A Handful of Dust

In Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh examines the clash of modern and traditional values within the context of a seemingly happy marriage. In London’s hyperactive post-War War I society, Tone Last is not in fashion. He devotes himself to things traditional such as the upkeep of his ancestral home, a Gothic mansion “devoid of all interest” according to the local guidebook. While Tony happily dreams of ceiling renovation, his wife, Brenda, dashes headlong into the modern age, taking a lover, a flat in London, and a course in Economics. Her desersion prompts Tony to join an expedition to Brazil, but even this dream of glory crumbles as this most traditional of Englishman finds himself the jungle guest of a Dickens-loving, mad old man. Wildly acclaimed as one of the most brilliant satirists of the twentieth century, Evelyn Waugh puts upper-class English society under the microscope in this compelling novel.