Evelyn Waugh`s acidly funny & formally daring satire, Vile Bodies reveals the darkness & vulnerability that lurks beneath the glittering surface of the high life. This Penguin Modern Classics edition is edited with an introduction & notes by Richard Jacobs. In the years following the First World War a new generation emerges, wistful & vulnerable beneath the glitter. The Bright Young Things of twenties Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence & sophistication, exercise their inventive minds & vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade
- whether promiscuity, dancing, cocktail parties or sports cars. In a quest for treasure, a favourite party occupation, a vivid assortment of characters, among them the struggling writer Adam Fenwick-Symes & the glamorous, aristocratic Nina Blount, hunt fast & furiously for ever greater sensations & the fulfilment of unconscious desires. ” The high point of the experimental, original Waugh.” (Malcolm Bradbury, Sunday Times). ” This brilliantly funny, anxious & resonant novel...the difficult edgy guide to the turn of the decade.” (Richard Jacobs). ” It`s Britain`s Great Gatsby.” (Stephen Fry, director of Vile Bodies film adaptation Bright Young Things).