• A Handful of Dust

  • By: Evelyn Waugh
  • Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
  • Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (274 ratings)

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A Handful of Dust  By  cover art

A Handful of Dust

By: Evelyn Waugh
Narrated by: Andrew Sachs
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Publisher's summary

Evelyn Waugh's 1934 novel is a bitingly funny vision of aristocratic decadence in England between the wars. It tells the story of Tony Last, who, to the irritation of his wife, is inordinately obsessed with his Victorian Gothic country house and life. When Lady Brenda Last embarks on an affair with the worthless John Beaver out of boredom with her husband, she sets in motion a sequence of tragicomic disasters that reveal Waugh at his most scathing.

The action is set in the brittle social world recognizable from Decline and Fall and Vile Bodies, darkened and deepened by Waugh's own experience of sexual betrayal. As Tony is driven by the urbane savagery of this world to seek solace in the wilds of the Brazilian jungle, A Handful of Dust demonstrates the incomparably brilliant and wicked wit of one of the 20th century's most accomplished novelists.

©1962 Evelyn Waugh (P)2012 Hachette Audio

What listeners say about A Handful of Dust

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Slow Start then Subtle

This book takes quite a bit of time to get going, but finally becomes worth the slog. The first 1/3 of the book is very English aristocrat society with a bunch of setup and with classically stilted and mostly uninteresting characters. Then the cucumber sandwiches hit the fan and the story suddenly becomes an unexpectedly human story.

Many (if not most) readers may not appreciate this book. It starts unbelievably slowly, then becomes a subtly dark, subtly satirical, subtly futile, subtly sad story. Notice there is a lot of subtly in there.

This is not an overtly funny book, but I laughed out loud a number of times, but these were dark, almost guilt inducing, laughs (the “why did I laugh at that, that’s not funny” kind of laugh). The humor is highly contextual, elusive, and mixed with futility and disillusionment.

I ended up liking this book quite a bit, but it is not something I would read again soon. The narration is really completely OK but not outstanding in any way and some of the voices are too characterized for my taste.

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15 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Worth getting thru the first chapter...

This book was such a surprise. I had read Waugh as a teenager but missed this one. It's very funny, at times shockingly anachronistic but wry and tragi-comic. Where it ends is a million miles from where it starts. Begin the journey!

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Freedom can sometimes be a prison of its own

Had I not encountered this book on the Modern Library Top 100 list of the best 20th Century novels, I would never have heard of this work. And how terrible that would have been .

Set in the 30's initially in rural England and London then transitioning to the rainforest of South America, the story focuses on Tony and Brenda Last, a thirty-something couple who enjoy the trapping of the rural ancestral Last estate. As was so common, while the properties and titles suggest a great wealth, in truth, these are rural working lands that barely provide enough income to maintain the estate. Tony is in love with the country squire life and the atmosphere it provides for their young son. To Brenda, it is tedious and boring, she finding relief in the London shopping trips and parties and the privileged life it suggests despite having to travel third class by train to stay in budget.

Infidelity runs rampant among the London elite to which Brenda is not immune but to which Tony appears oblivious. When tragedy befalls the family that should draw the couple together, Brenda instead uses the pretext to stay in London. In contrast, Tony is compelled to travel abroad, a dramatic shift from his homebody nature which presents a precarious challenge for the future of the Last's.

Writer Evelyn Waugh is best known to Americans for his work Brideshead Revisited. This work presents ribald subject matter without vulgarity. The humor is dark and the outcome demonstrative of how we are often prisoners of our own making if we only make the effort to liberate ourselves from the prisons of our own device.

A marvelous, must read novel.

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5 people found this helpful

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Wonderful and sad at the same time

A brilliantly written decomposition of a marriage. It irrevocably makes you sympathise with the unfortunate husband and the question arises whether boredom with a dull spouse is a good enough reason to set in motion the mechanics that without exception produce calamity and affliction. In my view, Brenda Last is an Anna Karenina unpunished. While poor Tony accumulates most of the bad luck from the broken marriage which he had not enough spirit to prevent from falling apart, she manages to keep the water from ever really entering her boat.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A beautiful novel.

Evelyn Waugh is a wonderful English writer. Please read his works and enjoy! You won't be disappointed.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Saterical treatment of human decadence

Tony and Brenda Last, well endowed with legacy, are the best of cultivated English aristocracy. That is until Brenda's inexplicable affair with the annoying and feckless John Beaver, fostered by the same suave aristocratic society, immolates the marriage. Tony, abashed by the hypocritical divorce proceeding, decided to take a life changing Amazon exploration where he received more than he bargained for. Handful of Dust is layered with comical cynicism, while its core lay bare the face of human decadence.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Humorous

I really enjoyed this novel. I liked the emotion the reader gave to characters. It gave life to the story and allowed for further insight of what the various characters represent.

I usually don't enjoy novels outside of science fiction, however Evelyn Waugh provides an intriguing representation of British culture (during the early 1900's) and an unstable marriage. It almost feels as if you're reading a 1920's romcom film. It is highly entertaining and thoughtful. It really gives one a change of perspective to how laws sometimes can be unjust.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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an exploration of class

One of the themes I least enjoy is the exploration of class as it relates to those with money. And ironically, I love books that explore class with respect to the poor.

A Handful of Dust is my first read of a book by Waugh, and I didn't really connect to it. This one introduces us to an English aristrocrat named Tony Last who is clinging to the life he always had. He is married to Brenda, and is considered very lucky to have married her. She however, hates the home he loves and finds country life boring and unfulfilling. She takes a flat in London where she has met (and starts an affair with) John Beaver, a social climber who painted a picture of the social life they could have together in the city. To have John, she leaves her husband and young son, and tries to entice her husband into having his own affair. The marriage ends, and the book dives deeply into the consequences of divorce in that era.

Nobody escapes this one without pain; the death of the marriage hurts everyone involved.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Bitingly Engaging!

This is the 2nd book I’ve read by E. Waugh. The first book was Brideshead Revisited which I enjoyed from start to finish . A Handful of Dust is rich in not very likable characters who are beyond redemption. The story is abundantly sarcastic and cleverly funny in a dark way.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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unexpected ending

great writing. subtle humor wonderful descriptions. ending left me shocked. totally unexpected. great food for thought

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