Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster

Forster’s little jewel, replete with books no longer interesting and novels no longer read, offers excellent pointers for a fledgling writer. His variations on the types of novelists and their particular bent in this world, for instance the “anxious rather than an ardent psychologist.”, could potentially striate and almost pigeon-hole every novelist until the time [...]

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A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

This is a funny, yet at times deadly serious book. The contempt Brenda develops for John Last verges on heartbreaking and the love she maintains for John Beaver is pathetic. Why can’t one just accept their situation and get on with it, so to speak. But that would not seem to be what Waugh was [...]

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Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Charles Ryder the ever suffering artist and protagonist of Brideshead Revisited reaches his logical conclusion and peak of character development in the following excerpt: I heard her say that; it was the sort of thing she had the habit of saying.  Throughout our married life, again and again, I had felt my bowels shrivel within [...]

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