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PARTISAN REVIEW
NO OFFENSE
EVELYN WAUGH: A BIOGRAPHY. By Christopher
Sykes. Little,
Brown, and Company. $12.50.
Christopher Sykes's life o f Evelyn Waugh is good value for
th e money. Th e book is well produced. typograph y and lay-out are
admirable, the index is useful. Above a ll , the contCJ1ts make absorbing
reading and the literary style is pleasa ntl y flu ent. Sykes respects the
intelligence of his reader while not neglect in g to su ppl y the info rma–
ti on the reader needs. In ma ny ways he is peculi a r ly well qua lifi ed as
Waug h 's biographer. He kn ew hi s subj ect well and seems to have
enjoyed many yea rs of unbroken fri endship with him. He bel ongs to an
exclusive socia l circle which Waugh himself CJ1tered from a littl e way
below, and he handl es with an un err ing touch the minuti ae o f English
class-distinctions that a wr iter on Waugh must understand . He is an
old hand a t biography and ge ts th e proportions of the book just ri ght.
He avo ids repetitiou sness by hi s kn ack for choos in g the one telling
anecdote o r remini scence whi ch isola tes a tra it o f characte r o r a
significant moment.
Sykes's own persona lit y is an essenti a l constitllcnt of the book,
si nce what he gives us is in fa ct a memo ir, though it covers Wau gh 's
whole life and includes the peri od before Sykes knew him. Since he is
writing about a great comedi an , in life as in art , the role he has chosen
is tha t of the "stra ight man ," and if he sounds sometimes sli ghtl y
pompous-occasionally remindin g us of Sir Haro ld Nicolson, or of
Beachcomber's "Mr. Thake"- thi s is a ll th e bell er from the aes theti c
point of view. But now and th en I wonder if he quit e sees the jo ke. He
tells a story of an in cident towa rd s th e end of Wau gh 's life, when he
and Waugh were a llendin g th e nupti a l Mass of a fri end:
The offi ciating priest ... was wea rin g for th e occasion a magn ifi cent
old chasubl e. supposedly present ed by Catherine of Aragon to
Wes tminster Abbey. At a suitable moment I mC'tl tiot1ed these fart s to
Evelyn who seemed ha rdl y
to
understa nd . At length he sa id: " Pre–
sented by whom to what?"
I
repeated what
I
had sa id and he glared
intent ly at the exqui site embroidery fo r a minute or so. Then he said
in a voice a udibl e to the wh ole congrega ti on : " Loob brand nl'\\' to
me
