Vile Bodies
by Evelyn Waugh
List Price:
Our Price: $4.25
You Save: $10.70 (72%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.27 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Evelyn WaughEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-09
ISBN: 0316926116
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of Vile Bodies
Book Review: "Faster, faster!"
Summary: 5 Stars
(4.5 stars) Focused on the "bright, young things" whose frantic pursuits of pleasure led to constant and ever more frivolous parties in the years leading up to World War II, Vile Bodies offers a satiric look at every aspect of upper class British society. From the hilarious opening chapter, in which an assortment of British travelers is crossing the Channel from France during especially rough weather, through innumerable parties, dances, weekend visits to country houses, automobile races, airplane trips, a movie set, and ultimately, "the biggest battlefield in the history of the world," Waugh skewers his characters and their values (or lack of values) and, in the process casts a jaundiced eye on society as a whole.
Adam Fenwick-Symes, an author living on the largesse of his friends, has been courting wealthy Nina Blount, and their blas?, back-and-forth relationship serves as the loose framework for the novel, which is more a collage of pitch-perfect scenes than it is an organized story. Mrs. Melrose Ape, an evangelist "who had no beard to speak of"; Walter Outrage, "last week's Prime Minister"; Lady Throbbing and her sister Mrs. Blackwater, whose youthful portrait set a record for rock-bottom prices at Christie's; Miles Malpractice, Lady Circumference, and a host of other absurd characters populate the novel and keep the novel moving smartly, though not in a straight narrative line. Gradually, as war draws closer and the characters remain resolutely oblivious, the humor darkens, and when war is finally declared, the shock is all the greater because the Prime Minister himself seems not to have known about it.
Waugh's wit, seen in his sparkling but often mordant dialogue, his inclusion of wicked gossip columns penned by Mr. Chatterbox, his imitations of high flown jargon, and his observations about "progress," as illustrated by the motorcar and airplane, keep the reader constantly amused. At the same time, Waugh's preference for the traditional and the civilized over the new and the vulgar is obvious. When the final chapter, the ironically titled "Happy Ending," is reached, the scene takes place on a battlefield in France, where several familiar characters resolve some of the unfinished business of Waugh's satire and re-emphasize the ludicrous behavior of so many of Waugh's people.
Though the characters are superficial and their behavior even more so, as one would expect in a satire, Waugh manages to keep the reader's interest high through his rapid changes of focus and scene and his keen observations of society in the years just prior to the war. Amazingly, this book was published in 1930, ten years before World War II actually took place, attesting to Waugh's prescience about where the country was indeed headed and where the biggest battlefield would lie. n Mary Whipple
Decline and Fall (Penguin Modern Classics)
Put Out More Flags
Black Mischief
Brideshead Revisited
The Loved One
Summary of Vile Bodies
Evelyn Waugh's second novel, VILE BODIES, is his tribute to London's smart set. It introduces us to society as it used to be but that now is gone forever, and probably for good.Improbably, this is a love story in which Adam Fenwick-Symes, a destitute young writer, hungers for Nina Blount, daughter of an eccentric aristocrat. But at the same time, it is a satire that plays against the social whirl of a class doomed to extinction as certainly as the dodo.
"The defiant hilarity of a dance on a sinking ship." --Alexander Woolcott.
Satire, Classic Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Evelyn Waugh
The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooperby Evelyn Waugh, Diana Cooper
Houghton Mifflin; Published: 1992-01-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.35
Price in other shops:
Scoop (Penguin Modern Classics)by Evelyn Waugh
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.15
Price in other shops:
Put Out More Flagsby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 2002-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops:
Diaries of Evelyn Waugh 1ST Editionby Michael Davie
LITTLE BROWN & CO @; Published: 1976; Hardcover; Book
Decline And Fall, By Evelyn Waugh, Unabridged 7 Audio Cassettes, 7 Hours, Read By David Caseby Evelyn Waugh
Books On Tape, Inc.; Published: 1991; Audio Cassette; Book
The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and Warby David Lebedoff
Random House; Published: 2008-08-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
Waugh in Abyssinia (From Our Own Correspondent)by Evelyn Waugh
Louisiana State University Press; Published: 2007-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.05
Price in other shops:
Scoopby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Brideshead Revisitedby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 2008-06-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.53
Price in other shops:
The Loved Oneby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.87
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Black Mischief, Scoop, The Loved One, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics)by Evelyn Waugh
Everyman's Library; Published: 2003-08-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.49
Price in other shops:
The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waughby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 2000-09-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.03
Price in other shops:
The Sword of Honour Trilogy (Everyman's Library)by Evelyn Waugh
Everyman's Library; Published: 1994-05-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.72
Price in other shops:
The Loved Oneby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.44
Price in other shops:
Put Out More Flagsby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 2002-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.23
Price in other shops:
Black Mischiefby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 2002-08-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.58
Price in other shops:
Scoopby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
A Handful of Dustby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Brideshead Revisitedby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 2008-06-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.53
Price in other shops:
Decline and Fallby Evelyn Waugh
Back Bay Books; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.21
Price in other shops: