Evelyn Waugh and the Problem of Evil
Originally published in 1991, this elegantly written book offers new readers a useful approach to the work of Evelyn Waugh and will persuade those familiar with it to look at it afresh. This introduction to Waugh’s novels places them high in the catalogue of great fiction. It claims for them an intellectual coherence, subtlety and seriousness which Waugh’s disconcerting comic gifts and extravagant public and writing persona have tended to put in the shade. In addressing the nature of Waugh’s comic writing William Myers has borrowed George Bataille’s concept of Evil as a convenient way of dealing with the most troubling and exciting aspects of Waugh’s work: its sadism, its childish irresponsibility, its fascination with lunacy and death.
William Myers retired as Professor of English Literature in 2004, having taught for most of his life in the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester, as well as lecturing in half a dozen universities in the United States, His interests and published works extend from Milton to Waugh and reflect his interest in theology, philosophy and science as well as in literature. He was involved in Adult Education throughout his career, and deplores its current decline in the UK. After his retirement he was ordained as a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham, but is no longer in active ministry..