The Classics Club spin gods have been kind to me at last. I was due a break after two duds in succession (Armadale and Fame is the Spur in case you’re wondering).
The winning number was
8
which means I get to read Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh. It might actually be a re-read from about 40 years ago but I’m not sure whether I’m mixing it up with Vile Bodies or A Handful of Dust.
Decline and Fall , Waugh’s first published novel, came out in 1928. It’s based, in part, on Waugh’s experience as a teacher in north Wales, taking the tone of a social satire about British society in the 1920s.
The main character is Paul Pennyfeather who gets expelled from Oxford for indecent behaviour. Somehow he manages to get a job as a schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle in Wales (clearly no-one at the school checked if he was a fit and proper person to work with young people). His colleagues are essentially misfits and failures.
Pennyfeather is delighted to be taken out of this atmosphere of failure and despondency, when he’s taken under the wing of the mother of one pupil — the magnificently named Margot Beste-Chetwynde. His association with this wealthy woman results in a series of outrageous experiences for Pennyfeather, each one becoming more unbelievable.
It sounds much more fun than either of the last two spin books. According to the rules of the Classics Club spin I “should” read this book by 2 June 2024.
If any of you have read this, do let me know in the comments what you thought of the book. Am I in for a treat or yet another disappointment??
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