Waugh & Dickens - what's up with that?
September 26, 2011 4:09 PM Subscribe
A question about the ending of Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, specifically as it relates to Dickens.
Some years ago a friend of mine read A Handful of Dust and asked whether I'd read it, as she wanted to discuss the ending with someone. Since I hadn't actually ever read any Waugh, I borrowed it, read it, loved it and discussed it. As enjoyable as the debates were, I've always wondered whether there was a firmer answer to her original question: did Waugh have beef with Dickens?
For those who need a reminder, at the end of the book the "hero" is apparently fated to spend the remainder of his life being held captive in the jungles of Brazil, having the works of Dickens read aloud to him. We did a lot of speculating and theorizing about what the ending might have meant, specifically whether the presence of Dickens is just reflective of the Englishness of the story, or if Waugh was instead/also making a specific point about Dickens. To this day, I sometimes wonder if people who know more about Waugh and/or pre-WWII British literature might in fact know exactly what he meant by using Dickens in that scene.
Some years ago a friend of mine read A Handful of Dust and asked whether I'd read it, as she wanted to discuss the ending with someone. Since I hadn't actually ever read any Waugh, I borrowed it, read it, loved it and discussed it. As enjoyable as the debates were, I've always wondered whether there was a firmer answer to her original question: did Waugh have beef with Dickens?
For those who need a reminder, at the end of the book the "hero" is apparently fated to spend the remainder of his life being held captive in the jungles of Brazil, having the works of Dickens read aloud to him. We did a lot of speculating and theorizing about what the ending might have meant, specifically whether the presence of Dickens is just reflective of the Englishness of the story, or if Waugh was instead/also making a specific point about Dickens. To this day, I sometimes wonder if people who know more about Waugh and/or pre-WWII British literature might in fact know exactly what he meant by using Dickens in that scene.
I thought when I read it that it was Waugh's satiric presentation of the life of an Englishman in Hollywood- to always give his audience what it craved, which is a twee, quirky Britain that hasn't existed in a hundred years, if it ever did. Sooner or later, the need to crank out these stories over and over again would make it impossible for him to return. I think that he also elaborated on this in The Loved One.
posted by pickypicky at 4:38 PM on September 26, 2011
posted by pickypicky at 4:38 PM on September 26, 2011
Waugh thought Dickens was dull and it was ironic to have Tony Last be imprisoned by a Dickens reader after running away from his life in England that completely fell apart.
posted by michaelh at 4:48 PM on September 26, 2011
posted by michaelh at 4:48 PM on September 26, 2011
Small side-note: it's Tony Last who reads Dickens aloud to his captor.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 4:53 PM on September 26, 2011
posted by villanelles at dawn at 4:53 PM on September 26, 2011
Er, right. It's been too long. I almost said John Beaver instead of Last, too.
posted by michaelh at 5:28 PM on September 26, 2011
posted by michaelh at 5:28 PM on September 26, 2011
Response by poster: Damn Ideefixe, that's pretty much *exactly* what I always imagined might be out there somewhere. I'll set my academic friends to finding a copy I can read. (michaelh, that was basically my assumption as well. And the original error re: who reads the Dickens was mine.)
posted by Banky_Edwards at 6:20 PM on September 26, 2011
posted by Banky_Edwards at 6:20 PM on September 26, 2011
Response by poster: And, minutes after asking a friend what he knows about JSTOR, I have a PDF of the article in question. Internet, I love you.
posted by Banky_Edwards at 6:40 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Banky_Edwards at 6:40 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
« Older How can my son and I travel abroad on short notice... | Can we save more on this surgery? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Alas, I can't give you the entire citation.
posted by Ideefixe at 4:34 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]