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Evelyn Waugh, the Art of Fiction No. 30 (1963)
- jonahx 11y agoThis is wonderful. It's sad that both the writer in Waugh's mould, and the interview in this style, seem like relics of a bygone era.
- nickff 11y agoCould you please elaborate on what you mean when you say there are no more writers in Waugh's mold? I have read his major works, and enjoyed them tremendously, but think that the reason I haven't found recent works of similar literary merit may be a lack of perspective.
- jonahx 11y agoI've only read a few of Waugh's novels, but love A Handful of Dust. My comment was about the interview though. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a writer today who, without apparent pretense, begins an interview by putting on a robe, complaining authoritatively about the lack of good views in London hotels, retiring to the bedroom while bullying the interviewer into smoking a cigar with aristocratic aplomb, and tearing down his own work and that of his contemporaries with casual precision.
- bshimmin 11y agoThis was a great interview, and it was very interesting to read that Waugh admits to being influenced by Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises": I remember reading that book and "Vile Bodies" at much the same time and thinking to myself how similar they were (though Brideshead, really, is very different). Whenever I have the misfortune to visit a shopping centre, I always make an effort to quote Waugh: "All that succession and repetition of massed humanity... Those vile bodies..."
- mturmon 11y agoThat was really excellent. To the point. A good summary: "I regard writing not as investigation of character, but as an exercise in the use of language, and with this I am obsessed. I have no technical psychological interest." The Men at Arms trilogy was just excellent.
- vaadu 11y agoHow many thought Evelyn Waugh was a women?
- jarcane 11y agoTime Magazine, apparently. http://observer.com/2016/02/time-magazine-put-evelyn-waugh-on-a-list-of-female-authors/ http://observer.com/2016/02/time-magazine-put-evelyn-waugh-o...