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A review by brandonpytel
A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
4.0
Both bleak and hilarious, Waugh’s A Handful of Dust is a page-turning tragedy that is hard to put down. Tony and Brenda Last live at Hetton Abbey, a gothic mansion outside of the London crowd and incredibly expensive to keep up. The Lasts have settled into their lives of hosting the occasional party or guest, looking after their son John, and living an unremarkable but content existence. But to Tony’s unknowing and naïve eyes, Brenda is getting restless.
Enter John Beaver, a 25-year old mama’s boy of a child in a slump, who goes places he’s not wanted and serves as a last-minute step-in for the London social scene, accompanying women who see him not as a lover but a warm body. Beaver, however, offers something to Brenda that Tony does not have: a fresh escape from the monotony of Hetton life. With the help of Beaver’s mother, a real estate agent, Brenda rents a flat in London, starts an affair with Beaver, and is the talk of the town driven by the social circles of gossip — all unbeknownst to Tony.
As Brenda pulls further away from Hetton Abbey, Tony is left in despair, becoming lonelier, turning to alcohol, and falling into an isolated depression, driven by his dependence on Brenda, as well as the society from which he is removed. Their son John’s death is the last straw to a failing marriage — “It’s all over, don’t you see, our life down here” — catalyzing a sequence of odd events in which Tony stages an affair for the purpose of divorce.
After the first and second acts of infidelity, gossip, and isolation, the third act takes a dramatic turn, with Tony, much like Brenda, escaping his former life for greener pastures, this time, as an explorer. As Tony falls into the depths of the South American jungle, he becomes trapped in a completely remote society. Brenda meanwhile falls into an “agony of resentment and self-pity.”
A Handful of Dust represents the absurdity of the 1930s British upper class and its removal from common decency, as seen in the lack of emotion’s following John’s death. Tony’s spineless behavior, combined with Brenda’s utter lack of sympathy, creates a narrative drenched in satire that ultimately ends in each character getting what they deserve.
Enter John Beaver, a 25-year old mama’s boy of a child in a slump, who goes places he’s not wanted and serves as a last-minute step-in for the London social scene, accompanying women who see him not as a lover but a warm body. Beaver, however, offers something to Brenda that Tony does not have: a fresh escape from the monotony of Hetton life. With the help of Beaver’s mother, a real estate agent, Brenda rents a flat in London, starts an affair with Beaver, and is the talk of the town driven by the social circles of gossip — all unbeknownst to Tony.
As Brenda pulls further away from Hetton Abbey, Tony is left in despair, becoming lonelier, turning to alcohol, and falling into an isolated depression, driven by his dependence on Brenda, as well as the society from which he is removed. Their son John’s death is the last straw to a failing marriage — “It’s all over, don’t you see, our life down here” — catalyzing a sequence of odd events in which Tony stages an affair for the purpose of divorce.
After the first and second acts of infidelity, gossip, and isolation, the third act takes a dramatic turn, with Tony, much like Brenda, escaping his former life for greener pastures, this time, as an explorer. As Tony falls into the depths of the South American jungle, he becomes trapped in a completely remote society. Brenda meanwhile falls into an “agony of resentment and self-pity.”
A Handful of Dust represents the absurdity of the 1930s British upper class and its removal from common decency, as seen in the lack of emotion’s following John’s death. Tony’s spineless behavior, combined with Brenda’s utter lack of sympathy, creates a narrative drenched in satire that ultimately ends in each character getting what they deserve.