Choice 评论

Another biography of Evelyn Waugh? There have already been several--most notably Martin Stannard's indispensable two-volume Evelyn Waugh (CH, Jan'88; Jan'93). Patey acknowledges Stannard and other biographers, but he is justified in suggesting that yet another biography is necessary. Though Stannard provides the fullest life, he is less in sync with his subject's sensibility than Patey believes a biographer should be. Though one can challenge Patey's idea of a biographer, there is considerable room for another biography of a figure as brilliant and important as Waugh is to modern British literature. The merit of Patey's is that it follows the plan of other Blackwell biographies, which aim to provide significant critical analysis of a literary figure's work in a biographical context. Such biographies are inevitably less sensational and less seductive than popular biography, since analysis can almost never compete successfully with narrative for the reader's attention. But this calm, deliberate biography--which measures Waugh's life in the context of his work, rather than making the work serve as an excuse for discussing the life--should be included in every academic collection for the use of undergraduates through faculty. C. Rollyson; Bernard M. Baruch College, CUNY