|
about the site evelyn waugh sebastian charles quotes links fiction disclaimer and webmistress information
Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Arthur St John Waugh was born in London on the 28th October, 1903, and during the sixty-three years of his life he produced some of England's greatest satirical novels, notably Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Bodies (1930) and A Handful Of Dust (1934). He loved the bizarre, the slightly macabre; his humour was distinctly black.
After graduating from Oxford University, Waugh studied art before becoming a teacher. In 1930 he became a Roman Catholic.
His teaching career proved short-lived and he soon turned to journalism, covering the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-36, an experience he put to good use in his comic novel Scoop (1938). At the beginning of the Second World War, Waugh joined the Royal Marines and later the Royal Horse Guard, and saw service in North Africa, Crete, and Yugoslavia. It was while recovering from a wound sustained during one of these campaigns that he began to write what is possibly his most famous novel, Brideshead Revisited, in 1943. Upon his discharge he retired to Somerset.
Following the war, Waugh proceeded to write a string of more serious novels, notably his Men At Arms trilogy (1952-61). He died at his home in Somerset on April 10th, 1966, and with him died the most caustically superb wit in 20th Century English Literature.