PMC Handful Of Dust

Waugh, Evelyn

£9.99

From sleepy rural England to decadent London and the jungles of Brazil, Waugh describes the fortunes of Lady Brenda Last and her husband Tony, as her infatuation with the young man-about-town John Beaver leads to the break-up of her marriage.

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Publish Date: 07/12/2000
ISBN: 9780141183961 Category: Tag:

Description

Taking its title from T.S. Eliot’s modernist poem The Waste Land, Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust is a chronicle of Britain’s decadence and social disintegration between the First and Second World Wars. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Murray Davis.

After seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last is bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride and joy of her husband, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the shallow socialite John Beaver and forsakes Tony for the Belgravia set. Brilliantly combining tragedy, comedy and savage irony, A Handful of Dust captures the irresponsible mood of the ‘crazy and sterile generation’ between the wars. This breakdown of the Last marriage is a painful, comic re-working of Waugh’s own divorce, and a symbol of the disintegration of society.

If you enjouyed A Handful of Dust, you might like Waugh’s Vile Bodies, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

‘One of the twentieth century’s most chilling and bitter novels; and one of its best’
Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

‘One of the most distinguished novels of the century’
Frank Kermode

‘This is a masterpiece of stylish satire, and is funny, too … a marvellous book’
John Banville, Irish Times

Additional information

Weight 236 g
Dimensions 198 × 129 × 18 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

255

Language

English

Edition

Annotated Edition

Dewey

823.912 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K