Decline And Fall
Feb. 3rd, 2009 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloEvelyn Waugh and I went to the same school. And even though I showed up 40 years after him, the ethos- anglo-catholic, dandyish, decadent- hadn't changed a great deal. It shaped him, it shaped me- and when I read him- especially the early books- I feel like he's winking at me- that we're co-conspirators in a plot against teachers, parents, prefects, chaplains and- well- everything there is.
There's a joke in Decline and Fall which only an Old Lanconian could possibly get.
Decline and Fall is his first novel- also his purest and funniest. His attitudes hadn't hardened, he hadn't been nobbled by the Catholics- the irreverence is broadcast far and wide and no-one escapes.
There's a joke in Decline and Fall which only an Old Lanconian could possibly get.
Decline and Fall is his first novel- also his purest and funniest. His attitudes hadn't hardened, he hadn't been nobbled by the Catholics- the irreverence is broadcast far and wide and no-one escapes.
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Date: 2009-02-05 08:51 pm (UTC)"And the great Lord of Luna
Reeled at that deadly stroke-
As falls on Mount Avernus
a thunder-smitten oak.
Wide o'er the crashing forest
The mighty arms lie spread
And the pale augurs, muttering low,
Gaze on the blasted head."