This man deeply influenced my generation. We all read Brideshead Revisited as students, and loved the dress sense he inspired. His observances upon the world seem all the more relevant today - and that is no understatement.
Great bit of history this interview. The interviewer's hostility is slowly revealed, masked in very intelligent language, and seems to take Waugh off guard. Clearly not used to this sort of interrogation, he goes on the defensive, trying to affect nonchalance. But being an oddly sensitive soul, the interview sent him into a tailspin later. I often find myself thinking about this. The superficial charm, cutting intelligence but, ultimately, the malice of the interviewer is especially memorable. An unsettling and unexpected glimpse of something evil imo.
Surprised by some of the comments here, as this man was one of the great prose writers of the twentieth century - or indeed, of any century. It is not necessary to either accept - or reject - his religious views, to see that.
if you can't accept his religious views, you will never understand anything about him - and, arguably, you are either less than human or just so unnecessarily angry that you probably ought to seek help from a psychiatrist - the 'sly jesuits' des nos jours.
If this BBC interviewer didn't learn his trade in Colditz, he should have offered his services there. A shame, how Waugh feels he has to accede to the man's prying into his private life. What he earned out of "Decline and Fall" is nobody's business, not even the BBC's. No wonder poststructuralism in Paris began (at this time) to eliminate the authors out of criticism of their books. The sight of an author with his pants down (as here) does nothing for the enjoyment of the book.
Waugh was a wind up merchant. Many of his targets deserved his bile, some did not. Snobbery was a mask to hide behind while he wrote some of the best prose of the c20th. He died relatively young and seemed ready for death earlier still. The human condition clearly pained him deeply.
I read he granted this interview due to being low in funds from overspending & supporting his many children. He was a great writer contributing to our culture and enjoyment. That he had a number of negative aspects to his personality is not pertinent. Frankly, I avoid reading about artists I like since I'm sure to be disappointed about their character, etc.
Towards the end of the interview (not included here) he answered that very question, as to why he agreed to do the interview, he replied "poverty"...then adding "
Basically his negative aspects weren't that terrible. His worst one was probably being a parental bully. However it stopped there. Evelyn Waugh was essentially a good man - albeit one with a bad temper.
Christianity is Catholicism. Therefore returning to Christianity is to returning to Catholicism. Naturally, isn't it? meant is Roman Catholicism, just not to be misunderstood.
Believing Lutheranism IS Christianity. Believing Calvinism IS Christianity. Believing Anglicanism IS Christianity. Believing Eastern Orthodoxy IS Christianity. Believing Free Churchism IS Christianity.
He despised the vulgar and banal vernacular liturgy foisted on the faithful in the wake of Vatican II. He died in a different Church than the one in which he was received as a convert
I shouldn't like his books- the snobbishness is awful and he was a ghastly though deliberately perverse man- but his writing was so economically and grammatically perfect that I can't help loving them
Waugh was both a venomous, reactionary old snob and a great writer. Oddly, his one-man war against the modern world is why he never dates. That, of course, is not to excuse his being an almost total tosspot in real life.
+kelman727 Although his son Auberon reports that his father was really only ever at war with bores and fools and the snobbery was really just a liking for country houses and people of intelligence and good manners.And who can blame him? He was himself of course not an aristocrat but aristocrats enjoyed his company. Much of what he said was tongue in cheek.
+kelman727 Who are you to excuse him in the first place? +Nick Harman In its true and original sense, the widely misunderstood term 'snobbery' refers to the attitude of the arriviste, that is scorn for one's own class due to a mistaken belief in one's personal superiority. Waugh really is the exemplar of this sort of person.
Dear Kelman, the important thing with Waugh is his work. Whether he was a nice chap or not is not too relevant for us people who don´t have to live nextdoor to him. May be he was difficult for his family? Or for the army? That´s all gone by and rather funny if you read about in his biography. But his excellence as a writer, his smooth and precise English (as I may say this, being a German), his undauntedness, his black humour - all this makes him, so to say, immortal. Exaggerated? At least, I do know a lot of people (say: half a dozen) who enjoyed hours and hours reading and re-reading his stuff. And he wasn´t even fond of us Germans. For me personally his books will allways be on my desk and in my pocket.
Only God knows who entered Heaven & who entered Hell after death. This is only ONE biblical reason why God told man NOT to pray to the dead. Like Satan, the Catholic church ignores, rejects & contradicts God's commands by placing their teachings above that of God. God told man NOT to make idols or images which the Catholic church ignores by filling their churches with religious statues to be worshiped, pictures, rosaries, scapulars, medals, shrouds, & keeping a dead Christ on the cross. God said that he placed a great chasm between the living and dead so that neither could reach the other side. This vs alone proves that all the 'appearances' of Mary or any dead of the flesh never, ever, appeared on earth after death. Is God a liar? Or is man a liar?
Dated? Well it is about 50 years old. It's not nauseatingly smug to speak anything but Estuary English, it is just as much a dialect as any other of the fascinating accents of Britain as far as I'm concerned.
His accent is simply that of the Oxbridge educated Englishman of the time. There is nothing aristocratic about it at all. Listen to the Mitford sisters if you want the aristo accent of Waugh’s time.
This is a wonderfully revealing interview for Waugh, even with his simple, reticent style. Fixating on the style of speech is like trying to judge a book by its cover.
This man deeply influenced my generation. We all read Brideshead Revisited as students, and loved the dress sense he inspired. His observances upon the world seem all the more relevant today - and that is no understatement.
Great bit of history this interview. The interviewer's hostility is slowly revealed, masked in very intelligent language, and seems to take Waugh off guard. Clearly not used to this sort of interrogation, he goes on the defensive, trying to affect nonchalance. But being an oddly sensitive soul, the interview sent him into a tailspin later.
I often find myself thinking about this. The superficial charm, cutting intelligence but, ultimately, the malice of the interviewer is especially memorable. An unsettling and unexpected glimpse of something evil imo.
Surprised by some of the comments here, as this man was one of the great prose writers of the twentieth century - or indeed, of any century. It is not necessary to either accept - or reject - his religious views, to see that.
if you can't accept his religious views, you will never understand anything about him - and, arguably, you are either less than human or just so unnecessarily angry that you probably ought to seek help from a psychiatrist - the 'sly jesuits' des nos jours.
He was a master of writing a unique style that much of today's literature owes thanks.
His son said Bron told one Waugh was alcoholic. Thus ruled resentments
How long will it take Freeman to realize that Waugh will not talk about his writing like a literary critic? It’s only bad writers who do.
Probably forever- they'll never get it.
If this BBC interviewer didn't learn his trade in Colditz, he should have offered his services there. A shame, how Waugh feels he has to accede to the man's prying into his private life. What he earned out of "Decline and Fall" is nobody's business, not even the BBC's. No wonder poststructuralism in Paris began (at this time) to eliminate the authors out of criticism of their books. The sight of an author with his pants down (as here) does nothing for the enjoyment of the book.
Waugh was a wind up merchant. Many of his targets deserved his bile, some did not. Snobbery was a mask to hide behind while he wrote some of the best prose of the c20th. He died relatively young and seemed ready for death earlier still. The human condition clearly pained him deeply.
Borderlands said he found life 'unendurable without God, ' and I've come to agree.
Dont forget he also was in the Royal Marines but was shut out of a military career because of envy
These are half-truths and idle observations.
I read he granted this interview due to being low in funds from overspending & supporting his many children. He was a great writer contributing to our culture and enjoyment. That he had a number of negative aspects to his personality is not pertinent. Frankly, I avoid reading about artists I like since I'm sure to be disappointed about their character, etc.
Towards the end of the interview (not included here) he answered that very question, as to why he agreed to do the interview, he replied "poverty"...then adding "
With a neat jibe at Freeman, both of us are here for the same reason...both of us are been paid for this..
Basically his negative aspects weren't that terrible. His worst one was probably being a parental bully. However it stopped there. Evelyn Waugh was essentially a good man - albeit one with a bad temper.
Spitsbergen ???
Christianity is Catholicism. Therefore returning to Christianity is to returning to Catholicism. Naturally, isn't it? meant is Roman Catholicism, just not to be misunderstood.
Then Paula Byrne got it wrong saying EW converted at 27. I thought that was a bit young to be thinking of God so much, though 27 is a ghastly age.
I love conversion to Christianity vs conversion to Catholicism. Catholicism iS Christianity
louise , thanks for pointing that out, devastating!
Dogs piss on walls too.
In other news, the Pope lives in Rome.
Believing Lutheranism IS Christianity. Believing Calvinism IS Christianity. Believing Anglicanism IS Christianity. Believing Eastern Orthodoxy IS Christianity. Believing Free Churchism IS Christianity.
Religion in general is so fabulously absurd, 3 years later I find myself wondering if you still care about the conversion process?
He despised the vulgar and banal vernacular liturgy foisted on the faithful in the wake of Vatican II. He died in a different Church than the one in which he was received as a convert
I shouldn't like his books- the snobbishness is awful and he was a ghastly though deliberately perverse man- but his writing was so economically and grammatically perfect that I can't help loving them
your ideology hates him but your heart does not. embrace it!
Waugh was both a venomous, reactionary old snob and a great writer. Oddly, his one-man war against the modern world is why he never dates.
That, of course, is not to excuse his being an almost total tosspot in real life.
+kelman727 Although his son Auberon reports that his father was really only ever at war with bores and fools and the snobbery was really just a liking for country houses and people of intelligence and good manners.And who can blame him? He was himself of course not an aristocrat but aristocrats enjoyed his company. Much of what he said was tongue in cheek.
+kelman727 Who are you to excuse him in the first place?
+Nick Harman In its true and original sense, the widely misunderstood term 'snobbery' refers to the attitude of the arriviste, that is scorn for one's own class due to a mistaken belief in one's personal superiority. Waugh really is the exemplar of this sort of person.
Dear Kelman, the important thing with Waugh is his work. Whether he was a nice chap or not is not too relevant for us people who don´t have to live nextdoor to him. May be he was difficult for his family? Or for the army? That´s all gone by and rather funny if you read about in his biography. But his excellence as a writer, his smooth and precise English (as I may say this, being a German), his undauntedness, his black humour - all this makes him, so to say, immortal. Exaggerated? At least, I do know a lot of people (say: half a dozen) who enjoyed hours and hours reading and re-reading his stuff. And he wasn´t even fond of us Germans. For me personally his books will allways be on my desk and in my pocket.
Burkhart Berthold Precisely - the life is merely an interesting footnote to the art, which is for ever.
Many an artist was a total **** and many still are.
Only God knows who entered Heaven & who entered Hell after death. This is only ONE biblical reason why God told man NOT to pray to the dead. Like Satan, the Catholic church ignores, rejects & contradicts God's commands by placing their teachings above that of God. God told man NOT to make idols or images which the Catholic church ignores by filling their churches with religious statues to be worshiped, pictures, rosaries, scapulars, medals, shrouds, & keeping a dead Christ on the cross. God said that he placed a great chasm between the living and dead so that neither could reach the other side. This vs alone proves that all the 'appearances' of Mary or any dead of the flesh never, ever, appeared on earth after death. Is God a liar? Or is man a liar?
Christ appeared after his death. He resurrected, didn't He? And wasn't He a man?
Such dated affected clipped tone accents. Nauseating smugness. But Waugh was a good writer it has to be admitted.
I never liked that accent either. Or any affected accent. Multicultural London English (or Jafaican) being the latest linguistic joke/tragedy.
Dated? Well it is about 50 years old. It's not nauseatingly smug to speak anything but Estuary English, it is just as much a dialect as any other of the fascinating accents of Britain as far as I'm concerned.
His accent is simply that of the Oxbridge educated Englishman of the time. There is nothing aristocratic about it at all. Listen to the Mitford sisters if you want the aristo accent of Waugh’s time.
he is being entirely authentic, not a hint of affectation. it's your own insecurity that leads you to project that onto him.
This is a wonderfully revealing interview for Waugh, even with his simple, reticent style. Fixating on the style of speech is like trying to judge a book by its cover.