Description

A biography of Waugh's last twenty-seven years takes readers through the writer's wartime experiences and discusses his most renowned works and his relationships with Lady Diana Cooper, Graham Greene, his wife, and his children. 12,000 first printing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1311852 in Books
• Published on: 1992-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Readers who have been eagerly awaiting the second and concluding volume of Stannard's biography of British writer Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) will not be disappointed. As exhaustively detailed as Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years, this study deals with Waugh in middle age, from his undistinguished experience as an army officer during WW II through the writing of some of his best-known works: Brides head Revisited (1945), The Loved One (1948) and The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957). Relying on letters and other primary sources, Stannard gives us insight into Waugh's life as a husband and father. He treated his understanding and resilient second wife, Laura, with neglect and dictatorial disregard for her feelings. His children took second place to his self-absorption, although his guilt over his personal failures was severe. He remained a committed Roman Catholic, frequently exhorting his friends to follow his example. An excellent portrait of a selfish, reactionary snob who was redeemed by his talent, his self-awareness and his frequent bursts of charity. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This second volume, which completes Stannard's life of one of the most important writers of the 20th century (begun with Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years, 1903-1939 , LJ 4/1/87), starts with Waugh's military service and ends with his death. It is a thoughtful, intelligent, fair, well-written, thoroughly researched study that draws extensively on unpublished sources. Stannard is honest yet sympathetic in describing this brilliant but often unlikable man who was tormented by fear of failure, professionally and socially. A devout Catholic who was generous to those in need, Waugh was also an elitist who found it difficult to like people. Stannard describes the circumstances of the writing, the publication, and the reception of Waugh's works of this period and provides perceptive, intelligent analysis of his own. Highly recommended.
- Judy Mimken, Saginaw Valley State Univ., Mich.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
The second and final installment of Stannard's monumental, definitive biography (Evelyn Waugh, 1987) of one of the 20th century's most accomplished--and, apparently, misanthropic-- writers. Stannard (English/Univ. of Leicester) incorporates hundreds of previously unpublished documents and unreported interviews in picking up Waugh's tale on the eve of WW II. Britain plunges into the war, and Waugh wangles his way into one of the elite (i.e., aristocrat-led) military units. Thus, army life did nothing to temper Waugh's all-pervasive hauteur. His military career, however, was little short of disastrous, as the writer--surly, snobbish, and almost perpetually soused--was deemed unfit to command a regiment, a fact that rankled and eventually embittered him. With war's end, Waugh's most subtly wrought novel, Brideshead Revisited, was published to widespread acclaim both in Britain and the US. Royalties poured in, and the author was launched on a spendthrift's path to penury. The Loved One, a satire of America's bizarre funerary fashions, proved an even greater success in 1948, and soon Waugh was moving in exalted circles. His fellow-Catholic author Graham Greene was an intimate; Thomas Merton confided in him; Ian Fleming's wife, Ann, according to Stannard no slouch herself at backbiting, kept Waugh supplied with vicious gossip. An especially engrossing section here deals with Waugh's bout with psychosis, during which he heard voices accusing him of worthlessness and perversity. Stannard's depiction of his subject's unconventional home life is equally revealing. A no-holds-barred yet ultimately moving portrait of a major literary talent. (Photographs--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Penetrating, Fascinating
As literary biographies go, this is pure excellence. One gains a better understanding of not just Waugh's writing, and not just the personality behind the writing, but also the social and historical context that helped shape Waugh. Martin Stannard has done an incredibly comprehensive job. But the fascinating Evelyn Waugh stands up to such scrutinizing detail.

disappointing
Very verbose, little power, read Patey if you are truly interested in Waugh. It is a pity someone of such little breeding has addressed Waugh at all.