Decline and Fall - Softcover

Subtitled "A Novel of Many Manners, " Evelyn Waugh's notorious first novel lays waste the "heathen idol" of British sportsmanship, the cultured perfection of Oxford, and the inviolable honor codes of the English gentleman. Within the book's unparalleled, rampant satire roam at will such characters as the Hon. Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde, Viscount Tangent, the utterly helpless hero, Paul Pennyfeather, stalked by various representatives of "the English country families baying for broken glass, " that refreshing bounder who misbehaves without compunction, Captain Grimes ("I don't believe one can ever be unhappy for long provided one does exactly what one wants when one wants to"), and the equally sulubrious butler, Philbrick, a graduate of the underworld who likes to tell about revolting crimes.

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), whom "Time" called "one of the century's great masters of English prose," wrote several widely acclaimed novels as well as volumes of biography, memoir, travel writing, and journalism. Three of his novels, "A Handful of Dust, Scoop, "and" Brideshead Revisited, " were selected by the Modern Library as among the 100 best novels of the twentieth century.