A HANDFUL OF DUST BY EVELYN WAUGH IN SOUTH AFRICA

Condition: Good. Name of previous owner on flyleaf. After seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last has grown 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. In a novel that combines tragedy, comedy, and savage irony, Evelyn Waugh indelibly captures the irresponsible mood of the "crazy and sterile generation" between the wars. A vicious, witty novel. -- New York Times. Waugh's technique is relentless and razor-edged...By any standard it is super satire. -- Chicago Daily News. The most mature and the best written novel that Mr. Waugh has yet produced. -- New Statesman & Nation. A story both tragic and hilariously funny, that seems to move along without aid from its author...Unquestionably the best book Mr. Waugh has written. -- Saturday Review. About the author () Born in Hampstead and educated at Oxford University, Evelyn Waugh came from a literary family. His elder brother, Alec was a novelist, and his father, Arthur Waugh, was the influential head of a large publishing house. Even in his school days, Waugh showed sings of the profound belief in Catholicism and brilliant wit that were to mark his later years. Waugh began publishing his novels in the late 's. He joined the Royal Marines at the beginning of World War II and was one of the first to volunteer for commando service. In he survived a plane crash in Yugoslavia and, while hiding in a cave, corrected the proofs of one of his novels. Waugh's early novels, Decline and Fall (), Vile Bodies (), and A Handful of Dust (), established him as one of the funniest and most brilliant satirists the British had seen in years. He was particularly skillful at poking fun at the scramble for prominence among the upper classes and the struggle between the generations. He lived for a while in Hollywood, about which he wrote The Loved One (), a scathing attack on the United States's overly sentimental funeral practices. His greatest works, however, are Brideshead Revisited (), which has been made into a highly popular television miniseries, and the trilogy Sword of Honor (), composed of Men at Arms (), Officers and Gentlemen (), and The End of the Battle ().