Decline and Fall
Decline and Fall
Evelyn Waugh
Christopher Hitchens
Have somehow made all this mania and ritual appear 'normal,' even praiseworthy. - Christopher Hitchens
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Decline and Fall

Decline and Fall

Evelyn Waugh
By
Evelyn Waugh
3.8
14617
ratings on Goodreads

In "Decline and Fall," Evelyn Waugh masterfully crafts the misadventures of Paul Pennyfeather, an unassuming and passive protagonist thrust into the chaotic realm of the British upper class. Expelled from Oxford for circumstances beyond his control, Paul finds himself navigating the treacherous waters of a second-rate boarding school in Wales, surrounded by a cast of characters so grotesquely absurd they could only spring from Waugh's sharply satirical mind. From the perpetually inebriated Captain Grimes to the enigmatic beauty Margot Beste-Chetwynde, Paul's journey is a dizzying exploration of societal decadence and the peculiarities of fate. Waugh's debut novel, drawing its name from the monumental work by Edward Gibbon, is a comedic masterpiece that skewers the pretensions and follies of 1920s British society with precision and wit. As Paul Pennyfeather is unwittingly drawn into a series of bizarre and compromising situations, Evelyn Waugh exposes the idiosyncrasies of the social elite and the absurdity of a world that rewards the superficial and the corrupt. With its brilliant blend of farce and satire, "Decline and Fall" remains a timeless commentary on the human condition, and an uproarious introduction to the wit and wisdom of one of England's most distinguished writers.

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Released
1928
1 Jan
Length
300
Pages

1

recommendations

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Have somehow made all this mania and ritual appear 'normal,' even praiseworthy. - Christopher Hitchens
Life is like the big wheel at Luna Park. You pay five francs and go into a room with tiers of seats all around, and in the centre the floor is made of a great disc of polished wood that revolves quickly. At first you sit down and watch the others. They are all trying to sit in the wheel, and they keep getting flung off, and that makes them laugh too. It's great fun.You see, the nearer you can get to the hub of the wheel the slower it is moving and the easier it is to stay on. There's generally someone in the centre who stands up and sometimes does a sort of dance. Often he's paid by the management, though, or, at any rate, he's allowed in free. Of course at the very centre there's a point completely at rest, if one could only find it; I'm not very near that point myself. Of course the professional men get in the way. Lots of people just enjoy scrambling on and being whisked off and scrambling on again. How they all shriek and giggle! Then there are others, like Margot, who sit as far out as they can and hold on for dear life and enjoy that. But the whole point about the wheel is that you needn't get on it at all, if you don't want to. People get hold of ideas about life, and that makes them think they've got to join in the game, even if they don't enjoy it. It doesn't suit everyone.People don't see that when they say "life" they mean two different things. They can mean simply existence, with its physiological implications of growth and organic change. They can't escape that - even by death, but because that's inevitable they think the other idea of life is too - the scrambling and excitement and bumps and the effort to get to the middle, and when we do get to the middle, it's just as if we never started. It's so odd.Now you're a person who was clearly meant to stay in the seats and sit still and if you get bored watch the others. Somehow you got on to the wheel, and you got thrown off again at once with a hard bump. It's all right for Margot, who can cling on, and for me, at the centre, but you're static. Instead of this absurd division into sexes they ought to class people as static and dynamic. There's a real distinction there, though I can't tell you how it comes. I think we're probably two quite different species spiritually.
— Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall

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