How Ironic?
...ul described him as this towards the end “but Grimes, Paul at last realized, was of the immortals. He was a life force. Sentenced to death in Flanders, he popped up in Whales; drowned in Whales, he emerged in South America; engulfed in the dark mystery of Egdon Mire, he would rise again somewhere at sometime, shaking from his limbs the musty integuments of the tomb.” Next, we have Mr. Prendagast, a man of religion. He would later become a Chaplin at the prison where Paul will be confined. He didn’t have much of a story, and the only thing I could speak of him was he was very fond of his pipes. Lastly there is the shadowy butler, Phillbrick. He would recount to anyone who will listen to his myriad versions of his background which none of them happened to be true. Now we have Margot Beste-Chetwynde, the single mother of her son, Peter. She was the attractive and wealthy widow who plays Paul for a fool and has him take the rap for her. Each character gives the story its life and history. I don’t think the story would be any less good if one of the main characters of the story was missing. My favorite part of the book was during Paul’s stay at the boarding school. It was full of action and humor. This part of the novel introduced us to the other characters of the novel and really showed humor. One of the funniest moments of this part began with a kind of Olympic Games for the school. At the beginning of the race, one of the school masters fired the shot into the air accidentally hitting one of the students in the feet. Later on, the student died. It was very funny and I was laughing for days. This part of the book was when it first came to life for me. It started off a little slow but picked up it’s pace with this portion. It gave insight to what kind of person Paul was. It also predicted the future of what was to come in the novel. He was an English writer whom was regarded by many as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his time. His birth name was Arthur St. John Waugh, but he was widely known as Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn was born in London, England on October 28, 1903 and died on April 10, 1966 in Somerset, England. He began schooling at Lancing College, one of England’s less conventional public schools, and then moved on to Hertford College in Oxford after winning a scholarship. Two years later, he left Oxford without a degree, and, much like Paul Pennyfeather, he took a job at a school as schoolmaster. His ambition was to be a painter, but a stint at art school left him dissatisfied with his talent. At this time, he said he was a pagen and wanted to be a man of the world which was a well-rounded English gentleman in the eighteenth century tradition. In 1930, Waugh entered the Catholic Church. In 1937, he married again after his first marriage ended in divorce and gave way to his second son, Henry Molyneux Herbet. Then, for nine years, Waugh traveled often and widely, by preference to wild places. One is periodically reminded, however, that Waugh's touch is surer and more sparkling when he is using these same materials in his comic novels. With the event of World War II, he entreated to friends in high places to find him service commission. Though in his late thirties and of poor eyesight, he was commissioned into the Royal Marines and found more suited for intelligence duties than that of a line officer. He was promoted to Captain but found life in the Marines dull. In 1947 Waugh visited Hollywood as a guest of MGM to discuss a possible film version of Brideshead Revisited. Hollywood saw Brideshead purely as a love story. Waugh refused to accept proposed changes and confessed in his diary that he was relieved when the project failed. After the war, Waugh settled for many years at Piers Court in a secluded part of Gloucestershire. Waugh himself affirmed with pride that he was two hundred years behind the times, and that there is no political party in existence which he finds sufficiently reactionary. He refused to learn to drive a car. He wrote with a pen which had to be continually dipped in the inkwell. And he preferred to communicate even with his neighbors by written message rather than resort to the telephone. Waugh died in April of 1966. In 2001, three of his books were named as part of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library. He may be regarded as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his day. As you can see, there are resemblances of his life to characters in this novel. He was a school-teacher at once and he entered the Catholic Church. I actually liked his writing very much. It continually renewed my interest in reading further and further in every chapter. His choice of words was brilliant to describe the ideas of thing. The way he described the Illanaba Castle, alone, was able to make imagine the actually setting as if it were a near-by building. His chapter dedicated to King’s Thursday was very good as well. He described the place with so much passion that it made you feel as if you have been there. For each character, he devoted a chapter and gave sufficient amount of details for you to be able to get a feel for what he has to say. It was very complex and detailed. It never ran on to long and was perfect to the point that it needed to be. The tone of the novel was mostly consisted of British satire. It really gave to the story. An ironic moment within the novel was during the time of his wedding. After doing some deeds for his soon-to-be wife, he was arrested for White slave trading the day of his marriage. It was pretty sad, but something to laugh about because you would expect it from the person that he is. If I were talking to Waugh at his moment, I’d feel as if I were talking to one of my uncles from California. He seemed very outgoing and had a life of his own. He went into many occupations during his life and never truly found what he wanted to be. It was always exciting to go visit him and find out what he had to sa...