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Penguin Classics a Handful of Dust 8
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Penguin Classics a Handful of Dust 8 Hardcover - 2011

by Evelyn Waugh

About this book

British writer Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust tells the story of Tony Last, a disillusioned and soon-to-be-divorced country squire, who travels of the jungle of Brazil — only to find himself the prisoner of an unhinged settler who forces him to continuously read aloud the works of Charles Dickens. A Handful of Dust is often grouped with Waugh’s satirical novels prior to World War II; however, because of its serious undertones, it can also been seen as a transitional work to his more substantial postwar fiction. The novel has autobiographical elements, reflecting the author’s own failed marriage and his resulting South American journey in 1933-1934. But on a deeper note, A Handful of Dust illustrates the parallels the savage nature of London society with uncivilized barbarity of the jungle.

Waugh first used Tony as the protagonist in his 1933 short story titled The Man Who Liked Dickens. The piece was published in the US in Hearst's International–Cosmopolitan and in Britain in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine. Tony’s story was then serialized — after much revision and expansion — under the title A Flat in London. When it came time to publish the story as a novel, Waugh selected the title A Handful of Dust, inspired by a line in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land: "I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

Upon publication, the critical reception of A Handful of Dust was less than impressive. Yet the novel was and has remained popular with the public and has never been out of print. A Handful of Dust is ranked 34th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It is also listed as one of TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923). 

From the publisher

After seven years of marriage the beautiful Lady Brenda Last is bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride and joy of her husband, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the shallow socialite John Beaver and forsakes Tony for the Belgravia set. Brilliantly combining tragedy, comedy and savage irony, A Handful of Dust captures the irresponsible mood of the 'crazy and sterile generation' between the wars. The breakdown of the Last marriage, is a painful, comic re-working of Waugh's own divorce and a symbol of the disintegration of society.

First Edition Identification

Chapman and Hall first published A Handful of Dust in 1934. First editions are bound in red and black “snakeskin” cloth with gilt lettering on the spine and have no additional printings listed on the copyright page.

Details

  • Title Penguin Classics a Handful of Dust 8
  • Author Evelyn Waugh
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition Latest Ed.
  • Pages 288
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Group, New York
  • Date 2011
  • ISBN 9780141193458 / 014119345X
  • Weight 1.25 lbs (0.57 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.6 x 5.04 x 0.98 in (19.30 x 12.80 x 2.49 cm)
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About the author

Evelyn Waugh was born in Hampstead in 1903 and educated at Hertford College, Oxford. In 1928 he published his first novel, Decline and Fall, which was soon followed by Vile Bodies, Black Mischief (1932), A Handful of Dust (1934) and Scoop (1938). During these years he also travelled extensively and converted to Catholicism. In 1939 Waugh was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, experiences which informed his Sword of Honour trilogy (1952-61). His most famous novel, Brideshead Revisited (1945), was written while on leave from the army. Waugh died in 1966.

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