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A Handful of Dust

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Selected by Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the century, this "absolutely delightful" novel (New York Times) movingly and comically chronicles the breakdown of a marriage and the disintegration of English society in the years after World War I.

After seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last has grown bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride and joy of her husband, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the shallow socialite John Beaver and forsakes Tony for the Belgravia set. In a novel that combines tragedy, comedy, and savage irony, Evelyn Waugh indelibly captures the irresponsible mood of the "crazy and sterile generation" between the wars.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Set in England between the wars, Waugh's novel documents the disintegration of a marriage. Tony and Brenda Last, young upper-class Brits who seem to have it all, lose it all when, out of sheer boredom, Brenda decides to take up with a vapid young man named John Beaver. She manages to keep the affair from Tony, but when the Lasts' young son is accidentally killed, Brenda drops the pretense. Andrew Sachs's narration flawlessly conveys the ultra-polite veneer that barely conceals the devastating emotional emptiness and self-absorption of the main characters. Several minor characters, including the flighty Princess Abdul Akbar, the eccentric Dr. Messinger, and the politely sinister Mr. Todd, also come alive, thanks to Sachs's expert reading. L.X. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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