As long as the Empire grew, the excess and ‘idle’ wealth accumulated by those it conquered could be confiscated and put to work, mainly in building the city of Rome itself, but also in creating a physical and governmental infrastructure. Its economics depended crucially on expansion. Instead it had an economics which functioned practically as such an ideology. The Roman Empire had its founding myths but it had no ideology, no coherent theory of itself, and therefore no real culture except what it borrowed from Greece.

Piety? Whimsey? Correction of historical perceptions? Who knows for sure. So reading the book one is constantly searching for his intention. I doubt that a recognised talent like Waugh would spend time on an historical fantasy like Helena without a purpose. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again” (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.Įvelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.

After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy” about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms” (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen” (1955), “Unconditional Surrender' (1961) - his career was seen to be on the wane. “The Loved One” a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947.

After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,” in which his Catholicism took centre stage. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies” (1930), “Black Mischief” (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust” (1934) and “Scoop” (1938). It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.ĭuring the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust” from this unhappy time. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall” in 1928. In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. When asked if he took up any sports there he quipped, “I drank for Hertford.”

He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers it was all we were taught, really.” He went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he read History. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youth” (1917) a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. Evelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher.

Helena waugh novel