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Cover of A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

A Handful of Dust

  • 265 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1934
  • 83 editions

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1 About this book

Tony Last is an aristocrat whose attachment to an ideal feudal past is so profound that he is blind to his wife Brenda's boredom with the stately rhythms of country life. She sets herself up in a London flat and pursues an affair with the social-climbing idler John Beaver. Tragedy forces the collapse of their relationship to accelerate, and Tony seeks solace in a foolhardy search for El Dorado.

Good for readers who want: satire and humor.

  • Satire
  • Humor
  • Adultery
  • Divorce
  • Brazil
  • Aristocracy (Social class)
  • Country homes
  • Upper class

2 About Evelyn Waugh

Born 1903

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934), the novel Brideshead Revisited (1945), and the Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour (1952–1961).

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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