EVELYN WAUGH NEWSLETTER

Volume 1 Number 2 - Autumn 1967

SOME TEXTUAL VARIANTS IN SCOOP

Robert Murray Davis (University of Oklahoma)

In 1960, Chapman and Hall began to issue the second uniform edition of Evelyn Waugh's novels with new prefaces and some alterations in the text by the author. The prefaces deal in fairly general terms with the genesis of each book and the conditions under which it was written, and they sometimes make pointed comments on the book's quality or lack of it. The revisions of the text from the first uniform editions vary considerably in number and importance: none at all in Vile Bodies, one (p. 64 full fig to p. 62 full fig) in The Loved One, a dozen of slight significance in Black Mischief (p. 36 As we go marching on to p. 38 His truth is marching on and p. 69 somewhere in the North to p. 74 somewhere in the West are the most important) to more than 150, many of great importance, in Brideshead Revisited.

The value of the material to students of Waugh's life and work is suggested by the changes in Scoop. The account of the book's sources adds little to our knowledge, for critics have already developed in some detail the similarities between Scoop and Waugh in Abyssinia. Of greater importance is Waugh's testimony that "This light-hearted tale was the fruit of a time of general anxiety and distress but, for its author, one of peculiar personal happiness." His state of mind, clearly a result of his marriage to Laura Herbert, to whom the novel is dedicated, helps to account for the change in atmosphere from the tenseness and enervation of A Handful of Dust to the sense of mellowness, ease, and spaciousness that underlies not only Scoop but Work Suspended and Put Out More Flags. It could be further argued that in Scoop Waugh was saying farewell to the frenetic world of Lord Copper and Mrs. Stitch as he retreated to the stability and happiness of country life. At the same time, the threats to this new security posed by political developments may account in part for the increasing sharpness of the comments in his non-fiction, most notably in the chaotic and destructive world of socialized industry and urban life in Mexico: An Object Lesson.

The seventeen substantive variations between the first and second uniform editions of Scoop seem calculated to make statement more precise, as in 168/178; dialogue more consistent with character, as in William Boot's increased blankness in 32/43 and 69/79 and the increased obsequiousness and peremptoriness of Salter and Lord Copper in 208/220. Other changes seem less effective: the shrub's properties are made more realistic but less amusing in 117/128; the travesty in 233/246 is intrusive and strained; and the entrance of Uncle Theodore in 233/246 is made needlessly explicit.

There is only one significant type of non-substantive variation: the elimination of all chapter numbers in the subdivision of each book of the novel. The divisions remain, however, and are indicated by breaks in the text.

Page references in the following textual notes are to the Uniform Edition (London: Chapman and Hall, 1948; new impressions 1951, 1959) and to the new uniform edition (London: Chapman and Hall, 1964).

DECLINE AND FALL : TWO VERSIONS

P. A. Doyle ( Nassau Community College, SUNY)

In 1962 "a revised edition" of Decline and Fall was published in Britain. In a preface written especially for this volume, Waugh noted that the novel had originally been rejected by Duckworth because of "indelicacy". He further recorded that the eventual publishers, Chapman and Hall, demanded several changes in the manuscript for reasons of propriety and literary improvement. Waugh agreed to the recommended changes which were suggested by editor Ralph Straus of Chapman and Hall. In the 1962 edition Waugh has restored the original text before it was altered by Straus; he does not insist that this text be taken as final but presents it as gesture of "turning back the clock."

To assuage further the doubts which the novel had aroused, Waugh prefixed the following "Author's Note" to the 1928 edition:

I hope that my publishers are wrong when they say that this a shocking novelette. ! did not mean it to be when I wrote it, and I do not believe that anyone with a sense of humour will find it so. Still less is it a book with a purpose. I hope that somewhere a school like Llanabba may exist, and a staff like Dr. Fagan's, but it has never been my good fortune to come across them. In fact, I have never met anyone at all like any of the characters, nor have I yet been sent to prison. I apologise heartily to anyone who sees himself in this tarnished little mirror; everything is drawn, without malice, from the vaguest of imaginations. Please bear in mind throughout that IT IS MEANT TO BE FUNNY.

This rather surprising commentary, which has never appeared in any of the American editions of the book, is indicative of the shock and dismay which the novel obviously called forth in more than one mind.

Examining the differences between the standard 1928 edition and the 1962 "original text," one finds the most prudish kind of Victorianism at work. A listing of some of the most basic differences will support this observation.

In the 1928 edition, a Matisse painting is thrown into a "water jug" (4); in the 1962 volume the painting is thrown into the "lavatory" (15). During the Bollinger seizure of Pennyfeather, the following line is omitted in the standard edition: "They appear to be tearing off his clothes" (1962 ed. - 17). The following sentence appears only in the 1962 volume: "lt reminds me of the communist rising in Budapest when I was on the debt commission" (14). This deletion was probably intended to prevent the conduct of an Oxford fraternal group from being tainted by any metaphor involving communism. Philbrick reports his conversation with the Welsh station and band master in the 1962 edition: "If either of you ever wants a woman, his sister -" (40); in the 1928 version Philbrick comments: "Feeling lonely? ...if either of you wants an introduction to a young lady -" (31-32). At the "Sports" (1928 ed.) the station-band master offers Lord Circumference his sister-in-law (99); in the 1962 version he offers his sister (95), and is later distressed that Grimes would not accept his sister (127) - but it becomes "sister-in-law" in the 1928 volume (138). In his preface to the revised edition Waugh mentions this change as one of Ralph Straus's pet suggestions: "He thought it, for instance, more chaste that the Llanabba Station Master should seek employment for his sister-in-law, rather than his sister."

In the standard edition of 1928, cigars were found in the school "boiler room" (40-41) instead of in the "lavatory" (46-47). Material about Philbrick and Dingy having a sexual intrigue (51) has been eliminated in the 1928 edition (45), and some material has been added to stress the mystery of Philbrick (45-46). "Psychoanalysis" (1928 ed. - 47) has been substituted for the more accurate (the reference is to Grimes) but apparently offensive "sexual psychology" (52). Waugh had originally written about the Welsh (1962 ed.): "Their sons and daughters mate freely with the sheep but not with human kind except their own blood relations" (79). In the 1928 edition this sentence reads, "their sons and daughters rarely mate with human kind except their own blood relations" (80). In the 1928 version, several lines were omitted about Grimes's homosexuality with the result that the aberration becomes vaguer and much less apparent (1928 - 123-124; 1962 - 115). In this regard, many a college student reader, even at this sophisticated time, will question if Grimes really is a homosexual.

The standard 1928 version omits the statement that the chaplain was drunk at Grimes's first marriage (1962 ed. 120), and also omits Peter Beste-Chetwynde's remark that Margot's boy friends "tend to get flirtatious with (him)" (1962 ed. -158). Margot's rejection of an experienced candidate for her Latin-American Entertainment Ltd. business becomes "Sorry, Bessy; nothing for you just at present" (1928- 190); the original manuscript read: "Sorry, Bessy, nothing for you until you're well again" (1962 - 171). In the original manuscript Waugh had the prison medical officer ask Pennyfeather "Suffering from consumption, V.D., or any contagious disease?" (193), while in the regular version "V.D." (215) has been left out.

The above mentioned examples are the most salient illustrations of squeamishness and residue Victorianism at work. The alterations reveal an excessive predilection for propriety in print which was not uncharacteristic of the time, although in this instance the censorship appears to be excessive. There ore some additional similar examples, but the most important cases of bowdlerization have been indicated.

Further changes not involving alleged indelicacy are, far the mast part, not highly significant. Most of these alterations involve a tightening of the text, making it more concise or clearer. Some of the editorial changes by Straus, however, seem to be definite improvements. For example, in the chapter entitled "Llanabba Castle" (1928) Grimes and Prendergast each introduce themselves clearly to Pennyfeather by name (19); in the 1962 edition the identity of the two schoolmasters is not immediately apparent, and this presents some awkwardness and confusion (30-31). In "The Sports" chapter when Prendergast accidentally shoots Lord Tangent in the foot, Grimes remarks, "The man's as tight as a lord, and on one whiskey, too" (87). This rendering seems clearer and more appropriate than the clipped version in the 1962 volume: "The man's as tight as a lord, whiskey" (85). In the 1928 book Grimes notes his departure from public school: "I got the push soon after my sixteenth birthday" (29); in the 1962 edition he declares, "I left soon after my sixteenth birthday" (37). The phrase "got the push" is typical of the type of language which annoyed Dr. Fagan and is much more characteristic of the way Grimes speaks. The answer, "No, I'm afraid not" (1928 ed. - 63) when Philbrick asks Pennyfeather about his knowledge of a certain prize fighter appears to furnish a smoother and more logical transition between two paragraphs, yet this line is omitted in the 1962 version (65). Apart from these, and perhaps a few other instances, the 1962 text is by far the more humorous and more effective choice. Publishers of any future editions of Decline and Fall would be well instructed to restore Waugh's original uncensored version as the definitive text and to adopt at least the four Straus-suggested emendations mentioned above.

WAUGH AND BLACK HUMOR

A widely circulated national magazine recently devoted a lengthy essay to present-day American comedy, focusing on black humor. Citing such authors as Terry Southern, Joseph Heller and Bruce Jay Friedman, the essay left the impression that black humor was an American development. Obviously, however, Evelyn Waugh's novels are filled with black humor: one immediately thinks of the conclusion of Black Mischief and of books like The Loved One.

C. P. Snow traces the origins of what he calls a "special kind of fluid and capricious comedy" to Anton Chekhov and claims that this genre came to England via William Gerhardi and was then taken up by Waugh, Powell, and Cooper (See TLS, August 15, 1958 and Kenyon Review, XXIII (Winter 1961), 1-17). Yet Ronald Firbank cannot be overlooked; neither can Saki, and black humor in various forms is found in past centuries. Petronius, for example, is a black humorist. A vast area for exploration lies open, and a definition of terms is very much in order. Research, please! And highly desirable is the recognition of Waugh's important position in the development of modern black humor.

BRIEF NEWS AND NOTES

Christopher Sykes has been designated to write the "official" biography of Waugh. It is estimated that this book will be ready for publication in three years.

According to A. D. Peters, Waugh's literary agent, Waugh actually completed "only a few pages" of A Little Hope, the second volume of his autobiography.

Neville Braybrooke is presently at work on a study analyzing the Sword of Honour trilogy in relation to Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End. Mr. Braybrooke seeks to know if Waugh mentioned Ford either orally or in print - other than in Rossetti. Readers able to give further information about Waugh's viewpoints on Ford are asked to write EWN.

We should very much like to publish reminiscences - anecdotes, incidents, or essays - about Waugh; reminiscences of Waugh in the British army or during his American visits would be particularly welcome.

Dr. Charles E. Linck, Jr. has suggested that a list of M.A. theses about Waugh be compiled and that an abstract be made of each .Teachers and graduate students are asked to forward lists and/or abstracts to Dr. Linck, Box 3002, E.T. Station, Commerce, Texas 75428.

The Evelyn Waugh Newsletter, designed to stimulate research and continue interest in the life and writings of Evelyn Waugh, is published three times a year in April, October, and December (Spring, Autumn, and Winter numbers). Subscription rate for libraries and interested individuals: $l.00 a year (8s in England). Single copy 35 cents. Checks or money orders should be made payable to the Evelyn Waugh Newsletter. Notes, brief essays, and news items about Waugh and his work may be submitted but manuscripts cannot be returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Address all correspondence to Dr. P.A. Doyle, c/o English Deportment, Nassau Community College, State University of New York, Garden City, New York 11530.