Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh: A Handful of Dust: Volume 4

A Handful of Dust (1934) by Evelyn Waugh is a darkly bitter account of the end of a marriage, written with half an eye on his own recent experience. This fully edited and annotated edition seeks to show Waugh as a consummate craftsman, treating the painful subject in comic, tragic, and satirical ways.

Format: Hardback
Length: 528 pages
Publication date: 08 December 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust (1934) is widely regarded as one of his finest works. It is a bleak portrayal of the dissolution of a marriage, exploring its underlying causes and the profound impact it had on the individuals involved. Waugh crafted the novel with a personal touch, drawing upon his own recent experience of the breakdown of his marriage to Evelyn Gardner. The meticulous attention and effort he invested in the manuscript and print revisions are evident in the numerous revisions he made over time. These materials can be found in various sources across the Atlantic, including the autograph and typescript manuscript at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, a proof copy of the first edition at the Huntington Library in California, the serialization of the novel's first part in Harper's Bazaar, tailored for the UK and US markets, and four editions published during Waugh's lifetime in the UK and one in the US. All of these witnesses have been meticulously compiled in this comprehensive and annotated edition of the novel.

The introduction provides a comprehensive overview of the novel's composition and reception, shedding light on the literary influences that shaped Waugh's writing, including Shakespeare, Dickens, Kipling, and Beatrix Potter. The edition aims to present Waugh as a consummate craftsman, skillfully navigating a painful subject matter through a comic, tragic, and satirical lens.

Weight: 722g
Dimension: 142 x 222 x 36 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198703150