Waugh,Evelyn

Born in 1903, in London, Evelyn Waugh grew up in an upper‐middle‐class home, in which literature formed a integral part of daily life. His father, Arthur Waugh, was head of the publishing house Chapman and Hall and also an amateur literary critic. His only sibling, Alec Waugh, was a successful novelist at the age of 18, and Waugh doubtlessly learned some tricks of the trade from him, although he went on to eclipse his elder brother's reputation. After attending an Anglican boys school, Evelyn Waugh studied history at Hertford College, Oxford. But being more interested in socializing and drinking than in academic pursuits, he left the university prematurely in 1924, with only a third‐class degree, after which he had two unsuccessful teaching stints. He was dismissed from his second post as a teacher for alleged sexual misconduct, but he had accumulated enough experience by then to write his fictional account of a failed student turned novice teacher,Decline and Fall(1928). This comic novel is widely admired for its hilarious rendering of the naive protagonist's education at the hands of an unscrupulous society. Expelled from Oxford for a prank others had played onhim, the luckless Paul Pennyfeather embarks on a teaching career that only enmeshes him further in conflict and scandal, as his naivety acts as a foil to point up the ruthlessly selfish nature of a pleasure‐driven, decadent society composed equally of ill‐behaved pupils and their shameless parents. At the time of its publication, the book's indecorous treatment of social anarchy and sex caused a stir.