Book of the Week

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Recommended by Louis Odgers 

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh is a satirical and comedic novel that follows the upper class of London and their never ending partying night life in the 1930s.

The story has a number of recurring characters who feature throughout the book to ensure that the reader is kept up to date on the whereabouts and current social standings on the front pages of Britain’s most serious newspapers. These include Lord Outrage, 'last week’s prime minister', and Lady Metroland, a high-end business woman with exploits in the female entertainment trade in Argentina. However, the story mainly focuses on the life of Adam, a young author whose life is turned upside down when his autobiography is confiscated at customs as an illegal item, and whose attempts to marry the woman he thinks he may love persist, despite constant economic mishaps that result in the wedding being threatened.

Vile Bodies is written in Waugh’s uniquely ironic ('Say, don’t you never think of nothing but men, Chastity?') and satirical style representative of his firm belief that writing is not an 'investigation of character but as an exercise in the use of language, and with this I [Waugh] am obsessed'. He uses extreme hyperbole to give his writing a comic effect: for example, 'No royalty [for Adam on his book] on the first two thousand and then a royalty of two and a half percent, rising to five percent on the tenth thousand'. Waugh is also making a joke here at the expense of his publisher, possibly implying that he is not being paid enough. Furthermore, Waugh uses the names of his characters as an effective way of immediately telling the reader something about their character, such as 'Miles Malpractice', or to comic effect such as 'Divine Discontent', one of the 'Angels' of the highly religious 'Mrs Ape'. Waugh also writes in short paragraphs, often with dialogue from different characters reviewing the same event with a multitude of different opinions, a contrast which makes the reader laugh.

While Vile Bodies is comical by nature, it also addresses Evelyn Waugh’s criticisms of society and portrays the rich as particularly snobbish, vain and uncaring. It questions the general public and its need for gossip even when they know it’s all fabricated: there is an episode in the book where a newspaper prints an article with 62 cases of libel filed against it and yet the newspaper still reaches its peak popularity. Waugh also attacks the newspapers themselves, which encourage journalists to give a massively exaggerated over-importance to reports of the parties of London’s upper-class. This juxtaposes with the seriousness of the journalists and causes the reader to see them as farcical.

It is difficult to state one particular part of the book I really enjoyed as there is not much plot development throughout (so there is not one particularly exciting scene I can point to) and it is all written in the same dry style; which is amusing for the entire book. However, the lack of plot is the one criticism I would have with this book which can often be slow-paced and difficult to read as it is not especially absorbing. Vile Bodies is nevertheless still very entertaining to read and I would highly recommend it.