Ивлин Во (Evelyn Waugh)Annotation
Subtitled "A Novel of Many Manners," Evelyn Waugh's famous first novel lays waste the "heathen idol" of British sportmanship, the cultured perfection of Oxford and inviolable honor code of English upper classes.
Paul Pennyfeather, innocent victim of a drunken orgy, is expelled from Oxford College, which costs him a career in the church. He turns to teaching, frequently the last resort of failures, and at Llanabba Castle meets a friend, Beste-Chetwynde. But Margot, Beste-Chetwynde's mother, introduces him to the questionable delights of high society. Suddenly, and improbably, he is engaged to marry Margot. Just as they are about to say "I do," Scotland Yard arrives and arrests Peter for his involvement in Margot's white slave-trading ring.
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DECLINE AND FALLPRELUDE
PART ONECHAPTER I Vocation
CHAPTER II Llanabba Castle
CHAPTER III Captain Grimes
CHAPTER IV Mr Prendergast
CHAPTER V Discipline
CHAPTER VI Conduct
CHAPTER VII Philbrick
CHAPTER VIII The Sports
CHAPTER IX The Sports ‑ continued
CHAPTER X Post Mortem
CHAPTER XI Philbrick ‑ continued
CHAPTER XII The Agony of Captain Grimes
CHAPTER XIII The Passing of a Public School Man
PART TWOCHAPTER I King's Thursday
CHAPTER II Interlude in Belgravia
CHAPTER III Pervigilium Veneris
CHAPTER IV Resurrection
CHAPTER V The Latin-American Entertainment Co., Ltd
CHAPTER VI A Hitch in the Wedding Preparations
PART THREECHAPTER I Stone Walls do not a Prison Make
CHAPTER II The Lucas-Dockery Experiments
CHAPTER III The Death of a Modern Churchman
CHAPTER IV Nor Iron Bars a Cage
CHAPTER V The Passing of a Public School Man
CHAPTER VI The Passing of Paul Pennyfeather
CHAPTER VII Resurrection
EPILOGUE
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DECLINE AND FALL
EVELYN WAUGH
To
HAROLD ACTON in Homage and
Affection
PRELUDE
Mr Sniggs, the Junior Dean, and Mr Postlethwaite, the Domestic Bursar, sat alone in Mr Sniggs' room overlooking the garden quad at Scone College. From the rooms of Sir Alastair Digby‑Vane‑Trumpington, two staircases away, came a confused roaring and breaking of glass. They alone of the senior members of Scone were at home that evening, for it was the night of the annual dinner of the Bollinger Club. The others were all scattered over Boar's Hill and North Oxford at gay, contentious little parties, or at other senior common‑rooms, or at the meetings of learned societies, for the annual Bollinger dinner is a difficult time for those in authority.