A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh · 1903–1966 · England
Why it matters
A faithful husband's genteel world collapses through his wife's affair and a son's accidental death, ending in a nightmarish Amazonian exile. Waugh's cruelest comedy curdles into something close to tragedy by its final pages.
At a glance
satiretragedy
Difficulty 4/10fast pace308 pagesBrisk comic prose that darkens without warning into a genuinely bleak final act.
Deep dive
A comedy of manners about a crumbling marriage that quietly changes genre halfway through, ending its cuckolded, unfailingly decent hero in the one place satire can't reach him.
Where to go next
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Paul Scott · 1977Staying OnLvl 4Slow burn