Vile Bodies (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Trattasi del suo secondo romanzo, pubblicato nel 1930, e Waugh è ancora soprattutto satirico, non ha ancora raggiunto la chiave che io preferisco, l’ironia incrociata alla malinconia, la satira alla tragedia. In her 1985 book, Loved Ones , Diana suggests that the thing Evelyn loved most about Paris was the Musée Grevin, which was a short walk north from the flat, past the Louvre and other classic beauties. In those days the Musée Grevin was like Madame Tussauds, only more horrible. According to Diana, Evelyn particularly liked the tableau of Christians being thrown to the lions. In 1928, Evelyn had been part of a foursome (including three writers) that included the Lambs. After the break-up with She-Evelyn he was part of another foursome (including three writers) that included Diana Guinness, Bryan Guinness and Nancy Mitford. In addition, Henry Yorke had been greatly admired by Evelyn since Living came out in June 1928, the book that the Guinnesses had distributed so many copies of at Christmas. Waugh had a habit of collecting creative people around him. This is a much stronger image than the provisional cover painted by Waugh and which was discussed here . But to come up with it, I strongly suspect Evelyn needed to be inspired by certain images in the official programme. The one below for a start, with its text above and below the car, and the bold, onrushing perspective:

Don't worry, its an easy premise to grasp - here, let me explain... we bright young things are an erudite group of social laaah-de-dahs who favour a bohemian life style. We like the finer things in life and indulge our love of drinking, dancing and outlandish behaviour much to the joy of the press who like to follow us around documenting our frivolous and moderately hedonistic acts. We're also frightfully upper class and a tiny bit prone to navel gazing but some of us are quite arty. We can also be a little bit flaky and a wee bit emotionally sterile. Sometimes we talk a bit like the cast of Dawson's Creek would if they were transposed to 1920's London. If you'd like to put us in a modern context, we're like the cast of The Hills but we've got culture, money and talent on our side. Does that answer your question?" Decades later, Waugh explained to Diana that he'd resented no longer being her exclusive companion, as he had more or less been when she'd been pregnant. As she'd embraced society again, Evelyn felt that he couldn't compete with the social and intellectual charms of Harold Acton and Robert Byron. But these two had been amongst the chosen few to be at the Evelyns' wedding. They respected Evelyn's gifts and could have been vital members of Vile Bodies.The Miles that Ginger finds to be such a topping fellow is called Miles Malpractice — who is completely unserious, flamboyant and effeminate. At one point, he is described by his aunt as looking “terribly tapette.” Within easy walking of the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and so much else. And here is number 12, Rue de Poiteirs.

I love Waugh's use of -making, as in, "This cab ride is terribly sober-making." Totally gonna start using that. Scott, A. O. (20 August 2004). "FILM REVIEW; Social Butterflies Grounded by War". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 18 May 2021. According to Diana the visit was a success because Lytton Strachey ' was so greatly appreciated by Henry' . But it's the sense of lost opportunity that strikes me. And Evelyn Waugh, the artist, needed to see certain things on the day of the race itself, or in newspaper reports of the race. Why is Evelyn sitting down while everyone else is standing in the photo below? Perhaps because the Plunket Greene was a tall family. David (holding the dog) was six-foot-nine, so why would Evelyn, at five-foot-six, want to be measured against him? So Evelyn sat down on the ground. Smooth move, Titch.In the same flat, while pregnant Diana rested and read, Bryan was writing his first novel Singing Out of Tune (partly based on the Evelyns' split); Nancy was writing her first novel Highland Fling (elements were so like Vile Bodies that they had to be revised); and Evelyn himself was supposedly writing (possibly correcting proofs of Vile Bodies). April, 2015. zeroing in on the Rue de Poitiers. Here it is, on the Left Bank, close to the Musée D'Orsay. Dear reader, do you want to go into the shed and see Evelyn's Bramber? Or do you wish to pass on the chance to see mechanical toads? Yes, very wise. However, I prefer to take from Evelyn's Christmas card of 1929 the sentiments that nearly everyone can write (and be a successful artist). In summary: there is joy and profit in creative art.

The result? Absurd scenes scroll in front of our eyes, presenting a gathering of characters – inspired by those “bright young things” who made the gossip columns' delight of interwar London – caught in a frenetic attempt to fill their boring lives with outrageous actions. David Lodge said that Waugh creates comedy simply by using indiscriminately logic and surprise, familiar and incongruous and you certainly can see how, chapter after chapter, party after party, any possible rising action is replaced by rising laughable absurdity. Look at the following scene, in the first chapter of the book:Adam Symes has a novel to finish and, with the proceeds, plans to marry Nina Blount. Returning from France, his manuscript is impounded as obscene by customs officers, while in the next room his friend Agatha Runcible is strip searched as a suspected jewel thief. She rings the newspapers about her fate. Adam rings Nina to say he cannot now marry her, and has to negotiate a penal new contract with his publisher. Vile Bodies (1930) was Evelyn Waugh’s second novel, published as a follow-up to the success of his first – Decline and Fall (1928). It uses the same formula of presenting a farcical and deeply satirical portrait of the 1920s and the Wild Young Things who became the upper-class celebrities of the decade. It also features other aspects of modern society which help to fuel the culture of fashionable excess – tabloid journalism, artificially cultivated publicity, and the cinema. I'll take you out in my car sometime," says Sarah to Blore-Smith at one point in Agents and Patients . Be scared, Blore-Smith. Be very, very scared...