About this title: The Bright Young Things of 1920s Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade, whether it is promiscuity, dancing, cocktail parties or sports cars. A vivid assortment of characters, among them the struggling writer Adam Fenwick-Symes and the glamorous, aristocratic Nina Blount, hunt fast and furiously for ever greater sensations and the hedonistic fulfilment of their desires. Evelyn Waugh's acidly funny and experimental satire shows a new generation emerging in the years after the First ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Little Brown & Co, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780316926119ISBN:0316926116
Description: Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Some corner, edge wear. Pages good. Evelyn Waugh's second novel, Vile Bodies is his tribute to London's smart set. It introduces us to society as it used to be but that now is gone forever, and probably for good. 321 pages. Few bookstore marks, labels. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin
Date Published: 1973
Description: Fair. Cover has bumping, chipping, tears at spine, marks, residue-edgewear-marks on edge-bumping pgs-marks on pgs-yellowed-dog-eared-liquid damage-cocked. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK
Date Published: 1953
Description: Good+ Previous owner's signature on half-title page. Price sticker for South Africa on front cover. Spine is missing half inch at bottom. read more
Description: Good. 0141182873 NOTE PLEASE READ BEFORE PURCHASE! ! MUCH Earlier penguin smaller reading copy only paperback same text exactly-Aside from newer introduction/afterward, the original text has not changed. Different cover. OLDER Used Condition with age discoloration, though book is holding together well for it's age. No writing or Highlighting in text, sold for content. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1955
Description: Good. Paperback. Cover shows moderate wear to edges, minor sunning and soiling. Pages are sunned, especially to edges, no markings, a few dogears. Binding is excellent. 224 pages. read more
"well, this was my first waugh, and he came highly recommended by mr. p.g. wodehouse, so my expectations were high. despite the fact that there is an author's note saying you don't need to have read his previous novel "decline and fall" before reading this one, though they share similar characters, i had trouble keeping all of the characters straight, especially since they quite often acted in very similar ways. lord metroland and lord monomark were especially hard to distinguish, and surely that's partly the point and yet, i just find it tiresome. ultimately the narrative is strung together by a bunch of monotonous parties and more parties, which the "bright young people" recognize as such, and then father rothschild, lord metroland? and the former prime minister or perhaps the present one gather together at one, conspiring (about what it was never made plain) and end up talking about the young people these days and what exactly is the matter with them, or at least i think what waugh thought was wrong with them, and then people die for silly reasons, and then there is stark contrast for an ending, which i liked.. bottom line, too many characters and too much flip-flopping to hold my interest. i will give him another shot but this was not enthralling to me."
"It's a satirical and deceptively whimsical take on wealth and debauchery in the 1920's. Sort of like a children's book for adults! There are an awful lot of characters, but I suppose it's the nature of this book to flit about. And actually, I think it carries more depth than is generally acknowledged. In any case, it does a beautiful job of bringing that period to life.
I've heard that Nina was based on Nancy Mitford, but I'm not certain of that."
"3.6, say. Definitely meant to be revisited, for various reasons. Hilarious just about straight through (highly quotable/reciteable), and a very fast read (appropriately). Plenty of drinking (how divine!), very little eating (what a perfect bore); these vile bodies indeed. And so much stuff; if I were in a cartoon and dropped this book, it is likely that it would make a frightful clanking noise. And the picture of Waugh inside the front cover of this edition still cracks me up.
Shiny and witty at first, and you think "Oh yes, like Wodehouse, but rather mean, yay!" The shine and the wit are retained, but it takes on a far grimmer aspect than one might expect; pretty soon, when your back is turned, the surfaces become blinding, and what's on the page could burn holes through skin. Taking irreverence to the nth degree, and seeing what it does: war on our own humanity. The saddest line occurs early on (Nina, after the whole cheque business and she witnesses Adam's solitary jig in the hallway), and I think it is saddest because the line is right in the midst of what you still think is an absurd romp --flitting by like everything else. Unexpectedly haunting (or nagging, I cannot decide)."
"This book is mentioned in Bright Young People which I just finished reading. It is a fictional description of youthful society in London in the 1920s. The author was a member of that society as well as a chronicler of their exploits in the gossip columns of the newspapers just as his protagonist, Adam. The romance between Adam and Nina mirrors the Evelyn Waugh's own romance and first short-lived marriage to a woman also named Evelyn (referred to by friends as He-velyn and She-velyn). The author and his wife were fast friends with Diana and Nancy Mitford so there has been a great deal of overlap in my reading during the past 4 years. The conversations and antics of the characters are humorous but they border on vapid most of the time. The rapid-fire dialog gives a sense of the gay frivolity that youth were desperate for after the devastation of WWI and before the Great Depression and then WWII."
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