Evelyn Waugh - More Than Just Brideshead!

So it’s a new week, and time to look at another famous British writer. Today we are going to take a quick peek at the novelist Evelyn Waugh (1903 -1966). Once again I can promise a bit of gossip and scandal, which does seem a common theme when looking at our great writers!

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (known as Evelyn) was the second son born to Arthur and Charlotte Waugh. He is considered as one of the giants of 20^th Century literature, with much of his work still in print today. Waugh’s many novels include “Decline and Fall” (1928), “Vile Bodies”(1930),  “A Handful of Dust” (1934), “Scoop” (1938), “Brideshead Revisited” (1945), “Sword of Honour - Men at Arms” (1952) “Officers and Gentlemen” (1955) and “The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold” (1957). It must be noted that his elder brother Alec, was also a successful writer, although his work is not as well known as Evelyn’s.

It is a shame that Waugh did not live to see some of his work dramatised and shown on television. It would have been good to hear his views on the BBC’s adaptation of Sword of Honour in 1967, and the success of Granada’s adaptation of Brideshead Revisited in 1981. This serial was hugely popular in both Britain and America, and introduced a whole new generation to Waugh’s work. Brideshead Revisited is an historical novel which tells a story of love, of class struggle, of disillusionment, of war. The television series was nominated for thirteen British Academy Television Wards (BAFTA’s), eleven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards and won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for best drama series – wow! Following this success a British made film of “Brideshead Revisited” was released in 2008 to much acclaim at the box office.

Undoubtedly, Waugh had a way with words and has left us a whole host of quotes that are as true today as when he wrote them. One that springs to mind is “Don't hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that you may take after them.” Still makes me chuckle! Another that brings a smile to my face has to be “I haven't been to sleep for over a year. That's why I go to bed early. One needs more rest if one doesn't sleep.” Bright, amusing and clever!

Anyway, you were promised a bit of gossip and scandal so I will give you a quick trip through Waugh’s adult life. Waugh studied at Oxford University; although he only managed a 3^rd class degree as his time was not spent so much on formal studies as in drinking and debating with his circle of friends. Indeed, it is possible that this is when his alcohol dependency first began. During this period he also engaged in several homosexual relationships.

For a short time Waugh worked as a teacher and later a journalist. He married Evelyn Gardner in 1928, and amongst friends the couple was known as the He – Evelyn and the She- Evelyn. However the marriage did not last and Waugh filed for divorce in 1929, following his wife’s admission of adultery. Later this marriage would be annulled.

Following the annulment Waugh married Laura Herbert in 1937. Within Laura’s family there was a certain amount of hostility to the wedding, not least because she was a cousin of his first wife Evelyn. However the marriage survived and the couple produced seven children, one of whom died in infancy.

It must be noted that Waugh’s life was plagued with a dependency on alcohol and drugs to relieve his insomnia and depression. In 1954 he suffered a breakdown believing that he was being possessed by devils. Doctors found that it was in fact the result of bromide poisoning, due to his drug regime. Following this episode he was restored back to health, but Waugh was an old man before his time, and was in poor health as he approached his sixties. Evelyn Waugh died of heart failure on Easter Sunday 1966 aged 62 years.   

Evelyn Waugh created real life characters in his novels. He used his own experiences and borrowed characteristics from people he met to produce truly believable people, whom his readers can relate to. Whilst at Oxford University he had a major falling out with one of his tutors called Cruttwell, who tried to get Waugh to change his ways and study harder. It amuses me that in many of his early novels there appears a minor ludicrous character of this name!  If you fancy reading a great bit of English literature then you may wish to try a novel by Waugh.    

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George Eliot - A Thoroughly Modern Millie!

Okay so the weekend is once more upon us and time for a little more culture and also a bit of a gossip – oh yes the author we are looking at today certainly raised a few eyebrows in her time! George Eliot was the penname used by Mary Anne Evans (also known as Marian Evans), who was one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.  Mary Anne Evans (1819 – 1880) wrote seven novels including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861) and the work she is best known for Middlemarch (1871/72).  Most of her novels were set in middle England and are known for their realism and the psychological insight into their complicated characters. Her last novel, Daniel Deronda was published in 1876 and is the only one set in the contemporary Victorian society of her day.

You may be wondering why Mary Anne decided to use a male penname for her work, as in Victorian England it was not unusual for a women to be published. Maybe the answer can be found in one of the essays she wrote for the Westminster Review in 1856 entitled “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists”. The essay criticised the trivial plots of stories by lady novelists. Mary Anne was a questioner and a free spirit who did not want to be confined to the romantic notions associated with the female writers of that time. She appreciated, strove for, and achieved realism in her novels, and maybe believed that writing using a male name would help her to be taken seriously.   

You were promised a bit of gossip about our much acclaimed author and so here it goes! Mary Anne met George Henry Lewes (1817-1878) in 1851. Lewes was a leading philosopher, and a literary and theatre critic. He was also married. It is believed that the Lewes had an open marriage, that is one where both partners were free to develop other relationships, and that as well as their own three children his wife had given birth to several other children by another man (or men?). By 1854 George Lewes and Mary Anne Evans were living together as man and wife. Now we all know that in the Victorian era it was not unusual for people to have extra marital affairs, but these were usually carried out in a discreet manner. What was unusual, and caused quite a scandal among her family and some friends, was the openness in which Mary Anne and Lewes conducted their relationship. They considered themselves married and she often referred to herself as Marian Evans Lewes and to him as her husband.  Mary Anne and George lived together for over twenty years until his death in 1878.

Mary Anne continued her controversial lifestyle when she married John Cross, a man twenty years younger than herself, in May1880. At least this legal marriage helped to placate some of her family members, in particular her brother. Mary Anne now took on the name of Cross. However, in December of the same year she passed away at the age of sixty one, after suffering for some time from kidney disease. Her wish had been to be buried at Westminster Abbey; however this was denied due to her denial of the Christian faith and her “irregular” relationship with Lewes. Instead she is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London, next to George Henry Lewes, in an area reserved for religious dissenters.  I think it would have pleased her immensely that in 1980, to mark the century of her death, a memorial stone was erected in her honour in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey.   

As an extra treat I have included a clip from the BBCs 1994 adaptation of Middlemarch. Enjoy!  

  

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Daniel Defoe - International Man of Mystery

How about a little more culture and a quick look at another famous British author, this time Daniel Defoe. Daniel Foe, the son of a butcher was born in London in or around 1660. He later altered his surname by adding the “De” to make the more aristocratic “Defoe”, and indeed on occasions claimed descent from the De Beau Faux family. Defoe trained as a minister but changed his mind and indeed enjoyed many careers in his lifetime including trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He also spent some time in prison. He passed away in 1731 after living a long, full life, although often marred by debt.

Defoe’s contribution to British culture is unquestionable. He is among the founders of the English novel as well as being considered the founder of British journalism. Defoe may be remembered best for his novels, but he was a prolific writer, having written more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on a whole range of diverse subjects including politics, crime, marriage, religion, economics, psychology and the supernatural!

In 1685 Defoe took part in the Monmouth rebellion and joined William lll and his advancing army. He became popular with the King after the publication of his most well known poem “The True Born Englishman” in 1701. This satirical poem attacks those who were prejudiced against having a King who was of foreign birth (King William lll was Dutch).  Defoe made it clear that the poem was not an attack on Englishness but on xenophobia. He argued that the English nation was a product of various incoming racial groups, from Ancient Britons to Anglo-Saxons, Normans and beyond. Therefore to abuse newer arrivals was a nonsense. Below is an extract from the poem to give you a flavour of the content:

Thus from a mixture of all kinds began, 
That het’rogeneous thing, an Englishman: 
In eager rapes, and furious lust begot, 
Betwixt a painted Britain and a Scot.
Whose gend’ring off-spring quickly learn’d to bow,
And yoke their heifers to the Roman plough: 
From whence a mongrel half-bred race there came,
With neither name, nor nation, speech nor fame.
In whose hot veins new mixtures quickly ran,
Infus’d betwixt a Saxon and a Dane.
While their rank daughters, to their parents just,
Receiv’d all nations with promiscuous lust.
This nauseous brood directly did contain
The well-extracted blood of Englishmen.

Maybe his words are as true today as they were then!

However as we have said, Defoe is probably best remembered for his novels. The best loved of all must be Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719. This story of a man shipwrecked on a desert island and his adventures is still popular with children and adults alike. The book has been made into a film (on more than one occasion) as well as a tv series and is enjoyed by many across the world.

Other novels by Defoe include Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720), A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) and Colonel Jack (1722). Interestingly, he also wrote two novels where women are the main characters, and the stories are written as though being told by the heroines.  Moll Flanders (1722) tells the story of the fall and redemption of a lone woman in the 17^th Century. Moll, although a prostitute, bigamist and thief manages to keep the reader’s sympathy and concern. This is a tribute to the way that Defoe has given an insight into her complex character.His final novel, Roxana : The Fortunate Mistress (1724), narrates the moral and spiritual decline of a high society courtesan.

If you are not familiar with the work of Daniel Defoe I would recommend that you check it out. It is  amazing to think that nearly 300 years after it was written his work is still read and appreciated.   

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