Despite being acknowledged as the most gifted stylist writing in the English Language, Evelyn Waugh ran out of money in the late 1950s. The royalties of his previous novels dwindled and Waugh was forced to find another source of income. That source was essays, articles, and reviews.

The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh (1983) edited by Donat Gallagher runs 662 pages. About two-thirds of this collection deal with topics most contemporary readers would not be interested in. For example, how much do you want to read about Abyssinia, Marshal Tito, Waugh’s conservative Roman Catholic opinions? Too much of the articles, essays, and reviews in this volume wear plenty of dust.

I read The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh because Michael Dirda recommended it. Dirda used to be the Book Editor for The Washington Post who I considered one of the top reviewers in the land. Reading The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh wasn’t a complete loss. I came away with these gems:

“It may well be that in future generations Mr. Wodehouse’s public may shrink; the vast and grateful masses who now devour him…will turn onto other more topical entertaining, leaving him to survive as an epicures’ delight.” (p. 255)

“Messrs Graves’s and Hodge’s Handbook for Writers of English Prose has attracted more attention than is healthy, for there is little in it that we did not know at the age of 18. But we live in an unhealthy age. What Mr. Graves and Mr. Hodge and I learned at school is on longer considered the rudimentary equipment of an educated man.” (p. 275)

“There is no tradition of Titus Andronicus; only the established faith that it is unactable. …Its notorious horror repellent to gentler gyrations, seem drab today, conceding as they do plain butchery devoid of evil or pity. There is no plausible character, still less a liable one. There is no line of poetry, hardly a dozen lines of memorable rhetoric.” (p. 475)

…Consider the case of James Joyce. There was a writer possessed by style. His later work lost almost all faculty of communication, so intimate, allusive and idiosyncratic did it become, so obsessed by euphony and nuance. But because he was obscure and can only be read with intense intellectual effort–and therefore without easy pleasure–he is admitted in the academic canon.” (p. 478)

This should give you a sample of Evelyn Waugh’s writing and approach to reviews–the strongest and most relevant pieces in The Essays, Articles, and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh .

It you’re looking for a master stylist, this is the place to meet him. GRADE: A