Based in part on the author’s schooldays at Lancing and then Hertford College in England and subsequently as a teacher in North Wales, “Decline and Fall” is Evelyn Waugh’s debut novel, first published in 1928. In the socially satirical style for which the author is known, Waugh brilliantly lampoons British society of the 1920s. The story tracks the life of Paul Pennyfeather, who following expulsion from Oxford, the result of a drunken prank, is forced to take a teaching position at an obscure school in Wales. Paul soon learns that all the teachers at the school have all arrived there as the result of similar failings in their own lives. While teaching at the school Paul becomes entangled with an attractive wealthy widow, whose son he is tutoring, which continues his decline and fall. In the end, Paul’s tragic decline finds him ironically right back where he started. Heralded as an uncompromising satire when first published, “Decline and Fall” remains to this day a work of comic brilliance that reminds the reader of the persistent absurdity of modern life.
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