A Handful of Dust is a novel by
Evelyn Waugh, and it gets its name from its epigram,
"I will show you fear in a handful of dust," which is a
beautiful and scary line. It shows how powerful
time is, and how
weak we are both
morally and
physically.
I'm amazed that this hasn't been noded already, since this is one of the finest novels of the 20th century and a brilliant satire, that goes on to mock and condemn the state of the world that Eliot has already sneered at in his poem (from which the epigram is taken), The Wasteland.
Simon Leake puts it like this: "Few writers have walked the line between farce and tragedy as nimbly as Evelyn Waugh, who employed the conventions of the comic novel to chip away at the already crumbling English class system. His 1934 novel, A Handful of Dust, is a sublime example of his bleak satirical style: a mordantly funny exposé of aristocratic decadence and ennui in England between the wars."
"Tony Last is an aristocrat whose attachment to an ideal feudal past is so profound that he is blind to his wife Brenda's boredom with the stately rhythms of country life While he earnestly plays the lord of the manor in his ghastly Victorian Gothic pile, she sets herself up in a London flat and pursues an affair with the social-climbing idler John Beaver. In the first half of the novel Waugh fearlessly anatomizes the lifestyles of the rich and shameless. Everyone moves through an endless cycle of parties and country-house weekends, being scrupulously polite in public and utterly horrid in private. Sex is something one does to relieve the boredom, and Brenda's affair provides a welcome subject for conversation ... In Waugh's world, culture, breeding, and the trappings of civilization only provide more subtle means of destruction."
Waugh, to me, seems horrified at the moral collapse of western civilisation, and he shows this through his (in my opinion) utterly despicable characters. Yet the novel is never really angry or outraged because the characters are, to be honest, very funny. Beaver is a pretty pathetic chap who lives with his mother, and Brenda is clearly an uber-bitch who makes up for the lack of meaning in her life with a sordid affair. At the end, Tony is stuck on an island or jungle forever with a crazy Mr. Tod (which means Mr. Death in German, tdent tells me) and the situation is so surreal it makes you wonder what went through Waugh's mind as he wrote it.
It has also been made into a decent film , which is not as bitingly funny and satirical as the book, but then they never are. James Wilby and Kristin Scott Thomas play Tony and Brenda Last, and Charles Sturridge directs.
Below is an essay I wrote on A Handful of Dust some time ago: instead of rewriting in note form I've left it as it is which means the prose may seem dry at times. Remember, Node your Homework...
`A Handful of Dust' is a novel in which the author's (Evelyn Waugh) beliefs and convictions are represented in a variety of ways, including some allegorical images and humorous ones. The novel takes its epigraph from T.S. Elliot's `The Wasteland'. `A Handful of Dust' shares the theme of `The Wasteland', in that it follows the breakdown of modern culture, and the mood is similar, drawing images of "unreal cities" which are deteriorating, as well as Tony's trip for salvation, which relates to the part of the poem where Elliot writes, `Burning burning burning burning/O Lord thou pluckest me out'.
These convictions stem directly from Waugh's own experiences, specifically the break-up of his marriage and his subsequent conversion to Catholicism. The break-up of his marriage was a bitter affair, and reflections of this are clearly visible in the book. Hence, Waugh portrays modern society as glamorous and shiny on the outside, spoiled, rotten, and especially hollow on the inside. There are many examples of this, and some comparisons. For example, Hetton Abbey represents the crumbling moral infrastructure of modern society. It is a huge Gothic mansion, but on closer inspection, it is a building full of cracks, in a quickly deteriorating state. Tony is endeared to his house, despite the worsening state, in the same way that he is oblivious to the breakdown of society and his marriage, indifferent to this.
Apart from being an embittered attack and satire on modern society, Waugh's vision of human lives and love is really frightening, and Waugh achieves this effect by using a story line similar to his experiences (anyone who is interested should read his letters and diaries).
Almost every character is portrayed as corrupt, and even Tony Last is not free, his crime being that he is indifferent to Brenda's needs and is not taking an active participation in the marriage. Tony is a culpable husband, however and the book says, `He had got into the habit of loving and trusting Brenda', which shows his unthinking love; a habit is something done blindly or part of a routine. A marriage is something that deserves more attention. In addition to this, communication is lacking in the marriage and this is shown clearly by the couple's lack of caring for one another. Tony says to Jock, with black comedy, "I know exactly what Brenda wants". The death of John Andrew also uncovers their indifference to any attempt at communicating; "Nothing to say, is there?" and "There's no need to talk". One of the clear examples of fear is that although Tony is naïve, an honourable and innocent man, who has committed no serious wrongs (notably in stark contrast to Brenda).
Even with these virtues, Tony's fate is bleak: reading Dickens aloud to Dr. Todd, a mad recluse in the middle of the jungle. In fact, this image of the least corrupt character reciting the one of England's canonical texts into the wilderness is a distressing metaphor for one of Waugh's most fearful visions: that the society without values has created a godless world in which morals mean nothing and the good, far from being rewarded or their actions, come last. All sense of spirituality and morality has been thrown away. There is clearly no salvation, and as Tony significantly points out, `There is no city', referring to the Celestial City, and in the book, representing salvation, portrayed as chimerical. This also relates to `The Wasteland', in which the `Unreal cities' are described. Elliot describes the cracking cities but then points out they are in fact totally hollow - a moral and intellectual hollowness.
Sadly, despite the very little sympathy Waugh has given to some characters, the general feeling is that they do not deserve any salvation, and Tony's fate is a punishment for his complacency. This becomes clear on several occasions. When asked if he believes in God, he replies, "I suppose so. I've never really thought about it much". This statement is unsettling, especially because Tony is the locals squire, and the spirituality of the church, in which he thinks about Hetton's lavatories, means little to him, and he confesses to Beaver, "I only go to church because I have to". In addition to this, Tony is aware of his lack of faith; " Brenda teased him whenever she caught him posing as an up-right, God fearing gentleman of the old-school. Tony saw the joke".
Tony however is not the only one who has a lack of faith. Even the vicar re-uses old sermons habitually, and the society as a whole seems to have very little religious faith. For example, Waugh writes, "After the choir filed out, the congregation crouched silently for a few seconds and hen made for the door. There were no signs of recognition until they were outside among the graves; then there was an exchange of greetings, solicitous, cordial, garrulous". The congregation are eager to get out of the church, and perhaps Waugh is making a point when he notes that they only started talking when they were among the graves; like Tony, most of Waugh's characters never seem spiritually alive. They have no faith, and without spiritual faith, they can seek no spiritual salvation.
Waugh's portrayal of human relations is especially fearful, the most disturbing being the relationship between Brenda and Tony. Brenda drifts into an affair with John Beaver, and soon all of London seems to know this, but Tony is not told. This lack of conscience is present in most characters, and there are several examples of this. Brenda's brother in-law Allan says, `Anyway, it's her business and Tony's, not ours' directly after he has had a lengthy conversation on the topic with Marjorie, Brenda's sister. Beaver and Brenda also discuss the social scene and talk about the break-up of marriages in an off-hand way. "He's having a terrific walk-out with a girl called Sheila Shrub". Beaver does not condemn, this, or even find it unusual. Instead, he considers it, "terrific". After this exchange, Brenda comments, "Dear me, what fun everyone seems to be having!".
It is sad that Waugh's society considers the serious moral issues of adultery and love trivial. "She's extremely high principled about chucking", says Tony, with a humorous statement, which again shows how the society has abraded. Many characters also seem equally bad, such as the money-grabbing and heartless Mrs. Beaver. In the first paragraph of the book, Mrs. Beaver is disappointed that someone's house was not sufficiently damaged to warrant a re-decoration, which she would have profited from. "The fire never reached the bedroom I'm afraid. Still, they are bound to need doing up...Luckily they had that old fashioned sort of extinguisher that ruins everything". She considers it lucky that they managed to do as much damage as possible, simply because it is lucrative for her; she has no sense of sympathy, and obviously does not care about the family's misfortune.
Brenda also tries to find a partner for Tony, in an effort to excuse her adultery. Her reasoning was `two wrongs make a right', and is not troubled by the immorality of attempting to force others to wrong, as well as herself. She says to Polly, "The trouble is that I've become such a habit with him. He won't take easily to a new one" suggesting that she is simply an object to him, which is almost true. This casual treatment of serious matters happens several times in the book, including Brenda's letter to Tony in which he is first told of her affair. She writes, `I am in love with John Beaver and I want to have a divorce and marry him. Please do not mind too much. These astonishing words contain some black comedy, but still show Brenda's lack of morals, and her feelings that she has committed no serious crime, when she clearly have. Her request for Tony not to `mind too much' shows how lightly she takes the matter, and how weak her relationship with Tony was, in that it is broken so easily.
Waugh treats the death of John Andrew as an opportunity to display Brenda's corruption. At first, she thinks that John Beaver has died, but when she realises the death is of her son, John Andrew, she blurts out, "Thank God!", showing the absence of love between mother and child. Her remark is callous and horrifying, and suggests that the death of her son is not an important matter: all that matters is her sexual satisfaction, and thus, John Beaver.
She also says, "I suppose there'll have to be a funeral", indicating that this would be troublesome for her, and unnecessary. Her maternal instincts are drowned in lust: a symbol for society's jumbled priorities. Even after the death, Brenda says, "Nothing to say, is there?" to which Tony replies, "There's no need to speak". This exchange sums up the communication in their marriage, because neither Tony nor Brenda actively sought to help the relationship by communicating. At this point, we again see Brenda's lack of morals come through when she immediately uses the death as an justification for breaking up the marriage, simply because its the easiest thing to say to Tony, and she is desperate to leave.
Waugh gives us an image of a society bereft of any moral bearings, through its immorality and degradation. Setting the mood perfectly, through `The Wasteland', Waugh's visions of society, its actions and its destiny present a fearful concept that modern culture will bring itself down, as Elliot says, `Falling Towers/Jerusalem Athens Alexander/Vienna London/Unreal'. A spiritual anarchy beckons, where society is physically existing, but like Waugh's characters and Elliot's cities, is completely hollow.