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imposs ibl e to describe. Yet he has been very much d isliked; and it
would be easy to corrobo ra te the un p leasant p ictu re whi ch those who
dislike him have deri ved from wh a t they have heard of the man and
inferred from th e work . T he school bull y, the sotti sh undergradua te,
the conceited pl ay boy and man -abo ut-town , the mi dd le-aged choleric
snob in imposs ibl y loud tweeds, the bi go ted Roman Ca tho li c convert
of the mos t unreconstru cted , " triumpha li st" p re-Va ti can II kind , the
elderl y pa ranoiac with hi s ghas tl y delusions (see
The O rdea l of G ilbert
Pinfo ld) -these
can a ll be found by an yone who wants to look fo r
them. But to take thi s unpl easant cari ca ture fo r th e to ta lity of Evelyn
Waugh in vites a stronger rebutta l than "Up to a po int, Lord Copper"
(see
ScooP).
Sykes's comment on thi s is un an swera bl e: it is Waugh 's
own confess ions tha t supp ly a ll the ma teri a l for the ca ri ca ture. (In this
respect he is rather like Samuel Butl er o f
T h e Way of A II Fl esh,
a writer
whom he grea tl y admi red.) He fl aunted hi s vices and concealed hi s
virtues.
Waugh is no t one o f those autho rs whose hold upon readers
depends on th eir fee ling (as perhaps with E.M. Fo rster ) th at the man
behind the wo rk is "very ni ce." T hough hi s fault s and irra ti onalities
have been much exaggera ted-es pecia ll y by himself-it canno t be sa id
that one emerges from reading Sykes with the feelin g tha t Evelyn
Waugh was a ni ce man . But he was no t a monster either. The
conclusion I am mo re drawn to is tha t, so fa r from being a monster, he
was in fact a
good
man-a t leas t, a man who se t himself, and mo re
often than not li ved u p to, standards of conduct far hi gher than the
ordinary " ni ce" man woul d dream of impos ing on himself. Without
doubt he had grea t psychologica l probl ems, and Sykes is ri ght to insist
on the element o f cruelty in hi s geniu s. But I am convinced, contrary to
what is sometimes sa id abo ut him, th a t hi s religious fa ith was a true
strength to him and saved him from the mo ra l and phys ical coll apse of
Dylan Thomas (abo ut wh om Waugh sa id , with a shudder, " He's
exactl y wh a t I wo uld have been if I had no t become a Ca tho li c").
It
is
sad to learn from Sy kes that towa rds the end Waugh 's faith was
shaken . And the sto ry of hi s las t years is a gloomy one, as everyone's is
-Sykes quo tes Waugh 's apho rism fr om hi s la ter di ari es: "All fat es
are 'worse than dea th. '"
But on the who le " the wo rld o f Evelyn Waugh ," th rough whi ch
thi s excell ent book takes u s, is an exhil ara tin g one. Every page revea ls
to
us the raw ma teri a l whi ch Wa ugh turned into immo rtal farce -that
farce whi ch , unlike Wodeho use's, ta kes into itse lf pa in and suffering.
The who le book is imp li citl y a defence of wha t was nobl e and serio us
