Waugh Abroad : The Collected Travel Writing

Rating:
Summary: A Welcome Return
Review: All of Waugh's travel books have been out of print for years, with the exception of brief excerpts he included in an anthology called "When the Going Was Good." (Which is well worth reading if for nothing other than Waugh's caustic preface.) Even then one of his travelogues, "Robbery Under Law," was not excerpted at all.
"Waugh Abroad" changes that, and God Bless Everyman's Library for bringing all these books back in print in their completeness. For Waugh used his travels as a source for much of his fiction, and much of his private life--particularly his disasterous first marriage--is chronicled pseudononymously as well (see "Labels"). Aficionados of the novel "Scoop" will easily recognize the "real" events portrayed in "Waugh in Abyssinia". "Robbery Under Law" is particularly interesting, not merely for it's prior rarity but because it features Waugh at his most bilious--full of invective and outright hatred for the anti-Catholic Socialist dictatorship then in power in 1940's Mexico. Yet these books feature not only Waugh at his best, they also show him at his worst: long winded and occasionally boring, something he very, very rarely was in fiction, but is more often in these travel books. But great treasures lie within.

Rating:
Summary: A Welcome Return
Review: All of Waugh's travel books have been out of print for years, with the exception of brief excerpts he included in an anthology called "When the Going Was Good." (Which is well worth reading if for nothing other than Waugh's caustic preface.) Even then one of his travelogues, "Robbery Under Law," was not excerpted at all.
"Waugh Abroad" changes that, and God Bless Everyman's Library for bringing all these books back in print in their completeness. For Waugh used his travels as a source for much of his fiction, and much of his private life--particularly his disasterous first marriage--is chronicled pseudononymously as well (see "Labels"). Aficionados of the novel "Scoop" will easily recognize the "real" events portrayed in "Waugh in Abyssinia". "Robbery Under Law" is particularly interesting, not merely for it's prior rarity but because it features Waugh at his most bilious--full of invective and outright hatred for the anti-Catholic Socialist dictatorship then in power in 1940's Mexico. Yet these books feature not only Waugh at his best, they also show him at his worst: long winded and occasionally boring, something he very, very rarely was in fiction, but is more often in these travel books. But great treasures lie within.