EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER and STUDIES Volume 27, Number 2 Autumn, 1993

EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER AND STUDIES Volume 27, Number 2 Autumn, 1993

THE AWAKENING CONSCIENCE IN BRIDESHEAD REVISITED By Elaine E. Whitaker (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Crucial to understanding the emotions which underlie Julia Flyte's renunciation of Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited is "Ruskin's description" of "a picture of Holman Hunt's cal.led 'The Awakened Conscience'" (290). Julia, who has not seen the picture, concludes from Ryder's reading of Ruskin, "You're perfectly right. That's exactly what I did feel" (290). That these feelings were aroused by her brother Bridey's statement that Julia was "living in sin" (285, 287) has never been in dispute. However, both the title of Hunt's painting and the location of Ruskin's criticism require further explication. Although Waugh, his editors, and his critics have consistently referred to The Awakened Conscience, the title Holman Hunt assigned to this work was not The Awakened Conscience but rather The Awakening Conscience. Waugh's apparent error links Hunt's painting to its Victorian predecessors, The A wakened Conscience by Richard Redgrave and The Awakened Conscience by Thomas Brooks.' Because Waugh was not a casual observer of these Victorian painters, he should not have been prone to such an error. On the contrary, Waugh indicates his interest not only by the allusion in Brides head but also by his prior claim that "The A wakened Conscience ... is, perhaps, the noblest painting by any Englishman."' Thus, Waugh's alteration of Hunt's title deserves investigation. The painting which Waugh praises but mistitles depicts a young woman who has risen from her lover's lap, though her lover continues to hold her with one arm and to touch the keys of a piano with his free hand. Among the several features of the composition which label the relationship adulterous and emphasize the young woman's shocked awareness is the painting-within-the-painting, which portrays a repentant adulteress whose posture echoes that of the young woman. Additionally, the motifs on the picture's frame include "marigolds and bells, symbols of sorrow and warning" (Wood 137). Inscribed on the base of the frame is the following quotation from Proverbs: "As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather,/so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart." For the catalogue of the Royal Academy's 1854 exhibition, Hunt furnished two additional quotations-one from Ecclesiasticus, the other from Isaiah (Landow 50-51, based on Frederick George Stevens, William Holman Hunt and His Works). Taken together, these visual and verbal signals emphasize the response of the Victorian adulteress when confronted with her situation. It is this response-as it is described by John Ruskin-which Waugh uses in Brideshead Revisited. Of the young woman in Hunt's painting, Ruskin writes: [S]he has started up in agony .... ! suppose that no one possessing the slightest knowledge of expression could remain untouched by the countenance of the lost girl, rent from its beauty into sudden horror; the lips half open, indistinct in their purple quivering; the teeth set hard; the eyes filled with the fearful light of futurity, and with tears of ancient days. (The Times 7.6) Ruskin justifies his letter to The Times because viewers of The Awakening Conscience "gaze at it in a blank wonder, and leave it hopelessly" (7.6). Thus, despite the extensive apparatus supplied by Hunt, observers were befuddled. Since Ruskin's review appeared in The Times, the reader of Brides head may also be befuddled by Charles Ryder's reference to a book: "I had seen a copy of Pre Raphaelitism in the library some days before; I found it again and read her Ruskin's description." (290) William T. Going has previously called attention to the apparent error in Ryder's reference.' Indeed, Ruskin's letter to The Times does not appear in Ruskin's Pre-Raphaelitism but rather in Holman Hunt's memoirs, Pre-Raphae/itism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Because of their influence on him, Hunt reprints within his memoirs complete texts of each of Ruskin's letters concerning the Pre-Raphaelites.4 Hunt published his memoirs in 1905, a date which makes their inclusion in the library at Brideshead plausible. Furthermore, a copy of Hunt's Pre-Raphaelitism in the library harmonizes with the chapel"redecorated in the arts-and-crafts style of the last decade of the nineteenth century" (38) as Julia's father's wedding gift to her mother (39). Finally, Waugh would likely have associated his knowledge of Hunt's memoirs with marriage, as Hunt had twice married into the Waugh family (Cole; Stannard 1.15). Awareness that these marriages had gone poorly reinforces the perception of doom which pervades Brideshead. Ironically, Hunt-who had lost his wife to death in route to the Holy land-received his copy of Ruskin's letter in Jerusalem, where Waugh ultimately deposits Julia. Artistically, Brideshead Revisited gains from the references discussed above. For example, Waugh's use ofthe title The Awakened Conscience rather than The Awakening Conscience conveys -2- the finality of Julia's return to the religious values of her upbringing. Though Ryder calls these values merely "preconditioning from childhood" and "all bosh" (290), Julia's position has already congealed. Thus, her wish to marry Ryder will be supplanted by her renunciation of him. Just as Holman Hunt's lover-pianist remains unaware of his companion's conversion, Waugh's lover narrator-himself a painter of the sort envisioned by Ruskin5-does not anticipate either his own religious conversion or the strength of Julia's resolve. Finally, Ruskin's description of The Awakening Conscience rather than the painting itself must be the standard of reference for Julia's emotions because the facial expression in the painting was revised subsequent to its original exhibition. According to Hunt, "the woman's head in its present condition is not exactly what it was when Ruskin described the picture.''' It is fitting that Waugh refers his readers to Ruskin's letter in the context where it includes Hunt's telling footnote. When revisited, Brideshead too is not "exactly what it was.'' Notes 'For Holman Hunt's painting, which has been reproduced frequently, see Wood, plate 143, p. 137. For a close view of the young woman's face, the portion of the canvas relevant to Julia's response, see Landow, plate 25, p. 52. For a reproduction of Red grave's painting, see Casteras and Parkinson, plate 99, p. 134. Wood views Redgrave's 1849 painting as "a forerunner of Holman Hunt's elaborate moral fable" (138); the compositions, however, differ significantly. As Hunt painted The Awakening Conscience during 1853, completing it in January of 1854, Thomas Brooks' painting, displayed at the Royal Academy in 1853, could arguably have influenced Hunt's thinking, even though the paintings differ in subject matter. 'PRB: An Essay on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 1847-1854, 25. However, Waugh's observations on the Pre-Raphaelites are disparaged as "inexcusably inaccurate" (xii) by Fleming. 3 Going writes that "Waugh's memory appears to have failed him here: the passage is not in Ruskin's pamphlet Pre-Raphaelitism (1852). Perhaps Waugh means for the Brideshead library to contain a copy of an anthology (1876), which reprinted the letter with Ruskin's permission" (p. 93, n. 8). The present note provides an alternative explanation. 41.418-19. That Waugh had read Hunt's Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is evident from his citation of it in Rossetti: His Life and Works (e.g., 37). Elsewhere, Waugh concludes that Hunt would not have continued to paint without the influence of Ruskin's two letters to The Times (PRB 22-23). Ruskin's influence on Hunt as it relates to both art and religion is helpfully summarized by Landow (6-7). 'In his Pre-Raphaelitism, John Ruskin calls the "true duty" of the painter "the faithful representation of all objects of historical interest, or of natural beauty existent at the period" (quoted from The Crown of Wild Olive [244, italics his]). Charles Ryder's fulfillment of Ruskin's "true duty" is evident in his characterization of himself as "an architectural painter" with three books of English subjects to his credit (226-27). '1.418, n. 1. Hunt attributes the changes to the dissatisfaction of the owners, who felt "that the expression of the girl was painful" (1.418, n. 1). Nor was Hunt satisfied with the revision, as he claims that he was forced to return the painting to the owners before he wished to do so. Works Cited Casteras, Susan P., and Ronald Parkinson, eds. Richard Redgrave 1804-1888. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1988. Cole, Mark. "A Haunting Portrait by William Holman Hunt." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art 77 (December 1990):354-63. Fleming, G. H. Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1967. Going, William T. "Pre-Raphaelitism in Brideshead Revisited." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 7 (May 1987):90-93. Hunt, W. Holman. Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. 2 vols. New York and London: MacMillan, 1905. 1.415-19. Landow, George P. William Holman Hunt and Typological Symbolism. New York and London: Yale UP, 1979. Ruskin, John. Letter to the Editor. The Times [London]. 25 May 1854. 7.6. -. The Crown of Wild Olive. Boston: Dana Estes, 1913. Stannard, Martin. Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years 1903-1939. New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1986. Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder. Boston: Little, Brown, 1945. -. PRB: An Essay on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 1847-1854. N.p.: n.p., [1926]. -.Rossetti: His Life and Works. Longan: Duckworth, 1928. Rpt. Norwood, PA: Norwood Editions, 1979. Wood, Christopher. Victorian Panorama: Paintings of Victorian Life. London: Faber and Faber, 1976. -3- VIRGINIA TROY By Ann Hitt When Waugh created Virginia Troy, he made her, as he did with many of the women in his novels, amoral, degenerate, egotistical, and self-centered; a woman who had no regard for anyone other than herself. But, she was also kind, intelligent, and educated. She also liked the bright lights of big cities. Waugh does not give a physical description of Virginia, but he does indicate that she is an attractive woman, a person of charm and wit. Men are attracted to Virginia. She is quite desirable sexually and more than ready to take up with whomever can pay for her. She was from a wealthy family and knew only the best in clothes, jewelry, travel, and hotels. Good restaurants and attractive, wealthy men to dine with were the normal plan in her life. Virginia is present in all three books of the war trilogy. In Men at Arms, she is a minor character used to explain how Guy Crouch back has become a dry and empty man. In Officers and Gentlemen, Waugh begins to develop her role, and she becomes more important to the action of the story. She sinks to a low level in the third book, The End of the Battle, and is forced to turn to Guy for help. In so doing, she restores Guy's manhood, and "The deep old wound in Guy's heart and pride healed also" (EB 257). Although she becomes a Catholic, she does so for the wrong reasons. She joins the Church in order to entice Guy into marrying her rather than because she has faith (EB 180-81). Virginia is introduced in MA as "not a Catholic but a bright fashionable girl, quite unlike anyone that his [Guy's] friends or family would have expected [him to marry]" (MA 15-16). Guy Crouchback was not a man who expected much from life: "The very few, very small distinctions that had come to him, had all come as a surprise" (22). It sounds, perhaps, as though marrying Virginia had been a certain distinction; it also became a surprise. After they were married, they moved to Kenya. Shortly afterward, Virginia "said that her health required a year in England" (16). While there she renews her acquaintance with Tommy Blackhouse and announces to Guy that she wants a divorce in order to marry Tommy. After the divorce, Guy returns to Italy to live in the Castello built by his grandfather. At the beginning of the second World War he has been there for eight years in a wounded state caused by Virginia's betrayal. The Russian-German alliance encouraged him to return to England to fight for king and country (7). In London, Guy eventually meets Virginia in person for the first time in eight years. At that meeting, for Guy, "a ghost had been laid which had followed him for eight years .... He found the ghost to be kind and unsubstantial" (113). Later at Southsand, Guy makes friends with a townsman who is interested in the Crouchback family genealogy. In their conversation Guy is made to realize that since the Roman Church does not recognize divorce, he is still married to Virginia and will be forever. "Theologically the original husband committed no sin in resuming relations with his former wife?" Guy asks (150). This idea encourages him to return to London once more to see Virginia and try to establish a sexual relationship with her. At this time Guy expresses no concern about Virginia's easy virtue, but if he is aware of her reputation, he chooses to ignore it. Virginia inquires: "What would your priests say about your goings-on to-night; picking up a notorious divorcee in ah hotel?" "They wouldn't mind. You're my wife ....They'd say: 'Go ahead.'" (177). Guy manages to maintain an innocence of, or an inability to, face reality. He shows himself, at this point, to be as self-centered as Virginia ever was. Virginia has no religious or ethical values but at least she is honest. She does not hide what she is or whom she associates with. His using the Catholic Church as an excuse to have sex with Virginia could almost be compared to an act of violence. Waugh goes from satire to real irony in this scene. Virginia says to Guy, "It's absolutely disgusting. It's worse than anything Augustus or Mr. Troy could ever dream of. Can't you see, you pig, you?" Guy replies, "No," in deep honest sincerity. Virginia continues: "I'd far rather have been offered five pounds to do something ridiculous in high heels .... I thought you'd chosen me specially, and by God you had. Because I was the only woman in the whole world your priests would let you go to bed with. That was my attraction." (177). Virginia is angry and humiliated; she thought he had really wanted her because he still loved her. Waugh is not only using irony at this point but also sarcasm. It is one of the most powerful scenes in the trilogy. Virginia leaves, and this is the last we see of her in Men at Arms. In Officers and Gentlemen Waugh gives a deeper insight into Virginia Troy's personality than he does for most any other of his characters. She and Trimmer are talking of the Acquitania and the narrator gives a short biography of the last fifteen years of Virginia's life. A friend of her father's had seduced her while she was in finishing school in Paris. She had later married Guy, lived in Italy, then Kenya; then her marriage to Tommy and her life in London hotels, fast cars, regimental point-to points, and the final horror of an Indian cantonment. Her life had been a race to stay ahead of time, -4- and then Augustus had come with his checkbook, and then Mr. Troy and his taste for significant people. She never thought of age or death; only the next five minutes were important And now, on a fog-bound night in Glasgow, here was Trimmer/Gustave, beside her to bring from the "other side of the looking glass, the ordered airy life aboard the great liner .... Gustave was the guide providentially sent on a gloomy evening to lead her back to the days of sun and sea-spray" (OG 99-100). When next we meet Virginia, she has returned to London and has met her old school chum, Kerstie Kilbannock, during an air raid. Virginia tells Kerstie that "she was hard up and homeless although still trailing clouds of former wealth and male subservience-Kerstie took her ... home" (180-81 ). As has been noted, Evelyn Waugh's satire comments on the deterioration of the class society in England and the rise of the Modern Man following the first World War. The culture he loved was replaced by scientific materialism. His work is a reminder that "science and psychology have not provided really effective substitutes for the traditional beliefs and values which they have so effectively undermined (Huxley vii). Sergeant Hooper in Brides head Revisited is Waugh's first really modern man. If Hooper represents the rise of the lower class; then the women in Waugh's novels, with a few execptions, represent the fall of the English upper class. In the war trilogy, Trimmer could be said to represent the rise of the lower class, a man of the people; and Virginia Troy the fall of the upper class. In Officers and Gentlemen and Men at Arms, Virginia has helped Trimmer to be a national hero and destroyed Guy Crouchback. ! n the third book of thetri!ogy, The End of the Battle, she becomes more human and, therefore, more real and believable. lan Kilbannock sets up the situation for Trimmer to become a national hero, but without Virginia the whole thing would have come to nothing. After Trimmer has been touring England for two years, I an sends him to America and Virginia returns to London. Once again it is necessary for her to impose on Kerstie and I an for food and shelter. Virginia for many years, "from the day of her marriage to Guy to the day of her desertion of Mr. Troy, and for a year after, she had achieved a douceur de vivre that was alien to her epoch" (EB 93). During these years there had always been men and money; thus she was protected from the retributions of the world that would have shown its displeasure at her lifestyle. Now, suddenly, she is alone, has no money and no home. She discovers she is pregnant and hunts about for a doctor who will do an abortion. At the same time she also discovers that Mr. Troy has divorced her, leaving her with an over-draft at the bank and lawyers' bills to pay. Guy's father has died leaving him property and some money. Almost immediately after Virginia hears of Mr. Crouch back's death and that Guy has inherited property and money, she goes to call on Guy at Uncle Peregrine's apartment Evelyn Waugh frequently makes his characters, both men and women, very charming people. He also suggests that the more charming they are, the more shallow they are; Virginia Troy is more charm than substance, and when she goes to visit Guy she is all charm. Uncle Peregrine admits her and escorts her to Guy's room and leaves them alone. Soon he returns just "to have another look at Virginia." Peregrine was unaccustomed to women, and she had lurid associations for him. To Peregrine, Virginia was "a scarlet woman, the fatal woman who had brought about the fall of the house of Crouchback," and Peregrine thought she looked the part He was unable to seethe signs of failure and despair that would be clear to one more familiar with the world (169). It is clear at this point that Virginia hopes to ingratiate herself with Guy; perhaps to get him to marry her again, thus giving her security and the child a name. She later is forced to tell Guy she is pregnant, but clearly she had wanted to marry him before he knew of her pregnancy and let him think the child was his. This would not have worked because I an and Kerstie knew it was Trimmer's baby. This visit to Uncle Peregrine's apartment is the first time Virginia and Guy have met in two years. Guy says, "The last two years have been as dull as peace," and Virginia replies, "You might have come and seen me." Guy explains that he did not want to see h~r because he had made "rather an ass" of himself at their last meeting, when he had tried to seduce her. She laughs and tells him that if he only knew how many people she had seen make asses of themselves, he would not worry. "That's all forgiven," she says. "Not by me," he replies (168). Along with a husband and a name for her child, Virginia was also seeking a return to normality. This meant, for her, power and pleasure. She wanted to be able to "cash cheques, wear new clothes, lave her face with its accustomed unguent, travel with speed and privacy and attention ... and choose her man and enjoy him at her pleasure" (190). If she can remarry Guy, the money for these luxuries will again be available for her. She tries to entice Guy with her charm once again. She asks what he thinks of her. He says that he knows she is alone and unhappy and "for the first time in your life you are frightened of the future" (190). She recalls to him that he has enjoyed having her around, and she casually mentions that she -5- is still his wife. None of this works. Guy says he will help her until she can find someone new. Finally Virginia is forced to tell him that she is pregnant with Trimmer's child {192). This discovery makes all the difference to Guy. He will marry her of course. His friends and family think he is crazy to take Virginia back. Kerstie Kilbannock asks him if he's "being chivalrous-about Virginia? (195). He replies he is marrying Virginia to give the child a name. "Here was something most unwelcome, put into my hands .... But you see there's another life to consider.... " "It's no business of yours." [Kerstie replies.] "It was made my business by being offered ...." "My dear Guy, the world is full of unwanted children." "I can't do anything about all those others. This is just one case where I can help. And only I, really. I was Virginia's last resort." (195-96) Guy is well aware that he will not change Virginia, and it is difficult to read any forgiveness of Virginia on his part. He is doing it because he was asked and because his father thought the saving of a soul was more important than anything else. After Virginia and Guy have remarried and Guy has gone back to the war, Virginia is living with Uncle Peregrine in London. One evening Virginia is sewing her layette and Uncle Peregrine is reading from Anthony Tro\\ope's Can You Forgive Her? (207). This is an interesting choice for Waugh to make. There are some parallels between Virginia Troy and Alice Vavasor, the heroine of Can You Forgive Her? Waugh's war trilogy is about bringing order from chaos and maturing and forgiveness. Trollope's novel is about too much order, which brings its own chaos and maturity and forgiveness. Virginia does not feel the need to be forgiven. and Guy does not put into words that fact that he may, or may not, have forgiven her. But he is mature enough by the end of the trilogy to bring order to another life by his marriage to Virginia. Alice Vavasor had committed the social gaffe of breaking an engagement, twice, to a most acceptable man; and by this action she created chaos in her family. Breaking an engagement in the Victorian world Trollope creates is a grave sin. Alice was a long time in reaching the decision of forgiving herself and accepting John Grey's forgiveness for her foolishness. She finally marries John Grey and is forgiven by "all her friends ... and in the final adjustment of her affairs she had received more than she had deserved" (Forgive Her? II, 418). Virginia had also received more than she deserved, better than she deserved. There have been many characters of aristocratic birth and an amoral life-style in British and American literature, both men and women. Waugh uses two well known characters as a comparison to Virginia Troy. One is Myra Viveash from Aldous Huxley's Antic Hay (1922); the other Brett Ashley from Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1926). In his satire Huxley introduces Myra Viveash as one of the amoral. charming, beautiful, and wealthy women. She also. as does Virginia, has many men in her life. She lost her true love in the first World War (Huxley 151) and had been unable to replace him. We are too far removed ct:Jiturally, and in time also, to understand the "expiring voice" of Myra Viveash. Huxley says of her that she speaks "always on the point of expiring, as though each word were the last, uttered faintly and breakingly from the death-bed" (52). Virginia Troy was much more vivacious person than Myra Viveash. Virginia is an active participant in life and her "spontaneous laughter ... had once been one of her chief charms[.] ... her most endearing charms" (EB 176, 180). Myra is also quite wealthy and has an apartment furnished "tastefully in the [Modern] movement" (Huxley 159). There are paintings, portraits, wall coverings and furniture done by contemporary artists. Mrs. Viveash could be protrayed as a self-sufficient, good-time girl. The second woman to whom Virginia is compared is Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises. Waugh says "Hemingway coarsened the image with his Bret [sic]. but the type persisted-in books and in life" (EB 262-63). Brett is the same woman as Myra Viveash and Virginia Troy. She too is beautiful, amoral. wealthy, and very attractive to men. One thing that is completely different from either Virginia or Myra is that Brett is a drunk (38). She continually hungers after men and whiskey. Virginia differs from both Brett and Myra in that she has no money and no home. She must depend on Kerstie Kilbannock and later on Guy. The best description and the best explanation of Virginia is given by a minor character in The · End of the Battle, Everard Spruce. Virginia Troy was the last of twenty years' succession of heroines." ... The ghosts of romance who walked between the two wars." (EB 262). Perhaps this is not true. There are still women who live in the manner of Myra, Brett, and Virginia. Women who are very attractive to men and who for whatever reason choose to use their sexual -6- powers to live well. There may be little romance left in such a lifestyle, but Virginia epitomizes much of this behavior in a very fascinating, complex manner. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926. Huxley, Aldous. Antic Hay and The Gioconda Smile. NY: Harper & Brothers, 1957. Trollope, Anthony. Can You Forgive Her? London: Oxford UP, 1974. Waugh, Evelyn. The End of the Battle. Boston: Little, Brown, 1961. --Men at Arms. Boston: Little, Brown, 1952. --Officers and Gentlemen. Boston: Little, Brown, 1955.

EVELYN WAUGH: A SUPPLEMENTARY CHECKLIST OF CRITICISM By Gerhard Wolk (University of Wuppertal, Germany) This is a continuation of the earlier checklists, published in Evelyn Waugh Newsletter and Studies (EWNS). It includes books and articles published since 1991, as well as some items omitted from previous lists. Acton, Richard," 'Will a lion come?' Memories of Evelyn Waugh", Spectator, 19 Sept 1992,38,41-43. Allen, Boo, "Two Notes", EWNS, 26.3 (1992). 6. Ames, Christopher, The Life of the Party: Festive Vision in Modern Fiction {Athens: U niv. of Georgia Press, 1991). Reviewed by John Howard Wilson, EWNS, 26.3 (1992), 6-7. Beaty, Frederick L., The Ironic World of Evelyn Waugh (DeKalb: Northern Illinois Univ. Press, 1992). Reviewed by Walter Sullivan, q. v.; John Howard Wilson, EWNS, 26.3 (1992). 8; Paul A. Doyle, Choice, February 1993, 957. Bittner, David, " 'Serious Measures'- Assessing Sebastian Flyte's Intellect", EWNS, 26.2 (1992), 1-3. Bittner, David, "Some Questions about Father Rothschild", EWNS, 27.1 (1993), 4. Carmichael, Joel, "Brian Howard, a Friend of Waugh's: A Mini-Memoir", EWNS, 26.3 (1992). 3-5. Carpenter, Humphrey, The Brideshead Generation. Reviewed by Peter Parker, Listener, 14 Sept 1989, 28. Cooper, Artemis (ed.), Mr Wu and Mrs Stitch: The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991); The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1992). Reviewed by Alain Blayac, Etudes Anglaises, 46.1 (1993), 99-1 00; Paul A. Doyle, EWNS, 26.2 (1992), 8. Craig, Randall, "Evelyn Waugh and William Gerhardie", Journal of Modern Literature, 16.4 (1990), 597-614. Courtney, Nicholas, "In Society": The Brides head Years (London, Pavilion Books, 1992). Reviewed by Robert Murray Davis, EWNS, 26.3 (1992), 7-8. Cunningham, John, "A Handful of Dust Reconsidered", Sewanee Review, 101 (1993), 115-24. Davis, Robert Murray, Evelyn Waugh and the Forms of His Time. Reviewed by Alain Blayac, Etudes Anglaises, 44 (1991 ), 459-60. Davis, Robert Murray, "Man Overboard: Cyril Connolly in Austin", EWNS, 27.1 (1993), 1-3. Doyle, Paul A., A Reader's Companion to the Novels and Short Stories of Evelyn Waugh. Reviewed by Alain Blayac, Etudes Anglaises, 46 (1991 ), 233-34; Donat Gallagher, AUMLA: Journal of the Australasian University Language and Literature Association, No. 76, November 1991, 71-76. Doyle, Paul A., "Stannard's Biography", EWNS, 27.1 (1993), 8. Doyle, Paul A., "Waugh and the Italian Language", EWNS, 26.2 (1992), 7. Garnett, Robert R., From Grimes to Brides head. Reviewed by Alain Blayac, Etudes Anglaises, 46.1 (1993), 93-99; Robert Murray Davis, World Literature Today, 64.4 (1990), 646; Marvin Magalaner, Modern Fiction Studies, 36.4 (1990), 611-12. Gorra, Michael, The English Novel at Mid-Century. Reviewed by David Leon Higdon, Modern Fiction Studies, 37.4 (1991). 789-90. Greene, Donald, "In Defense of Stoneless Peaches", EWNS, 26.2 (1992), 4-5. Greene, Donald, "A Note on Helton and Some Other Abbeys", EWNS, 26.3 (1992), 1-3. McCann, Wesley, "Speedy recovery", Listener, 10 Aug 1989, 23. Osborne, John, "The Character of Cara in Brideshead Revisited", EWNS, 26.2 (1992), 3-4. Osborne, John W., "The Character of Mr. Samgrass", EWNS, 26.3 (1992), 5-6. du Sorbier, Francoise, (ed.), Oxford, 1919- 1939 (Paris: Autrement, 1991 ). Reviewed by Alain Blayac, Etudes Anglatses,. ' 46.1 (1993), 97-98. Stannard, Martin, (ed.), Evelyn Waugh: The Critical Heritage. Reviewed by Robert Murray Davis, Papers on Language and Literature, 22.1 (1989), 217. Stannard, Martin, Evelyn Waugh: No Abiding City. Reviewed by John Bayley, Times Literary Supple- -7- ment, 24 Apr 1992, 3-4; Robert Murray Davis, EWNS, 26.2 (1992), 7-8; Walter Sullivan, q. v.; Paul A. Doyle, Choice, January 1993, 180. Stannard Martin, "Literary Biography", Literature Matters (Newsletter of the British Council's Litera ture Department), no. 11 (Sep 1992), 6, 7. Sullivan, Walter, "Evelyn Waugh: The Final Chapter", Sewanee Review, 101.1 (1993), 125-31. [review article]. Thomas, Michael, Evelyn Waugh and Others from the Library of Michael Thomas (New York and London: Glenn Horowitz and G. Heywood Hill, 1992). Reviewed by Robert Murray Davis, EWNS, 26.3 (1992), 7. Wilson, John Howard, "The Hero's Misadventures in Decline and Fall", EWNS, 27.1 (1993), 4-7. Wilson, John Howard, "Rushdie Re Waugh", EWNS, 27.1 (1993), 8.

THE CHARACTER OF BRIDEY By John Osborne (Rutgers University) Brideshead, the eldest of Lord and Lady Marchmain's children, is lacking in charm and is awkward and unfeeling. Ryder's conventionally minded cousin, Jasper, calls him a sound fellow (41 ), but Sebastian says that he is twisted inside (88). As the eldest, Brideshead was the only one of Lord Marchmain's children to have a clear memory of his father's desertion and was even more upset when Lord Marchmain went abroad than was Lady Marchmain (88). His behavior, reiigious, moral and teetotaling, is in part a reaction agains his father's life. In a sense he is being the husband/son/brother that he thinks Lady Marchmain deserves. The main factor in Brideshead's existence is religion, just as it is in his mother's. Sebastian refers to his wanting to be a priest (88), and Mottram calls him a "half-baked monk" (176). Religion is never far from Brideshead's mind. This helps to account for two of his personality traits: his certainty and his acceptance of authority. Brideshead's certainty is demonstrated throughout the book (as for example on page 217 when he asks Ryder a few crisp questions about Sebastian and quickly decides to allow his absent brother to have the allowance that is due him). Ryder notes that this quality made Brideshead an easy man with whom to deal. Stolid, uninspiring, clumsy, Brideshead still could be formidable even in non-religious matters, as Ryder grudgingly points out (282). His acceptance of authority renders him unable to understand Sebastian's refusal to live at Oxford with Monsignor Bell, and is particularly clear when he defers to his mother's treatment of Sebastian's alcoholism (153). Lady March main's fervent Catholicism was absorbed by Brideshead, though this blunt man had none of his mother's indirect approach to human relations. He is literal-minded even about the chapel in the castle. Brideshead and Rex Mottram are both insensitive, but Brideshead has the important anchor of faith, while Mottram is a lover of the tangible. Brideshead's unworldliness is demonstrated by his surprise that there was agnosticism at Oxford in the 1920's. Unable to get along with people, he represents the dogma and formalism of the Roman Catholic faith, whereas his sister, Cordelia, represents its love. Of course, dogmatists are likely to be certain about everything and may thus appear "formidable." Lacking in base qualities and pathetic in his futile attempts as an undergraduate to get drunk with his associates, Brideshead has a sense of responsibility and keeps up the estate despite his dislike of rural life. The latter dislike is one of the few qualities he has in common with his father. He also has a need to follow the rules. For him, salavation is achieved by following dogma, and this carries over into worldly considerations. Brideshead is similar to Jasper in being grave and restrained, but these qualities are in his case unassumed and unselfconscious. He has an odd but natural dignity, although he belongs to a London club which Waugh may have modeled on the Savage Club whose cheerful members refer to each other as "Brother Savage." Yet he can be obtuse, as when he fails to observe that Julia and Mottram want to be alone and starts to read the Times in their presence after Ryder and Samgrass have tactfully departed (168). He also fails to grasp the relationship between Sebastian and Kurt (216), and Ryder spells out for him a version which may not be true but is calculated to allay Brideshead's fears. His two "bombshells" fall first when he destroys the prospect of Julia and Mottram being married in a Catholic church by disclosing that Mottram had been married before and the woman was still living (195), and then as he announces his own engagement (283). These reflect an insensitivity to other people's feelings. They are not callous efforts to wound but matter-of-fact declarations which to him seem obvious but to others are shocking. Julia is the main victim in each case. Orthodoxy and certainty are characteristics of this man and so is insensitivity, as when he proudly tries to foist the company of his unattractive and rather coarse wife upon his father. Lord -8- Marchmain, who with an appreciation for good looks in a woman and a tendency to sardonic hypercriticism, would be about the last man to welcome her. To the end Brides head does not grasp the fact that his father cannot stand the sight of Beryl. As a middle class, Catholic woman, Beryl would be irritating to Lord March main even if she were as comely as Brides head believes her to be. For Brideshead she represents a safe choice in a bride. Brideshead is a secondary character in the novel, but important nevertheless as he is the unwitting means of sparking Julia's long dormant Catholic conscience. After page 283 nothing in the novel is exactly the same as before, and the reader quickly infers from Julia's anguish that she will not marry Ryder. There is no question but that if Julia ever told Brides head that he was the indirect means of her finding faith he would have been immensely happy, even though it meant his sister could never marry again.

A RELATIVE OF CHOKEY'S From a reader's clipping of a recent newspaper society column: " ... the news that artist Kimberly DuRoss, stepdaughter of the late auto tycoon Henry Ford II, has parted company with her London boyfriend Charles Cholmondeley, cousin and heir of the current, and wildly rich, Marquis of Cholmondeley. Too bad. Just when Kimberly's American friends were learning to spell Charles' last name." Although the spelling is slightly different, some of us thought that the name Sebastian Cholmondley, Chokey's complete name in Decline and Fall, was a wild figment of Waugh's imagination because the name is so unusual.

DUST JACKET OF SCOOP: A recent catalogue from a London bookseller offers a copy of Scoop "in SUPPRESSED FIRST ISSUE DUSTWRAPPER with 'aily Bears' newspaper on front panel." This is news to the editor. Could one of our readers give a description of the suppressed dustwrapper?

A NEW PRINTING OF BRIDESHEAD REVISITED The Book-of-the-Month-Club announces a new series of forthcoming hardcovers and paperbacks intended for the gay and lesbian book market. Among the list are Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Waugh's BR. The series will be called Triangle Classics.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS AND BR/DESHEAD REVISITED? . Is it a coincidence that Tennessee Williams' play Suddenly Last Summer, written in 1958, shows traces of BR, even though there are many differences? The homosexual Sebastian in Williams' play was a momma's boy wh_o did not wish to grow old, but eventually "he wasn't young any more." His mother, Violet Venable says, "Sebastian was looking for God," and another character in the play remarks, "We're all children in a vast kindergarten trying to spell God's name with the wrong blocks." Further, there was a Walter Venables, an old friend of Lord March main's, mentioned in BR.

QUOTATION SOURCE? A reader wishes to know the source of the quotation, "If I had been less industrious, the book would have been twice as long." There is an uncertainty whether this statement can be attributed to Waugh.

The Evelyn Waugh Newsletter and Studies, designed to stimulate research and continue interest in the life and writings of Evelyn Waugh, is published three times a year in April, September and December (Spring, Autumn, and Winter numbers). Subscription rate $8.00 a year. Single copy $3.00. Checks and money orders should be made payable to the Evelyn Waugh Newsletter. Overseas subscriptions must be paid in US funds: MO, check, or cash. Notes, brief essays, and news items about Waugh and his work may be submitted, but manuscripts cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Address all correspondence to Dr. P. A. Doyle, English Dept., Nassau Community College, State University of New York, Garden City, N.Y. 11530. Editorial Board-Editor: P. A. Doyle; Associate Editors: Winnifred M. Bogaards (University of New Brunswick); Alfred W. Borrello (Kingsborough Community College); Robert M. Davis (Univ. of Oklahoma); Heinz Kosak (Univ. of Wuppertal); Charles E. Linck, Jr. (East Texas State Univ.).