news, views & reviews
Posted in Comedy/Satire on Feb 18th, 2008
By Evelyn Waugh
The Satirical Rogue
Evelyn Waugh wrote Decline and Fall, his first book, at the age of twenty-five. Most young writers compare the giddy throes of that initial burst of creativity to a kind of drunkenness—young, brash, and brimming with authorial enthusiasm, they are intoxicated by the thrill of artistic discovery.
Well, Evelyn Waugh was […]
Posted in Comedy/Satire on Feb 2nd, 2008
By David Lodge
reviewed by John Murphy
Home Truths is a bite-sized country manor comedy of manners adapted from the novelist’s stage play. Its theatrical origins are apparent in the three-act structure, the closed-in location (a country cottage), and the dialogue-heavy scenes. Considering how closely it resembles the script for a stage production, one wonders why […]
Posted in Comedy/Satire, Literary on Oct 31st, 2007
by David Lodge
reviewed by John Murphy
“It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.” – G.K. Chesterton
Christianity passes the test, as the wry novels of David Lodge attest. (The riots and righteous fury inspired by a Danish caricature of the prophet Muhammad a few years ago….Well, that’s another story).
The […]
Posted in Classics, Comedy/Satire on Oct 1st, 2007
By P.G. Wodehouse
reviewed by John Murphy
If laughter is indeed the best medicine, then the collected works of Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1881-1975) should be prescribed by doctors as a matter of course. It is literally impossible to be downhearted while reading the words of Wodehouse. Believe me, I’ve tried, but then that incomparable fathead, Bertram Wooster, […]
Posted in Classics, Comedy/Satire on Apr 16th, 2007
Gallows Humor
One of my favorite stories about Evelyn Waugh finds him at a swank Parisian dinner party. After rudely belittling a helpless French intellectual with his characteristic boorishness, the host asked Evelyn how he could be so mean and still call himself a Catholic. “You have no idea,” Waugh answered, “how much nastier I would […]