Black Mischief

Rating:
Summary: Check your PC sensibilities and enjoy the book
Review: Basil Seal, bored with predictable london sets off to witness political revoultion in Africa, paid for by the timely theft of his mother's prize emerald brooch. An hilarious and biting satire of anyone and everything, including himself. Brilliantly morbid, In Black Mischief Waugh has definitly found his voice and once again delights his fans who take vicarious pleasure from his efforts

Rating:
Summary: Extremely funny
Review: BLACK MISCHIEF is the sixth Waugh book I've read, and it's one of his funniest. The plot concerns goings-on in the fictional African empire of Azania (which is supposed to be off the coast of present day Somalia). Civil war has just erupted, and an English educated Azanian named Seth ends up the victor. He gets caught up with the British legation, including frivolous Basil Seal (an acquaintance of the recurring Waugh character - Lady Metroland). Basil is made the Minister of Moderization and has Seth's constant ear. Naturally, things spiral downward from there. BLACK MISCHIEF starts off a bit slow, and the first 75 pages are a bit tedious and confusing. However, things really take off afterwards. Waugh is always funny, but this book has more laugh-out-loud moments than most of his novels. Highly recommended for fans of Waugh and good satirical novels.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely funny
Review: BLACK MISCHIEF is the sixth Waugh book I've read, and it's one of his funniest. The plot concerns goings-on in the fictional African empire of Azania (which is supposed to be off the coast of present day Somalia). Civil war has just erupted, and an English educated Azanian named Seth ends up the victor. He gets caught up with the British legation, including frivolous Basil Seal (an acquaintance of the recurring Waugh character - Lady Metroland). Basil is made the Minister of Moderization and has Seth's constant ear. Naturally, things spiral downward from there. BLACK MISCHIEF starts off a bit slow, and the first 75 pages are a bit tedious and confusing. However, things really take off afterwards. Waugh is always funny, but this book has more laugh-out-loud moments than most of his novels. Highly recommended for fans of Waugh and good satirical novels.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, irreverent, iconoclastic
Review: I suspect this classic novel is out of print in the US for reasons of misguided political correctness, which is a great shame for this is probably Waugh's finest and funniest novel. (Penguin Books in the UK publish a copy which is available on the www.amazon.co.uk site).

Black, Oxford-educated Seth ("Emperor of Azania,Chief of the Chiefs of Sakuyu, Lord of Wanda and Tyrant of the Seas, Bachelor of the Arts of Oxford University")attempts to reform his backward, corrupt African nation with the aid of an amoral Englishman, Basil Seal. This being Waugh, all ends hilariously tragically. All the usual Waugh-like elements are here: the "disappearing hero" (ie non-active protagonist); the comic but desperately tragic fate of the main characters; the utterly misogynistic & unsympathetic view of all mankind; and all written with his usual, biting, elegant, hilarious satire. This novel is not racist. It may be a trifle politically incorrect to our enlightened generation (political correctness of course meaning that we think it but don't say it)but as with all novels more than 20 years old we have to read it in the light of the attitudes and opinions of the era in which it is written and this novel is a very accurate and funny reflection of the attitudes of the 1930's.

Despite the novel's title, the satire is aimed at all races and ethnic groups, with the white British Legation (portrayed as ignorant, inane, out-of-touch idiots) coming in for the bitterest attacks. Indeed, if our sympathies lie anywhere, it is with the well-meaning, likeable but ultimately ill-advised black emperor, Seth. Waugh was possibly the greatest and sharpest satirist of the 20th Century and this is possibly his greatest and sharpest novel.As an Englishman, I feel it is very sad that American readers are denied access to this classic work. ("If we can't stamp out literature in the country we can at least stop it being brought in from outside" - Evelyn Waugh, 'Vile Bodies')

Such advocates of political correctness should perhaps adopt Seth's own slogan for his doomed campaign "We are Progess and the New Age. Nothing can stand in our way." Read this novel - order it from the UK site if necessary - & judge it for yourself. I guarantee you a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, irreverent, iconoclastic
Review: In the novel "Black Mischief", Evelyn Waugh portrays the clash between deep rooted african traditional mind and western civilizational values, in an highly funny, irreverent and iconoclastic way, making absolutely no concessions to lofty mindedness - the book was written in 1932 and I must advise that political correctness believers can be shocked with some of the expressions of Waugh's literary speech.

This is an ideal work to provoke laugh and more laugh, but is also an excellent point of start to reflect about the condition of the african continent, very especially, his post-colonial reality. Waugh's work, a simple satire in the 30's, became partially the sad picture of Africa's nowadays situation.

Available at www.amazon.com/uk, usually shipped in 24 hours.

Rating:
Summary: Exotic Madness!
Review: The only humor today that even comes close to that of Black Mischief, is ironically, that of the outrageous, black comedians- otherwise Waugh rules.
The whole concept of the British in exotic countries is a farce, and when mixed with Waugh's equally lunatic native characters face to face with bizarre and inexplicable Western civilization- whew- anything could and does happen. There are no noble characters, of course, but redeeming fools, which is about as good as one can get in a Wauvian satire. My favorites are the animal rights ladies who come to Africa to see that the natives are treating their livestock well. These ladies, one named Miss Tin, land in the midst of a revolution and have to hit a driver in the head with a brandy bottle to get a ride to the English settlement. They followed a fellow anti-vivesectionist cleric who led the ministry of our `dumb chums.'
There is every kind of European religion stirring up trouble and as usual, the British are completely sequestered amongst themselves preoccupied with their gardens and other habits in blissful and selfish ignorance. The leader of these Imperialists is described as "a self-assured old booby." One of the titled females is named `Lady Everyman.'

The political relevance is so acute that it seems impossible that this was written in 1932. Waugh even seems to have some political consciousness in this book, certainly, he is gentler, on the whole while being enduringly funny. I would definitely place this as my second favorite Waugh. It has a gripping end and is a statement less of bigotry, (of which he probably was one, but who wasn't,) but also of the need to reevaluate what in the name of God all of the colonizing was about.

Rating:
Summary: Exotic Madness!
Review: The only humor today that even comes close to that of Black Mischief, is ironically, that of the outrageous, black comedians- otherwise Waugh rules.
The whole concept of the British in exotic countries is a farce, and when mixed with Waugh's equally lunatic native characters face to face with bizarre and inexplicable Western civilization- whew- anything could and does happen. There are no noble characters, of course, but redeeming fools, which is about as good as one can get in a Wauvian satire. My favorites are the animal rights ladies who come to Africa to see that the natives are treating their livestock well. These ladies, one named Miss Tin, land in the midst of a revolution and have to hit a driver in the head with a brandy bottle to get a ride to the English settlement. They followed a fellow anti-vivesectionist cleric who led the ministry of our `dumb chums.'
There is every kind of European religion stirring up trouble and as usual, the British are completely sequestered amongst themselves preoccupied with their gardens and other habits in blissful and selfish ignorance. The leader of these Imperialists is described as "a self-assured old booby." One of the titled females is named `Lady Everyman.'

The political relevance is so acute that it seems impossible that this was written in 1932. Waugh even seems to have some political consciousness in this book, certainly, he is gentler, on the whole while being enduringly funny. I would definitely place this as my second favorite Waugh. It has a gripping end and is a statement less of bigotry, (of which he probably was one, but who wasn't,) but also of the need to reevaluate what in the name of God all of the colonizing was about.