Book Review: "A Handful of Dust" by Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh is one of the author's I adore and so, I've been looking at rereading some of his works. Of course, I could've chosen Brideshead Revisited but instead I'd like to read some of the more out-there works by him. I'm starting with A Handful of Dust and seeing where it goes (and whether it goes anywhere else). Yes, after The Graduate by Charles Webb, it's another book about a weird and torrid affair in which both characters approach their personal lives and truths with trepidation. Evelyn Waugh's writing however, never fails to make you absolutely inhale the atmosphere. So of course, upon a second read - this book is just a slight bit better than the one I reviewed yesterday.

Tony Last and his wife live in this strange old abbey with their eight-year-old son. One thing I definitely loved is the way that his wife, Brenda, seems to think the abbey is ugly and gross. Whereas, Tony defiantly believes it as being the source of his happiness. It is this almost gothic mansion that has qualities in it that a reader may think are odd and off-putting but at least someone likes it. Their home is called Hetton Abbey. Tony is quite comfortable and yet, in a classic semi-Victorian man's fashion, he does not recognise his wife as a human being and therefore doesn't see that she is pretty much bored out of her mind. She eventually meets John Beaver - this strange but also off-putting socialite whom I feel to be more like the house if it were a person than anything else. I didn't really know whether to find this funny but honestly, the first time I read this book that wasn't something I noticed. Maybe I am just seeing things that I want to be there.

One day, Brenda is informed of a riding accident and mistakenly thinks it is John Beaver who has died, but instead it was her young son. She is relieved that it isn't John Beaver and at the son's funeral, tells her husband that she wants a divorce so she can marry this sub-par man. I'm not going to lie, I don't like either of the men that much but marrying John Beaver seemed a bit extreme to me. He isn't anything remarkable and in fact, when he speaks, it can be rather annoying if it goes on for too long. Tony allows the divorce but the reader can tell he is heartbroken over it - he does however, want to save his wife's social reputation and so agrees to also give her £500 a year (which is a lot more in today's money). I feel like here we definitely feel bad for Tony even though at the beginning you couldn't help but think he was a bit ignorant of his wife; I guess this is what happens when you ignore the sheer boredom of marriage.

Unfortunately, Tony later retracts the financial settlement and doesn't provide any. This is mainly because John Beaver is pressuring Brenda to try to get £2000 a year (and that is even more in today's money. I'm not going to lie but £2000 a year sounds like a lot of money anyway even if you don't adjust it). But without this financial settlement we see John Beaver lose interest in Brenda and Tony move on to a woman called Thérèse de Vitré - a woman who pushes him away when he states he was married. As the book continues, we realise that Tony has gone on an expedition in order to find out what is wrong with him personally, but ends up getting more than he bargained for. The book's ending comes in classic Evelyn Waugh fashion - nothing is really repaired, the characters must move forwards regardless and the home of Hetton Abbey becomes a symbol of a lost past. This is a lost past where the boat was once rocked by everyone involved and, thus ended up collapsing in on itself. A future was provided where nobody could survive with true authenticity.

I'm not going to lie, this book was even better the second time around and, if you don't want to read Brideshead Revisited (I'm looking at you Kendall) then I would highly recommend A Handful of Dust - a book which encapsulates a lost time in English familial history. A true beauty of a novel.