Update. I’ve now read the entire first section, the framing device that sets up the novel. It’s marvelous, of course.
My sense of it: Waugh pulls off something unusual here. Charles speaks as a man who observes with both irony and poetry. He’s telling jokes he no longer finds funny.
It’s quite an achievement, and it’s a different kind of narrative voice than others I’ve seen Waugh use. Commentators may quibble about ways the Catholicism or the “purple prose” are evidence of inferior Waugh, but my current thought is that opinions about the worth of what he’s trying to say are not as important as how brilliantly he does say it.
That seems to have been Hitchens’ view too, and at the moment I’m with you and Hitchens. I suspect that’s where I’ll stay.
Update. I’ve now read the entire first section, the framing device that sets up the novel. It’s marvelous, of course.
My sense of it: Waugh pulls off something unusual here. Charles speaks as a man who observes with both irony and poetry. He’s telling jokes he no longer finds funny.
It’s quite an achievement, and it’s a different kind of narrative voice than others I’ve seen Waugh use. Commentators may quibble about ways the Catholicism or the “purple prose” are evidence of inferior Waugh, but my current thought is that opinions about the worth of what he’s trying to say are not as important as how brilliantly he does say it.
That seems to have been Hitchens’ view too, and at the moment I’m with you and Hitchens. I suspect that’s where I’ll stay.
that section gets little attention but of course its the most important part, really, along with the closing section.
I’m a big fan of the “framing device” concept. This one is more artistic than they often are.
"He’s telling jokes he no longer finds funny". That sentence has made me want to read the book.
It’s a poignant and very affecting approach to first person narrative.