4,9. Boekverslag door een scholier 2300 woorden 26 juli keer beoordeeld. Eerste uitgave 1928

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1 Boekverslag door een scholier 2300 woorden 26 juli ,9 22 keer beoordeeld Auteur Evelyn Waugh Eerste uitgave 1928 Vak Engels Title : Decline and Fall Author : Evelyn Waugh First published : 1928 Editor : Penguin Books Pages : 216 Explanation of the title I find it quite difficult to say what the connection is between the title and the story. `Decline and Fall' implies that the main character during the story gets into trouble and ends in the gutter, while Paul Pennyfeather, the main character of this book, gets indeed in all kinds of trouble, but finally gets back to the right road again. So to explain the title I guess I have to look a little bit further. Now I find Mrs. Margot Beste-Chetwynde. When we first get to now her, she is a popular, rich woman from the Upperclass, who enjoys a lot of respect in society. This changes during the story, her popularity is declining, until she has to fit in, in the rest of society to save her good name and her place in the Upperclass. The tone in which Waugh describes the whole high society of Great Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, is why I think this decline of status is maybe where Waugh is pointing at with her title. The whole story makes the English Upperclass, or rather the whole `class-thing' kind of laughable. Overview The story starts at Scone College, Oxford, on Bollinger evening. On this evening the (adult) Upperclass members of the so called Bollinger Club have dinner together, drink a lot and finally behave more and more outrageous. Paul Pennyfeather, a Middleclass student in his third year Theology becomes a victim of this lot, with his suspension from the school as result. His guardian is not willing to help Paul with the trouble he came into completely innocent, and that is why he needs to go to find himself a job. He goes to a scholastic agent and a mister Levy of this agent gets him a job at a school in Wales. Pagina 1 van 6

2 Although he has no experience whatsoever, Paul is accepted as the new junior assistant on Llanabba Castle. His colleges captain Grimes and mister Prendergest make that he feels at home quite soon and so he starts his life as a teacher. One day the school organizes a sports day. There will be some of the most eminent parents to watch the students during the games. Margot Beste-Chytwynde, a widow, is one of them. Paul falls in love with her. When she asks him to join her and her son Peter during the holidays to tutor Peter, Paul immediately agrees. And so Paul gets to know Margot better and better. He knows she wants to get married again and one day he has the courage to ask her. She is content and agrees, although she wants to ask Peter for his opinion. When the boy reacts enthusiastically, she tells Paul she will make her decision in the morning. Of course she decides to marry him - she liked him from the start - and so Paul gets engaged with one of the richest women of High Society. Margot leads a business in South-America. At first it is kind of vague what kind of business it is, but it turns out that it has to do something with slave trade. Three days for the wedding there are some problems in Marseilles with a couple of girls Margot send to South-America as entertainment girls. Because Margot is very busy with the wedding she sends Paul to solve (whatever that is) the problem. All goes well and on the morning of his wedding Paul returns in London. But when he, his best man and Peter have a drink just before they go to the church, an inspector of Scotland Yard comes in and arrests Paul for mingling in Margot's dark business. And so Paul ends up in jail; he is committed to seven years' penal servitude for traffic in prostitution. In the period he is in jail, Paul meets Prendergest, Philbrick - the butler of Llanabba Castle - and Grimes again. Prendergest is murdered after a while by a physically ill prisoner, Grimes escapes from the prison no one ever escaped. Paul himself is rescued by Maltravers, the man Margot married in the meanwhile. Because he would save her reputation and it would give Paul a change to get out of prison; he is the Home Secretary and can get things like that done. They fake a needed removal of Paul's appendix, so Paul can die (only on paper, of course) during the operation. After that he spends a while at the villa of Margot at Corfu and when some time has passed he gets back to Oxford, where he starts with the theology study again. So at the end, things turned out quite all right for Paul Pennyfeather. Characters The main character of this novel is Paul Pennyfeather, a young man somewhere in his twenties who at first seems to have a talent for bad fortune. He is a quiet, kind man, who wants to act the right way and always thinks twice before acting. He is honest and intelligent. An example of his good character is his dilemma about answering the question about his leaving university: Pagina 2 van 6

3 'I understand, too, that you left your University rather suddenly. Now - why was that?' This was the question that Paul had been dreading, and, true to his training, he resolved upon honesty. `I was send down, sir, for indecent behaviour'. Another example is his doubt after the guy who is responsible for Paul's suspension, offers him money for sort of damages: `If I Take that money', he said to himself, `I shall never know whether I have acted rightly or not. It would always be on my mind. If I refuse, I shall be sure of having done right. I shall look upon my self-denial with exquisite self-approval. By refusing I can convince myself that, in spite of the unbelievable things that have been happening to me during the last ten days, I am still the same Paul Pennyfeather I have respected so long. It is a test-case of the durability of my ideals. Other characters who are more or less important to the story are Doctor Fagin, Captain Grimes, Mister Prendergest, Mister Philbrick and Margot Beste-Chytwynde. There are more characters, but I don't find them important enough to the main theme of the story to explicate here. Doctor Fagin is the principal of Llanabba Castle and a little bit weird. There is not really much to tell about him. He is very Upperclass-minded and for this reason he dislikes Captain Grimes in a way and he loves the boys who come from the `better families'. Still, he seems to me a friendly man, who, like Paul, wants to do the right thing. He doesn't care about diploma's et cetera, he just want the teachers in his school to have `vision': `I understand you have no previous experience?' `No, sir, I am afraid not.' `Well, of course, that is in many ways an advantage. One too easily acquires the professional tone and loses vision. But of course we must be practical. I am offering a salary of one hundred and twenty pounds, but only to a man with experience. I have a letter here from a young man who holds a diploma in forestry. He want an extra ten pounds a year on the strength of it, but it is vision I need, mister Pennyfeather, not diplomas.' Captain Grimes is also a weird kind of man. He always `gets in the soup', but always he finds a way or a helping hand to get out of it again. He can be quite cynical, but is always in for a laugh and a drink with his friends. He and Paul become soon after Paul's arrival good friends. Grimes is engaged with one of the two daughters of Doctor Fagin and after his marriage he becomes depressive by the way Fagin is treating him [Note the fact that Fagin prefers the Upperclass, of which Grimes is no part]. He simulates a suicides, but some weeks later he turns out to be still alive, asking Margot for a job in South-America. He ends up in jail a while later, but finds a way to escape. After that he disappears. Pagina 3 van 6

4 Mister Prendergest is clergyman who got doubts and is really depressed about that. He left the church and now teaches at Llanabba Castle, but isn't able to handle the boys. They make fun of him because of his wig and his way of acting. Not long after Paul left with Margot he finds out that there exists something called `the modern churchman', this offers him the change to work for the church without feeling guilty about his former doubts. That is how he became chaplain in the same prison Paul was locked up after his trial. But as a chaplain he neither can manage, he seems quite unhappy to me. Then one day he is murdered by one of the prisoners. Mister Philbrick is the butler of Llanabba Castle and it is quite difficult to tell the right story about this man, because he tells everybody an other story about his live. He is not very trustworthy. Still though, I find him kind of sympathetic. He, too, ends up in jail where he gets himself the best job there is, reception cleaner, and he manages quite well. Morgot Beste-Chytwynde is at first the most distinguished woman of Upperclass England. She is very modern in her ideas and she is a well seen woman in High Society. And she acts like it, rules are not made for her, she lives conform her own ways. But after Paul is imprisoned and she turns out to be a slave trader, her good name is in danger and she has to choose a saver road by marrying Maltravers, the Home Secretary. She really loved Paul, though and after her marriage she uses it to help Paul out of prison, this, to me, shows her affection to the younger man she should have married when things had turned out like they had to. Time The story plays in the twenties of the 20th century. Between Paul's suspension and his return to Scone College about a year passes. Structure The story is told chronological. There is a great continuity, without flashbacks or great gaps in the time passing. The end is closed, of course there is a lot that still can be told, like what happened to Captain Grimes, but the story of Paul Pennyfeather has an obvious end in his return to Scone College. Location/Situation The first part of the story is situated in a Upperclass-minded environment (Llanabba Castle), where the difference between the social classes in the English society becomes clear. After Paul's departure to Margot's manor it is chiefly the High Society that is in sight, after Paul's imprisonment we get to see life in prison. Although we get to see chiefly the Upperclass, the difference between the social classes is a main theme in this book. Pagina 4 van 6

5 Geographically the story is situated partly in Wales and partly in and around London. Theme and Genre The theme of this book is, I guess, the ephemerality of the Upperclass, even a woman like Margot isn't able to preserve her good reputation. With this novel Waugh gives a comical account of an innocent plunged into the sham, brittle world of high society. The genre is in my opinion a comical novel, in my opinion it has no deeper message, although the author maybe likes to point out the laughable character of a class society. Language The Language Evelyn Waugh uses isn't very difficult. This book is easy to read, although sometimes it is hard to really `get into the story'. Still, `Decline and fall' is really not hard to read, it's a fun, easy written book. Perspective The story is told by an omniscient narrator. Place in the history of literature I guess Waugh fits in with the modernism that is growing as a literary trend in the twenties of the 20th century, although he mixes it in my opinion with some surrealism, he makes the reality `bigger' to create a funnier picture of the English society of his time. Some aspects of the story make it realistic for the time it is placed in (For example the `League of Nations Union', which is spoken about several times) and also the critical tone of the story at the address of class society makes it in my opinion suitable for the twenties. The intention of the writer I guess, like I said before, that this novel has no deeper message, although the author maybe likes to point out the laughable character of a class society. In my opinion it seems to be written to amuse the public and maybe a little to provoke the patrons of social classes, and especially the Upperclass. My opinion I do not really know what I must think of this novel. I found it quite hard to read, not because it is difficult, but because it seems to go very slow. Still, in fact it is a short story, there does not happen a lot and it is very good to follow. While I was reading, I must confess, I hated this book. But now, when I have finished Pagina 5 van 6

6 reading and almost finished writing, I must say I liked it. It is a friendly story, a little bit weird in a funny way. Maybe I read it again someday, who knows. Pagina 6 van 6