“… the novel spins into out and out absurdity and still (more’s the pity) believability.”

We seem to have no end of snarky satires and commentaries anymore (from Lemony Snicket to Colbert’s I Am America to Kuang’s Yellowface), so Waugh’s approach to English propriety and class of a century ago will seem quaint in contrast. Even so, that is part of its charm; even the protagonist Paul is caught by this gentlemanly reserve and we find a society where–even then–image must dominate over common sense, morality, and truth.

In the way of such works, the ironies are more subtle and conservative at first, but soon (once we in a marginal aside note that a young prep school student has lost his foot in a school event shooting accident) the novel spins into out and out absurdity and still (more’s the pity) believability.

I didn’t find Waugh as laugh-out-loud funny as some, perhaps, but I was never disappointed in the simple nostalgic amusement that dominates.

Less appealing? The novel’s own mores have not aged well, especially in regards to its treatment of gender roles and race. Racism and racist vocabulary is a matter-of-course in some scenes, and while portions of this are intended for the satirical skewer, it’s fairly evident that this is not uniformly the case. Yes, this is a novel large in class difference; sadly, it offers only the scantest of nods to other social rifts.