The Concept of ‘House’ in Evelyn Waugh’s Work: An Analysis of ‘Decline and fall’, ‘Vile Bodies’, ‘A Handful of Dust’, ‘Work suspended’, ‘Brideshead revisited’ &amp; ‘Sword of Honor’

Amit Joshi

doi:10.7176/jlll/70-01

Abstract

The Concept of ‘House’ in Evelyn Waugh’s Work: An Analysis of ‘Decline and fall’, ‘Vile Bodies’, ‘A Handful of Dust’, ‘Work suspended’, ‘Brideshead revisited’ & ‘Sword of Honor’

Highlights

It is a recurring symbol that seems to stand for a great deal that Waugh finds worth preserving and attaining even though it is nearly inaccessible and can rarely be presented to the reader seriously
1.2.5 Novel 4: Work suspended In his later novels Evelyn Waugh begins to present the positive side of the English house instead of the eccentric, which was presented in his earlier novels
By emphasizing the positive contents and influence of the House, the novelist shows the futility of the modern age, which is devoid of every virtue, order and restraint associated with the house

Summary

Novel 4

Work suspended In his later novels Evelyn Waugh begins to present the positive side of the English house instead of the eccentric, which was presented in his earlier novels. Plant has always disliked possessions but deprived of a place “to hang my hat”, he is conscious that they shape a way of life: “Country houses were permanent; even when the owner was abroad, the house was there, with a couple of servants or, at the worst, someone at a cottage who came into light fires and open windows, someone who, at a Pinch, could be persuaded to make the bed and wash up They were places where wives and children could be left for long Periods, where one retired to write a book, where one could be ill, where in the course of a love affair, one could take a girl and, by being her guide and sponsor in strange surroundings, establish a degree of proprietorship impossible on the natural ground of London.

Novel 5

Novel 6