Decline and Fall (1928)
Evelyn Waugh (Everyman's Library, 1993)

185 pp.  Second reading.
Posted 27 May 2006.


Everyone is familiar with the odd mixture of appreciation and envy that certain books evoke when they are read.  These are the books of which, in your heart, you say, "I wish I had written that." The feeling is made more acute when you believe that, if you had set yourself to the task, you could have written it. But then, on the other hand, there is that other, much larger class of books which, were you to live to be a thousand, you know that you could never write. For me, Decline and Fall is one such book, for I have never been on familiar terms with the evil genius who must have inspired it. Waugh's gift for black humour, in which the comedy thrives on the juxtaposition of polite English society and thematic elements of suicide, pederasty, slavery, and prostitution, is a marvel of balance. He finds just the right tone -- neither cynical nor lurid -- and lets the absurd comedy unfold in its own mild manner.

The story follows the bland Paul Pennyfeather, a likable but naive college man who, because of a misunderstanding which he doesn't bother to contest, gets sent down for indecent exposure, and decides to become a school teacher ("I expect you'll be becoming a schoolmaster, sir.  That's what most of the gentlemen does, sir, that gets sent down for indecent behaviour.") His fortunes wax and wane, but somehow he always lands on his feet, and never seems bothered by his changing fortunes. Even when jailed for someone else's activities, he is unperturbed.  After all, "Anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison."

There are some inspired comedic scenes, such as when the news of the prison chaplain's having been beheaded gets passed among the prisoners during the singing of a hymn:

  "O God, our help in ages past," sang Paul.
    "Where's Prendergast today?"
  "What, ain't you 'eard? 'e's been done in."
    "And our eternal home."

  "Old Prendy went to see a chap
    What said he'd seen a ghost;
   Well, he was dippy, and he'd got
    A mallet and a saw."   

And so on. This grotesque humour is augmented by the fact that the headless chaplain Prendergast is one of the books central, and most sympathetic, characters.  Waugh must have been cackling with glee.

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