A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (85 down, 15 to go)

I will show you fear in a handful of dust – The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot (the source for the title of this novel)

This is the first time I’ve read A Handful of Dust and the second novel I’ve read by Evelyn Waugh. The book is a modernist, and/or humanist novel according to Waugh, and the third-person narrative of Tony Last, an English gentleman, set in 1930s England and Brazil.

My rating: 3 ½ of 5 stars

 

This novel satisfies 2017 Back to the Classics Challenge category #10 – A classic set in a place I’d like to visit (Brazil).

Tony Last is an English gentleman, lord of the ancestral home, Hetton Abbey, a large country estate where he lives with his wife Lady Brenda and eight-year-old son John Andrew. Tony and Brenda seem happy together and a perfect match; John Andrew is being raised a proper British gentleman, and not terribly spoiled by his privileged life. Tony seems to love being guardian of the family legacy, though he is struggling to restore the decaying manor to what he envisions as its proper state. Tony and Brenda were considered by their friends as a pair who were – preeminently successful in solving the problem of getting along well together. It all seems a perfect picture of early 20th Century British nobility.

You probably caught the ominous use of the word “seems” – everything “seems” idyllic, but then – it all unravels rather quickly.

SPOILER ALERT – the following contains a spoiler.

Two events turn Tony’s world upside down. His son, John Andrew is killed in a hunting accident – no one to blame. Shortly after the funeral, as in later the same day, Brenda tells Tony she’s been having an affair and wants a divorce. The reader has known about the affair for a while, along with most of Tony and Brenda’s friends. The affair was so inexplicable, I at first thought it a severe weakness in the plot.

Brenda seemed genuinely to love Tony, and even to like him. The two were cute together. They were affectionate and playful. She didn’t seem bored or restless. The man she has the affair with, Mr. Beaver, is not handsome, accomplished, wealthy, or charming. In fact, he lives with his mother – every woman’s dream, right? Nor does fate does throw them together in some intimate way. Brenda just decides to have an affair, and Beaver is the closest man.

She is completely cavalier; all her friends and even casual acquaintances know, as do Tony’s friends, Brenda’s sister, and Mr. Beaver’s mother. No one is shocked, and no one tells Tony.

It just didn’t make sense to me. Until I learned that Evelyn Waugh received a similar shock from his first wife. He was the wronged and innocent party. It probably didn’t make sense to him, so I’ll give him some credit for what initially seemed a weakness in the plot. I believe, witting or not, he was expressing through Tony what he must have felt. It worked, because I was certainly hurt for Tony and rather disgusted with Brenda.

Tony is of course, staggered by these two blows coming in such short succession. He has lost his wife and his son. He might have struggled on with one blow or the other, but his whole existence:  lord protector of the Last family manor and legacy is in jeopardy. He has no heir and no mate to give him one.

In order to cope, Tony travels abroad and plans to be gone many months. He joins a jungle excursion in search of a lost city in the Amazon, grand adventure – all that, with a new acquaintance. The reader is dubious of Tony’s qualifications for such an adventure, and Tony’s companion does not inspire confidence either. Nonetheless, in intrepid British fashion they soldier on to the jungles of modern day Brazil.

It doesn’t go well.

But I’ll leave it at that. It is a terribly depressing story. I can get past that. I shouldn’t like every tale to be “happily ever after”. I didn’t like it much when I first finished, though, I have to admit I was engrossed. I read it in two sittings. I’ve been ruminating on it since and it has grown on me.

Waugh described Tony Last as "a Gothic man in the hands of savages…" The savages were not just those in Brazil, they were also the civilized savages back in England. It’s not clear which the worst were. As I say, it grew on me, but I didn’t like it as much as my previous experience with Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited.

Sometime after the initial publication, there was an alternate ending published – a happily ever after ending. I didn’t like it. I generally don’t like alternate endings in principle, but this one was completely incongruous.

A Handful of Dust is VERY reminiscent of American Pastoral by Philip Roth - a contented successful man, has it all - and then...

I liked the epigraph Waugh used from T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland

…I will show you something different from either 

Your shadow at morning striding behind you 

Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you 

I will show you fear in a handful of dust

References to Classic Literature:

All of the rooms at Hetton Abbey are named for characters from Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur.  One of them then is of course, Tristram – reminding me of the last classic novel I read: Tristram Shandy.

The library at Hetton Abbey had, among other works, Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

There is a character who possesses the complete works of Charles Dickens – but he cannot read and must employ someone to read to him

Trivia:  Evelyn Waugh’s first wife – her name was Evelyn.

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A Passage to India by E.M. Forster (37 down 63 to go)

When his spirits were up he felt that the English are a comic institution, and he enjoyed being misunderstood by them. ~ Dr. Aziz

This is the first time I’ve read A Passage to India or E.M. Forster. The novel is a third-person narrative set in the fictional town of Chandrapore in northeast India. It takes place under British Raj (rule), in the early 1920s and involves relationships between members of the Anglo-Indian community. I think you could call Forster’s writing modernist and/or humanist in style. He is also part of the Bloomsbury Group.

My rating: 3 1/2 of 5 stars

 

I had no idea of the plot other than the obvious: that it had something to do with India. I’m just uncannily perceptive that way. The story is about a rare friendship between an Indian and a Britton. The Indian, Dr. Aziz, is a Muslim physician who was skeptical that Indians could befriend the British until he meets Cyril Fielding the headmaster of the government-run college for Indians. Dr. Aziz finds Fielding to be progressive, accommodating, and unprejudiced. Their newfound friendship is put to the test when Dr. Aziz is accused of assaulting Adela Quested, a young unmarried British woman.

Miss Quested only recently arrived in India to consider marriage to the British magistrate, Ronny Heaslop. Most of the British make no effort to understand Indian culture or custom, but Miss Quested wants to experience “the real India”. To that end, Dr. Aziz arranges a trip to a local tourist spot, the Marabar Caves. However, things go badly at the caves and Miss Quested accuses Dr. Aziz of assaulting her.

Dr. Aziz is not likely to get a fair trial in the British system, but a trial ensues and pent up racial tensions erupt. Fielding is vocal about his belief in Dr. Aziz’ innocence and is ostracized by his compatriots. In spite of this loyalty, the trial puts the friendship between Fielding and Dr. Aziz to an agonizing test.

Fallout from the trial destroys several relationships, and damages others. Years later, one of the principal characters opines that Indians and British cannot be friends until India is free of British Raj…

Even the earth and the sky seem to say, Not yet.

The prejudice of the British was troubling and almost unbelievable. Yet, I am inclined to believe Forster knew what he was writing about. The ignorance and hypocrisy would be almost comical, if not so maddening. I might have found it less offensive if the characters were just vile human beings who hated anyone different from themselves, but that wasn’t really the case. Most were actually decent people painfully deluded about their own superiority.

For instance, early in the story, Dr. Aziz removes his own collar stud and lends it to Fielding. He does so before other guests arrive for luncheon. Fielding doesn’t know Dr. Aziz gave him the stud off his own collar and Dr. Aziz, trying to be gracious, just hopes his collar doesn’t ride up. Ronny Heaslop notices Dr. Aziz’ collar, but says nothing at the time. Later, and behind Dr. Aziz’ back, Heaslop expresses scorn for Dr. Aziz and his appalling lack of refinement in failing to wear a collar stud.

Almost comical.

I’m certain Heaslop genuinely believed that failure to dress in proper British fashion was an indictment of Dr. Aziz’ worth as a human being. But of course, Heaslop was ignorant: ignorant that Dr. Aziz knew how to dress properly, and ignorant of the stupidity of his own ethnocentric prejudices. 

The British were not alone in fault. Many of the Indians nurtured prejudice and stereotypes of the British, but more ironically, the Muslim Indians (called Mohammedans in the novel), and the Hindu Indians also held each other in contempt. As I say, the British were not alone, but their position of power gave greater consequence to their prejudice.

The novel serves as an exposé of the ethnocentric beliefs and the resulting abuses of British imperialism. As such, it was highly effective. I thought it was a worthwhile story, important even, but not quite thoroughly enjoyable. There were a few moments that were quite riveting, but at other times it transitioned rather abruptly. Still, I’m glad I read it; it gave me a glimpse of a time and place of which I am largely ignorant.

Excerpts:

Narrative regarding Dr. Aziz and a British soldier after they have had a friendly polo match:

They reined up again, the fire of good fellowship in their eyes. But it cooled with their bodies, for athletics can only raise a temporary glow. Nationality was returning, but before it could exert its poison they parted, saluting each other. “If only they were all like that.” Each thought.

Narrative regarding the British official investigating the alleged crime: 

He had constantly to remind himself that, in the eyes of the law, Aziz was not yet guilty, and the effort fatigued him. 

Interesting choice of words there…not he was innocent until proven guilty, but he was not YET guilty.

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