Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh (October 28 1903 – April 10 1966) was an English satirical novelist, brother of Alec Waugh and father of Auberon Waugh. He is generally regarded as one the the greatest figures in English literature in the 20th century.

The Thirties

Particularly in the period between his two marriages, Waugh travelled restlessly and from these experiences came some of the best travel literature in the English language. It is, in its own way, comparable to the best of other travel writing masters such as Patrick Leigh Fermor, D.H. Lawrence and John Steinbeck. A compendium of his best travel writing has been issued under the title, When The Going Was Good. His travels took him around the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and on to Spitsbergen, Africa and South America.

Related Topics:
Travel literature - Patrick Leigh Fermor - D.H. Lawrence - John Steinbeck

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In his pre-World War II novels Waugh satirized contemporary English society, especially the aristocracy and the upper middle classes. In later years, his novels were more overtly serious ("The Loved One" notwithstanding), although still witty and full of comic invention.

Related Topics:
World War II - Aristocracy - Upper middle classes

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In 1930 he converted to Roman Catholicism, and his religious ideas are manifest, either explicitly or implicitly, in all of his later work, especially in Brideshead Revisited which, as he himself stated, is an account of the intervention of God's Grace in a troubled family.

Related Topics:
1930 - Roman Catholicism - Brideshead Revisited

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