E. M. Forster

The book of the week is A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. Waugh was a 20th century British novelist and journalist. His father was a publisher and his brother Alec was an editor. Waugh attended private schools as a boy and later Oxford University. Waugh used family circumstances and acquaintances as settings and characters for his later novels. A Handful of Dust employs black humor to comment on the social norms of the time. Waugh utilizes black humor and satire to comment on British imperialism, the decline of the aristocratic estates, adultery, divorce and death. The third person narrative form makes the novel easier to read than the stream-of-consciousness technique employed by previous British authors. Tony and Brenda are the novel's main characters. Tony's priority is his ancestral home. His wife, Brenda, discontented with the isolated, estate life, travels to London. She takes a flat there and only returns on week-ends. The longer she is gone, the more distant she becomes from her life with Tony at Hetton Abbey. Brenda's next step is to take a lover. She finally requests a divorce and the alimony will cost Tony his ancestral home. At first he goes along with the idea but then refuses to give Brenda a divorce if it means that he will lose Hetton Abbey. Tony leaves his home to get away from everything but ends up lost in the Brazilian jungle. He is presumed dead by everyone back home but actually ends up held captive by a Mr. Todd in the jungles of Brazil. In addition, Tony is forced to read Dickens' books daily to Mr. Todd. Waugh's use of black humor keeps the novel entertaining to the very end.