Evelyn Waugh
Published by Henry Holt and Co.
An “entertaining and meticulously researched” biography of the author of Brideshead Revisited (Harvard Review).
Graham Greene hailed Evelyn Waugh as “the greatest novelist of my generation,” and in recent years Waugh’s reputation has only grown. Now, half a century after Waugh’s death in 1966, with Evelyn Waugh, Philip Eade has delivered a hugely entertaining biography that is both authoritative and full of new information, some of it sensational.
Drawing on extensive unseen primary sources, Eade’s book sheds new light on many of the key phases and themes of Waugh’s life: his difficult relationship with his embarrassingly sentimental father; his formative homosexual affairs at Oxford; his unrequited love for various Bright Young Things; his disastrous first marriage; his momentous conversion to Roman Catholicism; his unconventional yet successful second marriage; his checkered wartime career; and his shattering nervous breakdown. Along the way, we come to understand not only Waugh’s complex relationship with the aristocracy, but also the astonishing power of his wit, and the love, fear, and loathing that he variously inspired in others. Waugh was famously difficult, and Eade brilliantly captures the myriad facets of his character, even as he casts new light on the novels that have dazzled generations of readers.
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and the Financial Times
Praise for Evelyn Waugh
“A brisk, lively, and wonderfully entertaining account of the life of a strange, tormented, and unique creature.” —John Banville, The New York Review of Books
“Thoughtful and intimate. . . . Drawing on previously unavailable letters, manuscripts and diaries, Eade illuminates connections between Waugh’s much-lauded fiction and the author’s concealed emotional life. . . . A convincing portrait of a flawed but gifted artist.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Well crafted. . . . Eade focuses on Waugh's colorful personal life and exploits with the “smart set” of his time. . . . Eade’s treatment reveals a man of astonishing awareness of his gifts and failings, great sincerity, and wit.” —Publishers Weekly
Graham Greene hailed Evelyn Waugh as “the greatest novelist of my generation,” and in recent years Waugh’s reputation has only grown. Now, half a century after Waugh’s death in 1966, with Evelyn Waugh, Philip Eade has delivered a hugely entertaining biography that is both authoritative and full of new information, some of it sensational.
Drawing on extensive unseen primary sources, Eade’s book sheds new light on many of the key phases and themes of Waugh’s life: his difficult relationship with his embarrassingly sentimental father; his formative homosexual affairs at Oxford; his unrequited love for various Bright Young Things; his disastrous first marriage; his momentous conversion to Roman Catholicism; his unconventional yet successful second marriage; his checkered wartime career; and his shattering nervous breakdown. Along the way, we come to understand not only Waugh’s complex relationship with the aristocracy, but also the astonishing power of his wit, and the love, fear, and loathing that he variously inspired in others. Waugh was famously difficult, and Eade brilliantly captures the myriad facets of his character, even as he casts new light on the novels that have dazzled generations of readers.
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and the Financial Times
Praise for Evelyn Waugh
“A brisk, lively, and wonderfully entertaining account of the life of a strange, tormented, and unique creature.” —John Banville, The New York Review of Books
“Thoughtful and intimate. . . . Drawing on previously unavailable letters, manuscripts and diaries, Eade illuminates connections between Waugh’s much-lauded fiction and the author’s concealed emotional life. . . . A convincing portrait of a flawed but gifted artist.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Well crafted. . . . Eade focuses on Waugh's colorful personal life and exploits with the “smart set” of his time. . . . Eade’s treatment reveals a man of astonishing awareness of his gifts and failings, great sincerity, and wit.” —Publishers Weekly
BUY NOW FROM
COMMUNITY REVIEWS
