"There's a Song There, Really": Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, the Musical Revue, and Early Sound Film

Abstract

This essay examines the relationship between Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, the musical revue, and early sound film in Britain. By attending to the soundscapes of Waugh's novel and connecting them with the history of revue, early sound film productions of revue shows, and contemporary reviews of the novel as a "revue between covers," this analysis demonstrates the text's critical interaction with both emerging sound film and stage entertainment of its time. The essay argues that Vile Bodies is Waugh's attempt to assert the place of the novel in a rapidly expanding media system.