A Handful of Dust (Penguin audiobooks) (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) (Penguin modern classics fiction)

by Evelyn Waugh

Robert Murray Davis (Foreword) and Philip Eade (Introduction)

Evelyn Waugh's celebrated tale of decadence and social disintegration, with an introduction by Philip Eade

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.

'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

• ISBN10: 0141183969
• ISBN13: 9780141183961
• Publish Date: 7 December 2000 (first published December 1964)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
• Imprint: Penguin Classics
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9780141183961

Reviews

[clq]

Reading the first few pages of A Handful of Dust it quickly becomes obvious that this is going to be a standard, reliably funny, amusingly overdone story involving British caricatures of the 30s. And it is. But it really isn't. Sort of.

While the story kind of is all of those things, they serve as a backdrop and an excuse to drag the story in a number of directions. It goes a bit further in all of those directions than it needs to, but not quite far enough to overreach itself. It somehow manages to incorporate a number of rather significant plot-twists which don't seem like twists at all, but just elements of the rather solid underlying story of a wife having fallen out of love with her husband, and the amusing/funny/sad/tragic events that follow on from that. While the story at times gets rather dramatic and immersive, the overall, somewhat detached, tone suggests that the events are pretty much insignificant and entirely irrelevant to anyone but those directly involved. This also seems to be a point made in the endings (two of which were kindly provided in the edition I read, neither of which I liked that much).

The book has some really good moments, and it has many of them. Among other things it has the best few pages of fever-induced delirium I have read in a while. The sheer number of those notable moments makes this a very good book. I fully understand why it is considered to be a special and notable piece of literature. I just didn't think it was as exceptional or as best-book-ever'y as it is made out to be.