,_.,.,, ' ... :.. ,-,
EVELYN w;,UGH NEWSLETTER
Volume 4, Number 1 Spring 1970
WAUGH'S BOOK REVIEWS FOR NIGHT AND DAY
CalvinW. Lane (University of Hartford)
Students of the work of Evelyn Waugh have long been aware of the immense amount of book reviewing that Waugh regularly engaged in over many years. This is attested to by the lengthy article listings in the bibliographies compiled by Doyle, Kozak and Linck. What is comparatively little known, however, is Waugh's association as book reviewer with the short-lived magazine, Night and Day, published from July to December, 1937 (a complete listing of the twenty-six review' that appeared under Waugh's by-line may be found in Charles Linck's "The Development of Evelyn -Naugh's Career: 1903-1939" (University Microfilms). Frederick J. Stapp makes brief reference to this periodical in Evelyn Waugh, Portrait of an Artist, but copies are now almost unobtainable. Fortunately, the London Library (St. James Square, London), possesses a full run. The magazine contains a rich trove of articles and creative material, the product of a staff numbering Evelyn Waugh on books, Elizabeth Bowen and Peter Fleming on theatre, Grahom Greene 0n films, Constance Lambert on music, and Osbert Lancaster on art. Occasional contributors included John Betjeman, Herbert Read, Christopher Hollis, Christopher Sykes, James Thurber, V\alcolm Muggeridge, and Anthony Powell. Although Night and Day was modelled after the New Yorker, it was not simply imitative and ~e·;eloped a distinctive tone during its short career. Generally, its social and political views ·.·;ere repre"entative of the conservative wing of British writers of the 30's antipathetic to the Auden lsherwood group, so acidly sketched in Pimpernel and Parsnip of Put Out More Flags. Both aesthetic and financial success seemed assured until the writing of a movie review by Graham Greene (October 28, 1937) of Wee Willie Winkle, starring Shirley Temple, in which Greene slyly suggested the child star's incipient sex aopeal ("in Captain January she wore trousers with the mature suggestiveness of a Dietrich"), and further noted that: Her admirers ---middle-aged men and clergymen ---respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body ... only because ~he safety curtain oi story and i.:liaiogue drops berNeen their intelli- gence and their desire. (p. 31) Rut 1037 was not 1969, and Greene's flippant remarks were enough to gain the magazine a libel ~~Jif: The court's decision, in finding For those who brought the suit, deal~ such a heavy financial to'ow that the magazine collapsed with the issue of December 23, 1937, never to be revived. Each week, Waugh reviewed several books, including memoirs of World 'Nar I, autobiogrcchie~ trc.r.tel accounts, histories, novels, and occasionally, works of the British Left calling For reform ::~f E>glish soc-iety--- the latter :.:ategory allowing lull ooportunity for \Vaugh·s ~art invective. t'v\ony ivr"I 1':!-'S reviewed have long since disappeared into the remoindered lists, but some, noteably W.H. Atr:~.~n, Louis ~ ..~ocNiece, Edith Sitwell, Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, ,'Jnd Harold Nicolson, pro,,i:Jed V/augh with the occasion for trenchant, incisive evaluations that thirty-tv.,to years later o..r~ still fresh, and remarkably clear-headed in their judgment. As is often true of criticism, the revi•·ws frequently tell more .obout '/Iough than about !he book being reviewed. The catholicity af •h.e booh ;eviewed reminds us, 'JS the readers of \Vaugh's countless review~ in The Spectator I.L(,..., •. Jdy know, of\.Vaugh's vsuall1 fair, dispas~ionate treatment of those writen whose temperament - /. -
and interests ran counter to his own, except when the political or religious views were totally op posed to those he held, or when a writer he admired demonstrated a clear falling off in taste. His review of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not !October 21, 1937) is an instance ~f his irascible displeasure with a writer whom he felt had betrayed the promise of his earlier ·nC>rk. He commences with a broadside against American writers in general, and then proceeds to lamooon Hemingway:
Arrested development is the character of almost all American writers; too e>ften they are living and working at the stage of growth C>f prurient schoolgirls; Mr. Hemingway is,., clean, strapping lad, upper fifth (modern side), house colours for swimming, etc he writes in an ~/.uberant schoolboy slang and he deals with the topics which , . , interest little chaps of his age: pirates, smugglers, dagas, Chinks, plenty of bloodshed and above all the topic dearest to the heart of a healthy boy--- How does it work? (p,28)
He continues in this vein for another half column, and summarizes in devastating fashion:
It would be idle to say that one's de light is as keen as when, unawares, one first picked up The Sun Also Rises, but most of the qualities are there which made that book memorable. Perhaps the holidays have gone on too long; there is too much noise about the house; how many :Jays to the beginning of term? Well, give the boy a treat for his last day --a quart of Bacardi and a dago's spine to break, (p. 28) '(ears later, in reviewing Across the River and Into the Trees ("The Case of Mr. Hemingwa;," The Commonweal, Vol. 53 (November 3, 1950), 97-98), Waugh's attitude had mellowed, and ",e stoutly defended Hemingway against his detractors. But by 1950, Hemingway's "elementary sense of ::hivalry 11 and 11 !ove of honour 11 were soon ro become maior themes in rhf' Sword of Honour trilogy, perhaps accounting for the increased sense of literary kinship. Two reviews of work by Arthur Calder-Marshall are good examples of a shift in Waugh's \~inking from initial dislike to a quite temperate re-oppraisal. In the first review, "Peter ?an in Politics" (September 4, 1937), he writes:
•. l He talks of proletarian fiction as though it were ~he -Jisc::ver; )f:::: rew of his friends, He does not seem to have learned that all •he great stories of the world are proletarian; has he ever heard of Piers Plowman or the Pi lgrim 1s Progress ? (;::;. 25)
,<1,1~ 3ut in another review only a week or so later ( 11 .A.rt from Anarchy," :'September 16, 1'?37)), he w·-i~es of Calder-Marshall 1 s A Date with a Duchess that l,aving been P.ager "to :Joint a ."Tlorai ogci:--st \.... doctrinaire students" he found instead: l . .. a book of fresh and vivid narratives, full ·Jf l:umor, ;Jenetro~;on Jnd acute observation. If this is Marxist fiction, I have no quar:-~1 Nith it.{::J. '1._!:
H~·1ing revised his previous attitude, Naugh summari:.:es by reflecting on the limitotiom on creativity imposed by Marxism:
I do not think rJny ·:F~ist, certainly no wri~er, -:on be a qenuin~ -')-auist, (or-a writer's motP.rial -r-ust be the individual soul r·,..,hich is the :~r~.-:onr::~:Jtior. of Christendom), -...... hi!e rhe Marxist con only think in :losses ~Jnrl -::Jtf!gorie~, ond even in classes abhors ·,1ariety. The disillusion~d Mar' writer, and if that is all Mr. Calder-Marshall meant by his 'left' politics, I am sorry I grumbled about them. ( p. 25) In "Bloomsbury's Farthest North," Waugh elegantly dismisses W. H. Auden's and Louis MacNiece's Letters from Iceland (August 12, 1937) in such phrasing as" ... they wrote some rough Byronic verses of the kind that are turned aut in paper games at old-fashioned house-parties." (p. 25). He even manages a passing shot at Isherwood: "(Mr. Auden everywhere has difficulty N i th his rhymes. How I ucky that he did not take his former collaborator, Mr. Isherwood, on the jaunt)." (p. 25). When reviewing Aldous Huxley's Ends and lvleans, ("More Barren Leaves," December 23, 1937), Waugh argues against Huxley's thesis of the human mind's tendency "to ·~duce the diverse to the identical", and retorts, "Men and women are only types-- economic, :ohysiological, what you will-- until one knows them. The whole of thought and taste consists 1n distinguishing between simi Iars." (p. 24). Perhaps this way of looking at life anticipates the ·~pealed motif of the war novels: "Quantitative judgments don't apply." Despite his oft maligned right-.ving attitudes, his review of Vain Glory, memoirs of World Nor I, edited by Guy Chapman (July 29, 1937) indicates sharp awareness of what was going on in Nazi Germany in 1937: ... it is a book that is badly needed almost everywhere but in England. Germans will not be allowed to read it, and I think the editor has made a great mistake and severely impaired the usefulness of his own work by yiel.ding to the temptation to score points against the Nazi regime. We have no need in England to be reminded of the intolerable injustice of that regime ... there is again the appalling danger of a generation growing up who look upon it (war) as a glorius vocation to be followed for its own sake. (p. 24) In the same review he suggests, in an uncanny fashion, almost the entire range of Sword of Honour, Nhen he writes of Guy Chapman that: He is occupied primarily with the spiritual consequences, the pollution of truth, the deterioration of human character in :xolonged 'Jnnatural stress, ~he err1ergence of the bully and the cad, the obliteration of chivalry. (p. 24) Strong-minded, illuminating, occasionally dogmatic, and rather Johnsonian in their vigor, tnese reviews increase our knowledge of Waugh's lively interest in the work of other professionals a.nd :Jrovide Further evidence of a cl~arly rfefir.ed ~ritic~l ~ast~ :::r.d "?:<;Jressicr. ~:--·i~~!y _-:::rsis~en~ •vith attitudes developed in Waugh's fiction. THE YEAR'S WORK IN WAUGH STUDIES James F. Carens (Bucknell University) The oortrait of Evelyn \Vaugh that Ne find in C. tv~. Bowra's A..-\e,.....orir.s 1809-~?]0 ''//~>idr~n f..·l~ .ond Nicolson, 1966, 67)* is substantial enough to hold its own in the dazzling gallecy of B:-...... ·'J's friends, colleagues, 'Jnd ossociat~s. 1Naugh was, Bowra 'NI-ites, "Like the Betiernam iri tk•!. -;t~ength of hi~ personality and the originality of his genius'' but 11 more formidable ar.d comDic.<. n· /J.- """umber of items that appeared during the past year Jo suggest something of the o:omol~: --A,~in.: ~·:osok'~ 'Surpll!rDent·-w; Checkli~t -Jf Criticism'' fENN, Soring, ]:(a-;:~~~ th;;· Arr.tericon edition of thi:. bcok", ...,hi,:h '"r"JS not hithert0 :'J,~t~n rf~vi.~w~d in if~,:s(: .-.. ,-;~~ 1 :s. public Waugh with whom we are most familiar. St. John who served with Waugh during World War II suggests that the novelist adopted a pose of snobbery as a shield against his surroundings, but he adds nothing really new to our knowledge of Waugh's character. He does, however, mention a superb question with which Waugh startled a "visiting brasshat": Is it true that "in the Rumanian army no one beneath the rank of major was permitted to use lipstick." In Bowra's far more searching analysis of Waugh's character, the writer is described as "observant," "opprcoia- t.rve, II !I sc h o Ior Iy, " on d It generous II ; on d Bowra sees h'rm as " come d'ran, II , sa t'rrrs, . t " an d " mora I'1st .. whose demon converted his apprehensions into "preposterous fancy." (" •.. if you told him some lurid piece of news, he would say 'Horrible, horrible. You couldn't please me more."') The series of five letters from Waugh to the late Thomas Merton that appeared in the E1e1;n Waugh Newsletter (Spring, 1969) surely bear the stamp of the generosity Bowra ascribes to liaugr. They reveal integrity and exquisite tact as well. In these letters, Waugh manages to be critically honest ("Is there not a slight hint of bustle and salesmanship about the way you want to scooo CJS oil into a higher grade than we are fit for?") and gracefully critical ("I know you hove no c.ersonc pride in your work, but you do not want. . . has tile critics to be able to say: '. . A promising man ruined by being turned an to make money far the monastery'.") Readers of this ~Jewslette· must have appreciated Paul Doyle's description of certain Waugh items in the Fales Collection of New York University, the promise of a forthcoming Newsletter epitomizing letters from Evei;m to .tdec Waugh now in the Boston University Library, and Winnifred M. Bogaard's bibliography, "Waugh's Letters to The Times: 1936-64". But the Merton letters are the most interesting 'Ncugh correspondence we have seen to date. Also drawing on Waugh correspondence to suggest the ::or- ~lexity of the man's attitudes, Paul Doyle cited letters to The Tablet and at least one letter ·c J~ :nglish priest in on article, "Evelyn Waugh's .;ttitude toward Ecumenism" (Twin Circle, Jul; 27, 1?69, 1, 11-12.) In his article, Paul Doyle attemPts to clarify Waugh's attitude toward changes in the Roman Catholic Church's relation to other religious grouos and to explain his criticism ci ·- vernacular Mass: in short, to distinguish Waugh's subtle traditionalism from reaction. The sub-titles of the Waugh-Greenidge silent film, The Scarlet Woman (1924), with parec theticol descriptions of the frames by Charles E. Linck (EWN, Autumn, 1969), appear to il!u~i "ate both the psyche of its scenarist-producer and aspectSOf"his work. A parody of the haop:o inconsequence of early film melodrama, the story's fantastic conceits-- a paoal plot, ::r. or'e-.:·•,. ·1omosexual seduction-- suggest both Corvo and Firbank; and its underlying myth, even to ore ..,- .. ;inds most osychoanalytic criticism crude, may indicate a -::onfli:::t in the depths of .1/augh s c.e--g -::nd in the circle of his Oxford friends-- a conflic~ he would !ater consciously exploit in Bric:esne-:-:. and in Pinfold. Both biographers and critics must attend to this first significant oroduct "Jf '.'/:·;::~: Imagination. The m"'t interesting passage in the St. John Times article is the one in ""ich foe comments or 'he first volume of the trilogy. Waugh, he says, "9Qtthe mood of those early months dead ric;:c·. -\nd he indicates that Ritchie-Hook, Apthoroe, Trimmer, the Garibaldi restaurant, the Isle oi '.'c•;·, e>oisode, the fiasco in West Africa, are all based on Fact. Similar!_y, in 01 The Bright Young Pe-c::1p ln '/ile Bodies. n Charles Linck and Robert Davis-- Papers on Language and Literature, \j i'/.-'ir_t~- 191,0), 80-00-- explore the social reality behind 'Naugh's second novel. Theio method is tf.cr oi .:.:nolarship rather than of reminiscence, of course, 'Jnd •heir ~ The investigation of textual problems resulting from Waugh's frequent revisions and multiple editions continues to bear fruit. In English Language Notes, March 1969, 200-201, assuming that he had located a proofreading error in the Crouchbock trilogy, Joseph F. ·Mattingly misread Waugh's work and the comments of at least two critics. Then in the issue of December, 1969, Robert Davis pointed out ( pp. 127 -129) that the Eng I ish Uncondi tiona I Surrender di Hers from the American The End of the Battle and a Iso from the recension, Sword of Honour. So far as I know no one has argued that Crouchback ends by accept-ing "modern mores," but he does accept a wife and at least three boy-children in Unconditional Surrender. Responding to Mattingly's argument that Guy's child lessness in the recension is crucial and indicates Waugh's conviction that the English Catholic Ci" Aristocracy is finished, Robert Davis argued that "whether or not Guy has children of his own is ,, I irrelevant to the central themes of the novel: the acceptance of moral responsibility . , . and of t the Christian duty of Charity in place of personal egotism" and that the final revisions served to I strengthen those themes. In "The Serial Version of Brideshead Revisited," Twentieth Century Literature, April, 1969, 35-43, Davis had also dealt with textual matters, demonstrating that there ;I ore at least five separate stages of the text of Brideshead and three different versions of the division into Books. By comparing the serial version published in Town and Country with the first English I ~dition, he analyzed Waugh's creative process, his means of enriching and controlling character, motive, scene, and theme, To Davis's five variant stages, Alan Clodd added another (EWN, Spring, 1969): "the 'Author's edition' of which an unknown number of copies were madeinodvance 'presumably) of the Chapman and Hall printing." And more recently (EWN, Winter, 1969), Clodd and Paul Doyle have demonstrated such marked differences between the English and American edi ~ions of The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold that it is possible to speak of two distinct Pinfolds. The situation is further complicated by the fact that "In some places, one version is superior" while at 8thers "the opposing edition is preferable" and by the fact that into the Penguin paperback Waugh : ntroduced additi ana I changes. One can only cone Iude that while many of the textua I variants that have been uncovered are of minor importance, many others are highly significant. As Davis :ommented in the December, 1969,. English Language Notes, "Waugh was capable of altering not only details but important thematic elements." As one who prefers the first Chapman and Hall editions of the separate novels to the recension, I must also agree with his conclusion that "a full study of che •e•dual history" of Waugh's novels would be "rewarding" and is now ''essential," A paperback volume in The Christian Critic Series, edited by Robert Murray Davis, titled beiyn Waugh, and containing essays by seven critics and scholars who wrote and nearly all oub lisned between 1959 and 1967 was issued this year. The essays vary considerably in their particular :oncerns and cover the Waugh cannon quite well. There is great variety also in the past year's essays that treat particular works or the general conan. Indeed, the diversity of opinion might tempt one to conclude that just as one might speak of o._3ritish Pinfold and an American Pinfold one might speak of a Smith Waugh, AI Jones Waugh, a l·lurohy Waugh, etc. Patrick Costella's "An Ideo of Comedy and Waugh's Sword of Honour," Konsos Quarterly, I (Summer, 1969), 41-50, erects an elaborate suoerstructure derived From are ligious modification of Suzanne Longer's definition of comedy but is uninspired in analysis. William J, :=oak Jr., writing in Mission, II (June, 1969) 21-24, argues that Waugh's last three novPis are 0. hool and critical evaluation of his Church and that the conclusion of the Crouchback novels gives "te1timony to ... the validity of a simple Christ-like religion," In The Theological Novel of 1•1-c•Jern Eurooe (Ungar, 1969) Kurt F. Reinhardt devotes a chaoter to "Evelyn Waugh: Christian 11 (;.,ntleman. He surveys the novels and the coreer 1 summarizes the "story'' of Bridesheod, and cwrc!udes that it was Waugh's highest achievement: "He never reached thi~ height again." More !f\ten?sting ore recent essays by Robert Davis and Herbert Howarth, Davis's "The Shrinking Garden 001d. ~'lew Exits: The Comic-Satiric ~ 1969), 5-16, distinguishes among three stages of the comic-satiric novel: "The novel of ideas, ,~presented by (Norman) Douglas and (Aldous) Huxley; the externalist navel, represented by Ronald Firbank and Evelyn Waugh ... ; and modern absurdist comedy and satire ... " According to Davis, who selects his examples of this third stage from American fiction, whereas Waugh's :orotagonists hod lost control of their destinies, the existential protagonists of the new absurdist 'idion -- Yossarian in Catch-22, for instance-- assert "the energies of the self." Lost but surely o·ot least among these recent essays, I must speak of Herbert Howarth's "Quelling the Riot: Evelyn .'Iough's Progress," which appeared in The Shapeless God: Esso son Modern Fiction, edited by H 0 rry J. Mooney and Thomas F. Staley Pittsburg , 1969). The piece, an appreciation in the best .•'nse, has so much manner and so much style one is tempted to ignore its sriti~al perceptions, Hhich "" ·rery real. Tracing the progress of the satiric pilgrim, Howarth leads us to his essay's ~limax Nith a comment about the positive side of Waugh's depiction, in Sword of Honour, of national moral .·oi!apse: "When the establishment says "Hush," he's damned if he'll hush." And his witty con- :iuding remark about the trilogy deserves quotation too: "on the evidence of the trilogy we must :c·1 at the very least, that if he (Waugh) was too much of a snob to adopt redbrick England like o ;entleman ... he was religious enough to take it as his cross." EVELYN WAUGH: A SUPPLEMENTARY CHECKLIST OF CRITICISM Heinz Kosak (University of Marburg, Germany) This is a continuation of the earlier checklists, published in c•,elyn Waugh Newsletter (E'NN), 'I,:, and Ill, i. It includes books and articles published since 1968, as well as some items omitted from the previous lists. A.con., "The Beauty of His Malice: Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)," Time (Apr. 22, 1966), 84. "'' Auden, W.H., "As It Seemed To Us", New Yorker (Apr. 3, 1965T;l59-192. 8i•Jmenberg, Hans, "Eschatologische lronie: lJoer die Romane Evelyn Waughs," in: Karlheinz Schmidthus (ed.), Lob der Schopfung und Argernis der Zeit: Moderne christliche Dictung in <:itik und Deutung (Freiburg, 1959), pp. 159-170 . .ilndelsen, C.A., "Evelyn Waugh," in: Sven M. Kristensen (ed.), Fremmede digtere i det 20 ;rhundrede, vol. Ill (Copenhagen, 1968), pp. 185-198. lkqaards, Winnifred M., "Waugh's Letters to The Times", EWN,III, iii (1969), 5-6. s.~r:aords, Winnifred M., ''Ideas and Values In the \Nark. .:Jf Evelyn '1/cugh, II Ur::ub. ~oc~. )iss. • University of Saskatchewan, 1969). Bv.c·,/ey, William F., "Evelyn 'Haugh, R.I.P.," National Keview, :<'!Ill (1?66), 400-401. Comeron, J.M., "A Post-Waugh Insight", Commonweal, LXXXIII (1965), 114-115. (li.cton, Farley, "Evelvn Waugh, P.I.P.", National ~eview, : Csoorne, John, ''Evelyn Waugh ~='cces 'Life' ::nd ')ice \'ersa, 'I )._~!antic 1\;\onrh'ly, cc/\.'-i Ill ' Dec. , 1966), 1 14-1 15. ~ritcl,<:>'t, \l.S., 11 :':eltn '."laugh," 1'-Jew Statesman, (,.l.pril l5, 1966), 547. C_uennell, Peter, "Evelyn Waugh," New York Times Book Review !May 8, 10661, 2. 00 f A WAUGH LETTER POSTMARKED CHICAGO Charles E, Linck, Jr. lEast Texas State University) ALS. 1p. Piers Court, Stinchcombe, Glos., Nov, 9, n.y. !postmarked Chicago, ~-lov, 18, 1946), To John Wi IIi am Rogers. Dear Sir, I am at a loss to explain Mr. Matson's extraordinary behavior. I can only suppose his mind has given way. My letter for your paper was written many weeks ago and should be in your hands. I deeply regret the inconvenience that has caused (sic?) you and the discourtesy of my agent. Yours faithfully, Evelyn Waugh At the period in question, John William Rogers was an editor of the Chicago Sun. This epistle suggests that Waugh wrote an item, a letter to the editor, possibly, which appeared in the Sun. If ;o, no Waugh bibliographer has yet turned up this reference, Waugh scholars would also welcome .Jefinite information about the identity of Mr. Matson, conceivably an employee of Waugh's lit~rary ii' I ogent. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WAUGH CRITICISM (FRENCH AREA): PART I Yvon Tesse r ( Paris-Nanterrre University i ~~b~r~s, R.M., L'aventure intellectuelle du XXeme siecle. Paris,Aibin Michel, 1959, o. 212, 238, 240, 261, 273, 280, 281, 306, 307, 319, 351. 3ory, Jean-Louis, "Lorsque le diable pince sans rire: l'epreuve de Gilbert Pinfold". Paris, L'Exaress, 10.2. 1959, ,op. 28-29. :ossen, Bernard, ~~Evelyn Waugh: Ia nostalgie d 1 un ordre qui n1 a iamais ete,~~ Paris, Le ·"'~onde, 27.4.1968, p. IV-V. >~igne, Louis, Edmond Campion, martyr (a review of). Paris. Les Nouvelles Litteraires, 10.6. 1954, p. 3. _··auveau, Paul, Diablerie (A review of Black Mischief)- Les Nouvelles Litteraires, 10.3.1938, p. 5. :·,auveau, Paul, Une poignee de cendre (a review of A Handful of Dust) Les Nouvelles Litt~rai·es, 2~.5. 1045, o. 3. Er"'ards, John D., "Fieursblanchesetoursen peluche," Paris, Le Monde, 27.4.1968, p. IV. ['·.t>n, Claude, "A preface to the French translation of The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold." Paris, Stou 1957, 5 pages. Giroudoux, Jean, 11 A preface to the French translation of Black lv\ischief," Paris, Crasset, 1938, ' Dages. Lai-Ju, Rene,....\ review of t3rideshead Revisi~ed. Paris, Les Nouvelles Litteraires, 20.5.1047. id. A review of The Loved One. id. 29.9.49. id. A review of Men ot Arms. id. 11.3.54. id. ,l, review of Officers and Gentlemen. id. 31 .5.56. id, A review of The Ordeal of Gilbe•t Pinfold. id.20. 11.58. 1 k.s /ergnas, Ra,rnond, ''twec notre meilleur souvenir. A review of A LitH~~ Learnin'l, '' Paris 1 Les /"-Jouvelles Litte'raires 1 27,6. 1'~68. !Y\aurois, Andr~, "A preface to the French translation of Edmund Campion," Chambery, Amiot Dumont, 1953, 4 pages. Monad, Sylvere, "Satire ou invective?," Paris-, Le Mende, 27-4-68. P.IV-V. X. , "Whiskies-soda sous les bombes." A review of Officers and Gentlemen. Paris, L'Express, 20.7. 1956, p. 16. BOOK REVIEW Evelyn Waugh, ed. Robert Murray Davis, "The Christian Critic Series," B .. Herder B0ok Co., 314 North Jefferson, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, 1969, $1,25. Reviewed by James Corens (Bucknell University). Within its defined limits, Robert Davis's selection of pieces on Waugh is a very useful one. We con learn something --or have on argument with something --in olmost·everyone of the "ssays or excerpts. Alvin Kernan, Charles Linck, Patricia Carr, D.J. Dooley, Marston Lo France, Berner-: Bergonzi, and Robert Murray Davis are represented, and it is good to have their essays in this con ?enient form. Not all of the essays, however, are of the some excellence. Alvin Kernan's "The 'Noll and the Jungle: The Early Novels of Evelyn Waugh" and Bernard Bergonzi's "Evelyn Waugh's Gentlemen" seem to me exceptional. Kernan's exploration of "circularity" in the pattern or design of the early novels and Bergonzi's perception of the conflict between myth and reality in the later Waugh justify inclusion of their essays among the choicest items of Waugh criticism. On the other hand, Patricia Carr's "Evelyn Waugh: Sanity and Catholicism" seems to me to demonstrate all the faults of doctrinaire criticism. Waugh "rather timid handling ... his Catholic material in Brideshea'J' Revisited"! "Catholicism ... a coherent philosophy" in his later novels! At such moments I hurry off in search of same curmudgeonly atheist, orthodox or reformed Jew, suffering existentialist, or free-thinking supernatura I ist! Robert Davis's introduction is brief but good. And it was a real pleasure to read a footnote in which he makes a point that needs making: "Even now the disclosures of the Phi !by spy case in England are putting into new perspective Waugh's accusations (implications?) of Communist consoir acy in Sword of Honour. What had seemed a disgruntled Tory version of McCorthyism is now shown To have some basis in fact. n qon=c ~10T~S Southern Illinois University Press in Carbondale calls our attention to the Spring publication of of a new book by Vida E. !Y\arkovic, The Changing Face: Disintegration of Persona lit:; in ~he T.ve.c :ierh Century British Novel, 1900-1950. Among the fictional characters studied is Tony lost. Robert Murray Davis is scheduled to organi.:::e a listing of ~he '.. '/augh manuscripts or rhe Univer sity of Texas Library. The Evelyn Waugh Newsletter, designed to stimulate research end continue interest in the life Jnd writings of Evelyn Wau~h, is published three times a year in April, October, and December (Soring, Autumn and 'Nin~er numbers). Subscription rate for libraries and interested individuals: )2.50 a year (22 shillings in England). A ;ingle issue 90 cent;, Check or money order should be -,acj~ :)ayable to the Evelyn 1Naugh Newsletter. Notes, brieF essays, and news items about ·Naugh and ..,is Nark may be submitted, but manuscripts cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self- Jddressed envl:"lonf>. Adrlr,o.c;<; 111 r('H•fH,:-'t)f';~.--.r- .... ro • ...., """· :J. I '·. :-.:..:.,:•:/- '..., ~··:i·: ... .=:..,;iA.••!rT1e/ll, ~lassau Community College, State University of New York, Garden City, New York, 11530. Editorial Board -Editor: Paul 11. Doyle, A;sociote Editors: Alfred W. Borrello (f:inr,sbocough Com ·nunity College): James F. Cacens (Bucknell Unive,ity); Robert M. Davis (University of Oklohomol, ~einz Kosak (Univt>rsity of Marbur'.]);Charles E. Linck, Jr. (East Texas State Uni'l~r~ityl,