Vile Bodies, distasteful, if not vile

[MsAmerica]

I just read my first Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies, and was startled to find that not only was it not "hilarious," as advertised on the cover, it was tedious. I figure that maybe it was unusual at the time, but for me at present, I found it devoid of plot, character development, or real humor.

Could you tell me what I'm missing? Should I try something else, like Scoop, or should I give up?

Ah! Mean-spirited. Good choice of word.

Except I love 19th century British novels.

I wasn't offended - just bored!

Don't let it get you down. I'm a reg in a forum where I'm called much worse!

;)

Try The Loved One. Less jerky.

Er, Waugh was a satirist. That means he wasn’t paid to be polite or Insta-saccharine about toffs. About anyone.

He was pissed, snobby, scary and rude IRL. Gen Z would call him mental health. Historians call it a personality.

Deeply religious, he believed in Christ’s birth as simple historical fact. When someone asked him why as a Catholic he wasn’t nicer he said ‘just think
how awful id be if I didn’t go to church’.

His absurdist comedy defined his time & foreshadowed the 1950s existentialists.

Did you know VB is the first novel to feature the phone? He makes it a plot device and develops the modernist theme of miscommunication too.

BFF was Nancy Mitford - both stylistic geniuses and much underrated in their definition of their time and prophetic exploration of civilization’s problems that writers still tackle now.

I enjoyed the 2003 film adaptation more than I enjoyed reading the novel. Smooths over the edges

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Young_Things_(film)

Brideshead Revisited is by far my favourite Waugh- give that a go OP! It’s quite a profound book and very different to Vile Bodies (which I can’t remember the plot of really).

I have read it! Very different, right? I thought it was ... okay. Not bowled over.