Books

London: Chapman and Hall, 1934. First edition of the author's masterpiece. Octavo, original cloth. A near fine copy in the rare dust jacket which shows some wear and tear. Signed by Evelyn Waugh. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Rare especially in the original dust jacket and signed. Few writers have walked the line between farce and tragedy as nimbly as Evelyn Waugh, who employed the conventions of the comic novel to chip away at the already crumbling English class system. His 1934 novel, A Handful of Dust, is a sublime example of his bleak satirical style: a mordantly funny exposé of aristocratic decadence and ennui in England between the wars. "The most mature and the best written novel that Mr. Waugh has yet produced." (New Statesman & Nation). Listed by Modern Library as one of the 100 great novels of the twentieth century, and was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present.

A Handful of Dust is a novel by the British writer Evelyn Waugh. First published in 1934, the story is a satirical depiction of the upper-class society in England at the time and follows the life of the protagonist, Tony Last, who experiences a series of misfortunes, leading to a tragic downfall.