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Title: Black Mischief by Evelyn Waugh ISBN: 0-316-91733-8 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 15 August, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Extremely funny
Comment: 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: 5
Summary: Exotic Madness!
Comment: 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: 5
Summary: Funny, irreverent, iconoclastic
Comment: 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.
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Title: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh ISBN: 0316926108 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh ISBN: 0316926051 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh ISBN: 0316926078 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh ISBN: 0316926116 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh ISBN: 0316916056 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 15 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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