- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Harper; 1 edition
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060881305
- ISBN-13: 978-0060881306
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.5 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #234,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mad world,
By
This review is from: Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead (Paperback)
One of the reasons I loved this book is because I grew up near Madresfield,and actually played tennis with one of the Lygon nieces. I met Mona the Dane when I was about 8.For me it was wonderful to be able to relate the parts of Waugh's Mad World that he transferred to Brideshead.It is also a wonderful evocation of life around Malvern at that time. Beautifully written.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews) 76 of 78 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book as good as its subject,
By I. Sondel "I. Sondel - lover of the arts" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mad World: Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets Of Brideshead (Hardcover)
I freely admit to an aversion to most biographies; those half ton tomes stuffed to overflowing with superfluous information, regurgitated facts that represent the flotsam and jetsam of the life in question as opposed to actual milestones and achievements. Happily, this is not the case with Paula Byrne's Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead Mad World, a biography as witty and amusing as its subject, which, in the case of Evelyn Waugh, is saying a great deal.As is the case with most historical biographies, Mad World follows Waugh's life from cradle to grave. As we trek along we are treated to brief portraits of Waugh's parents and brother Alec, all those Mitford sisters, his annulled first marriage and life-long second, his conversion to Catholicism, as well as pointedly detailed descriptions of his published works, including Vile Bodies, A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited. The pace picks up (and never flags) once Waugh enters Oxford, where he quickly develops friendships with the likes of Harold Acton and Brian Howard, and enters into a series of homosexual relationships, the most profound and lasting with Hugh Lygon, second son of the 7th Earl Beauchamp, and the inspiration for Brideshead's Sebastian Flyte. Waugh is taken under Lygon's wing, and is introduced to the family, becoming a life-long friend and confidante of sisters Mary and Dorothy, as well as a fixture at the family manse Madresfield (hence "Mad World"); and was witness to the disgrace of Earl Beauchamp, forced to flee the country or face charges of Gross Indecency, and the family's dishonor. Byrne has painstakingly researched her material, and though her finished text is rich in detail and critical observances, it seems never heavy handed or in the least tedious. Indeed, her work reads as though it were a novel, a modern day retelling of Waugh's classic Brideshead Revisited, which is the kindest compliment it could be paid. 18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A GREAT COMPANION TO BRIDESHEAD REVISITED,
By ireadabookaday - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mad World: Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets Of Brideshead (Hardcover)
While I love literature, I am very rarely interested in books that accompany it- biographies, collections of letters, or books that purport to tell the " real story" behind the book. This is delightful exception.I was intrigued by the real family that inspired " Brideshead" and the author does a great job of explaining Waugh's close relationship them, how he did or did not disguise them in the novel, and the reaction of the family to the book. ( Did anyone ever really belive the author's note "I am not I: thou art not he or she: they are not they."?) In addition to the biographical information that helps us understand Waugh and the world he created, the author does a good job of placing the real people and events in context, giving us a better understanding of the intersection of Catholicism and the peerage that is so important to the novel, and of the theme of people struggling to reconcile their lives with God and theology. A must read for anyone who has read and loved "Brideshead Revisited" 36 of 44 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mad World and Secrets of Brideshead,
By Mr. A. Walker-powell "Tony Powell" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Mad World: Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets Of Brideshead (Hardcover)
A biography needs to have a Point of View. Usually it is its subject and should be so if he is unlikely to be portrayed more than once. Evelyn Waugh is not such a case. The interest in him is sufficiently wide to accommodate different Points of View. Mad World is written from the Point of View of the Lygon family, with whom Waugh was friendly and whose members are in part associated with individual characters in Brideshead Revisited.Paula Byrne has done her subject proud and, if one puts a price on the pleasure something provides, it is hopelessly under-priced. Mad World reveals much of what I did not know of Evelyn Waugh, even though I have read about him to a considerable degree. It reveals much more about the Lygon family members. How interesting it is that seemingly insignificant events in Brideshead Revisited happened in one degree or another to people mentioned in this biography. Two villains make their appearance. The first is the second Duke of Westminster, a character as malignant to the seventh Earl Beauchamp as the appalling Marquess of Queensbury was to Oscar Wilde. The second villain was King George V. He abandoned his loyal servant Beauchamp to the Duke of Westminster's knavery in a manner only less reprehensible to the way he abandoned his cousin, Tsar Nicholas II. After Brideshead Revisited, life did not proceed smoothly for any of the people in this book. I remind myself of the conversation between Cordelia and Charles in Brideshead: ` ... such an engaging child, grown up a plain and pious spinster, full of good works.' Did you think "thwarted"?' It was no time for prevarication. `Yes,' I said, `I did; I don't now so much.' `It's funny,' she said, `that's exactly the word I thought for you and Julia when we were up in the nursery with nanny. "Thwarted passion," I thought...' Thwarted. That's what happened to them all. Paula Byrne's style is free of journalistic puffery, therefore this biography is authoritative. I find very few vague points. |
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