Vile Bodies - Unabridged

By Evelyn Waugh & Kevin Theis
Vile Bodies - Unabridged by Evelyn Waugh & Kevin Theis digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

"Vile Bodies" is author Evelyn Waugh's breakout novel, a social satire of the rich, spoiled aristocracy in London in the 1920's. Known as the Bright Young People, these were socialites with time on their hands, money to spend and few rules to constrict them. Both a wildly comic novel (characters include an M.P. named Walter Outrage and a society matron named Lady Throbbing) and an incisive satire of the idle rich, "Vile Bodies" was Waugh's first major success and established him as a leading voice in pre-war British literature.

"Vile Bodies" is presented here in its original and unabridged format.

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About Evelyn Waugh

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (1903-1966) was an enormously influential novelist, essayist, journalist, book reviewer and author of several travel books. Waugh became famous early in his career for his social satires, but later segued into more serious works and war novels. The son of a publisher, Waugh began writing early, publishing short stories, travel books and a well-received biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His first novel, "Decline and Fall" was condemned as obscene but was warmly praised by critics. Waugh was encouraged by this success to complete "Vile Bodies," his satire of 1920's Bright Young People (the rich and flamboyant socialites in London at the time) which became his first major commercial success. Serving with the Royal Marines and the Royal Horse Guard in World War II, Waugh gathered material for his epic three-part WWII series "Sword of Honor," but first he would complete and publish the book that would define his career: "Brideshead Revisited," a novel that spanned two decades of the life of its central character, Charles Ryder. The book explored both the nature of Catholicism and the life of the country aristocracy in England. (The book would later be adapted as an enormously successful miniseries in 1981 and a feature film in 2008.) During the post-war years, Waugh grew cynical and bitter about life in Britain, with his particular ire directed at the welfare state. This led to the publication of "Love Among the Ruins," which takes place in a dystopian British future where life is so trying that people long for euthanasia. A victim of severe mental illness throughout his life, Waugh grew deeply embittered with the Catholic church and its reforms as he grew older and often railed against the changes made by the Second Vatican Council (including the discontinuation of the Latin mass). As his financial health deteriorated, so did his physical health and Waugh died of a heart attack in April of 1966 at the age of 62.

Kevin Theis

Other books by Kevin Theis

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