Evelyn Waugh

Stannard has been the first commentator to make me not only understand but deeply sympathize with the desperate ambivalence in this great novelist between his passionate Christian concern with saving souls (including of course his own) and his almost maniacal scorn for the follies and mediocrity of the common man. Louis Auchincloss Definitive. . . . Deeply researched and pondered. A literary biography of the same caliber as Richard Ellmanns James Joyce. These words of praise from Edmund Morris in the New York Times and Michael Dirda in the Washington Post are but some of the acclaim that greeted Martin Stannards Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years 1903-1939. This eagerly awaited second volume spanning the years from World War II to Waughs death in 1966 completes the portrait of one of the foremost writers of the century. This was the period of some of Waughs greatest work including Brideshead Revisited The Loved One and the Sword of Honour trilogy.