Context and Structure of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited

Abstract

Brideshead Revisited, which appeared in 1945, seems to have provided both the impetus and focal point for most of the existing criticism of Evelyn Waugh's fiction. If one wishes to discuss the six earlier novels -Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Bodies (1930), Black Mischief (1932), A Handful of Dust (1934), Scoop, (1938), and Put Out More Flags (1942)-it has become more or less customary to mention how Brideshead Revisited, the seventh novel and the first work, differs from them. And if one examines Mr. Waugh's post-war novels, Brideshead Revisited can always be used as a kind -of norm: a later novel belongs either with the serious works, or with the peculiar comic tradition established by the first six novels. However, Brideshead Revisited has itself evoked sufficient critical disagreement to imply that, even at this late date, it still presents problems worth investigating. One of the difficulties confronting the student of Mr. Waugh's fiction is the virtual impossibility of placing this author securely within a single comic tradition. His obviously comic novels seem far too meaningful to be regarded as mere caricature, and yet they lack both the tinge of bitterness one normally associates with irony, and the moral indigation which usually accompanies satire. Erwin Stiirzl identifies him with the tradition of Defoe and Smollett;' and while this is certainly debatable, it emphasizes the importance of plot and craftsmanship in the creation of the earlier novels. The distinctions usually accorded Mr. Waugh are that, until 1945, his fiction reveals a steady progression away from this craftsman's tradition and toward the more conventional novel in which action grows out of motivation fimly grounded upon character, and that Brideshead Revisited represents a complete escape from his earlier tradition. Although critics have disagreed with both of these judgments, none has examined Brideshead Revisited within the specific context provided by the six novels which preceded it, a context of both thought and technique. Such a consideration will reveal a remarkable amount of similarity between this novel and the earlier ones; further, a detailed examination of these similari-