142
PARTISAN REVIEW
in Wa ugh 's con serva ti sm , a nd no t merely the squaw k o f a p ri vil eged
d ass who feel their luxuri es threa tcned . It shows a lso how thi s
con serva ti sm p rovided the ch eck upon and the conditi on o f the
des tru ct ive an archi sm to whi ch Wa ugh 's a rti sti c in stin ct, and no t onl y
hi s temperament, was deepl y a ttracted.
It
shows the p art th a t personal
suffering (s u ch as th e breakup o f hi s first ma rri age) pl ayed in the
darkening and ma turin g of Wa ugh 's tragicomi c art , w ith out exag–
gera ting its biographi cal element-we a re n ever a ll owed to fo rget that
an a rti st is, among o ther thin gs, a n in vento r, and Wa ugh was p re–
eminentl y tha l. H e began as a pa inter and d ra ughtsma n , th e author
o f a fin e study of Rosselli ; h e became a skill ed carpenter; and to the end
of hi s life he LOok legitima te p ride in hi s lit erary cra ft sman shi p. Al–
though Sykes's own prose is no t as impecca bl e as Wa ugh 's - some
of hi s paragraphs could have don e w ith a fin a l po li sh-he brings
out thi s side of Wa ugh very d earl y, oft en quo tin g Wa ugh 's lit erary
opini on s, on p ani cul ar autho rs o r on writin g in gen era l, so tellin gly as
LO ma ke us lo ng for an ampl e coll ection of Wa ugh 's revi ews, essays and
literary journ a lism .
It
is diffi cult to rev iew a book whi ch con sists so large ly of
anecdo tes. H ere is on e tha t is likely to becomc hac kncyed . Gra ham
Green e had been say ing tha t he had had an idea for a po liti ca l novel:
" It w ill be fun to writ c a bo ut po liti cs for a ch ange, and no t a lways
a bout God ." Sykes goes on :
Eve lyn was usu a ll y very sen siti ve to evcn th e mildes t hint of
bl asphemy, but on thi s occas io n h e was unperturbed . "Oh ?" he
res ponded on hi s hi gh no te, " I wouldn ' t g ive up writin g a bo ut God at
thi s stage if I was you .
It
would be like P .G . Wodeho tl se dropping
j ecves h a lf-way through the Woos ter seri es ."
It
was sa id in sti ch a way
th a t no o ffen ce could poss ibl y bc ta ken , and Grah am was th e first
to
laugh a t Eve lyn 's ingeni ous compa ri son .
w.w.
ROBSON
