Vile Bodies

By Evelyn Waugh

Adam is an aspiring young writer hoping to marry Nina but since he has no money and Nina is not the kind of gal who can live without money, the engagement is on hold until Adam can generate some cash. He then becomes a gossip columnist, reporting on the doings of the "Bright Young Things" of London in Britain between the wars. Since Adam is a member of this set he has the inside track on all the hot news on their antics since he knows all the kids and goes to all the parties. In fact, he has to go to so many different parties that he becomes totally sick of it. Eventually he resorts to just making up stuff to fill his column which results in losing that job. His and Nina's marriage is looking less and less likely unless Adam can track down the drunken Major who placed £1000 of Adam's money on a long shot at the race track that actually came through. So this drunken Major owes Adam £35,000, which, if he can ever find him, will give Nina and Adam the funds they need to finally get married.
Complications ensue, parties occur, people get wasted, cars get wrecked, people die and still Adam can't get the money owed him. Nina's patience is running short and she finally marries another fellow, although this does not mean she is through with Adam, not at all. Freshly married and back from her honeymoon, Nina takes Adam home and introduces him to her senile father as her husband. Well, it's a lark but of course it can't last and Adam ends up alone on a battlefield when another war breaks out.

This novel has its moments of inspired lunacy, but it has another side that is not so amusing and jolly, as people die or kill themselves. The characters don't seem to take anything too seriously, not themselves, not society, not morality, nor responsibility. Actually, if you want to read a funny novel of the 1920s, read almost anything by P.G. Wodehouse. His novels are always lighthearted and a lot of fun and tragedy free and just a joy to read. Vile Bodies may be an accurate portrait of a particular time and place but its gloomy side is a bit of a downer.

For another review see Illiterarty.

New Words:

Tapette: homosexual [I think]. '"My dear, he looks terribly tapette."'

Cachet Faivre: a pain medication containing caffeine and quinine. '"Half the young fellows as come here now don't have anything except a cachet Faivre and some orange juice."'

Toper: a drunk. 'In a paragraph headed "Montparnasse in Belgravia," he announced that the buffet at Sloane Square tube station had become the haunt of the most modern artistic coterie (Mr. Benfleet hurried there on his first free evening, but saw no one but Mrs. Hoop and Lord Vanburgh and a plebian toper with a celluloid collar).'

Fillet: a narrow headband or strip of ribbon worn as a headband. 'Neither powder, rouge nor lipstick had played any part in her toilet and her colourless hair was worn long and bound across her forehead in a broad fillet.'

Flageolet: a small flute. '"Mr. 'Ginger' Littlejohn has the similar foible that he can only fish to the sound of the flageolet."'