The Loved One: An Anglo American Tragedy – Evelyn Waugh (1948) 127 pages
The Loved One was written following Waugh’s experience of visiting Hollywood to discuss an adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. In the novella he satirises Hollywood and how death has become a business. It’s a pretty brutal attack, particularly towards the end.
It begins with a portrait of two ageing Hollywood tycoons, Sir Ambrose Abercrombie:
“He was still on what Lady Abercrombie fatuously called the ‘right’ side of sixty, but having for many years painfully feigned youth, he now aspired to the honours of age. It was his latest quite vain wish that people should say of him: ‘Grand old boy.’”
And Sir Francis Hinsley: “His swimming-pool which had once flashed like an aquarium with the limbs of long-departed beauties was empty now and cracked and overgrown with weed.”
Dennis Barlow, a poet who was fired from a story of Shelley’s life and now works at Happier Hunting Ground pet funeral service, lives with Sir Francis. Dennis enjoys his work:
“there at the quiet limit of the world he experienced a tranquil joy”
But Sir Ambrose feels it reflects badly on the ex-pat community. When Sir Francis kills himself, no-one is particularly upset. Dennis finds discovering the body “rude and momentarily unnerving”, but it brings him into contact with Whispering Glades funeral home and fragrant cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenos.
I thought this was the strongest part of the novel, as Waugh turns his satirical eye to the façade and sentimentality that can accompany the business of death. I particularly liked the question of how Sir Francis should look in his coffin:
“ ‘shall I put him down as serene and philosophical or judicial and determined?’”
Dennis starts courting Aimee, and she find herself torn between him and the inappropriately named Mr Joyboy, the senior mortician who is something of a celebrity in his place of work:
“As he passed among them, like an art master among his students, with a word of correction here or commendation there, sometimes laying his gentle hand on a living shoulder or a dead haunch, he was a figure of romance, a cult shared by all in common, not a prize to be appropriated by any one of them”
How the relationships play out in The Loved One is particularly vicious. Waugh is scathing about the cruel disregard human beings can demonstrate towards one another and what this means for individuals and for society as a whole. The title of this novella is bitterly ironic.
I really must read more Waugh – this sounds like a good place to start.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it’s not too long but it’s really biting. I started with Scoop and Vile Bodies, they were a good introduction too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve just skimmed this for now as it’s a novella I’d really like to read – it’s been on my wishlist for ages! Waugh’s insights human nature can be so savage, but very acutely observed.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It really is savage Jacqui! But really well done.
LikeLike
I love his caustic style.
This list of novellas is only getting better. Merci, merci, merci!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Emma! I’m glad it’s useful to you 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am enjoying too the regular glimpses into potentials and occasionally recognising favourites. Bonne Continuation!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Claire!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Another great review! I have a tattered copy of this on the shelf which I must have read decades ago during a phase of reading Waugh, including his diaries. I’d forgotten how caustic he could be.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Susan! This is so caustic, he really doesn’t hold back, although the writing remains as precise as you’d expect from Waugh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s wonderfully short and dark, isn’t it Madame B? I love how Waugh takes the industry, and the falsity of Hollywood really, apart – and I imagine not much has changed, in fact things are probably worse!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree! I’m sure he’d have even more material if he was writing now…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Waugh can certainly be brutal, I haven’t read this one, but I do have it tbr.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope you enjoy it when you get to it Ali. He is brutal so it works as a novella, its a sharp shock but something longer would be tough for the reader I think.
LikeLike
What an interesting time to revisit this particular book!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, absolutely!
LikeLike
This sounds like a book I’d love. I haven’t read enough of him but feel I should.
LikeLike
Is the fact that I have NOT read Brideshead Revisited a major gap in my reading history?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, I have the same major gap! I’ve read other Waugh but the size of BR always puts me off…
LikeLike
I don’t know if it’s the distance of Hollywood that makes this seem quite fun?!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is fun, but in a very bleak way!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I often find Waugh too bleak but the length makes this seem a possibility!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, it’s short lived bleakness!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I read this in a novella reading weekend back in about 2011! And I loved it – still the only Waugh I’ve really liked out of the five or six I’ve read.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you enjoyed it Simon! It’s powerfully satirical.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a contrast in stories, between the previous day’s novella and this one–but I don’t think you necessarily read them in this order? I know I don’t read in the same order as my posts. Waugh I’ve enjoyed in the past but it’s been many years since I’ve read him. If I were to find this one in a LFL (Little Free Library), I might be tempted, but I’m not sure whether I’d seek it out. Either way, I enjoyed reading your thoughts about it and I appreciate the variety of tones and styles in your stack for this month!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Such a contrast, although I didn’t plan it that way! Generally in May I post pretty much in the order I read, sometimes there’s some shuffling but I’m doing it as I go along so not much room for manoeuvre. I do aim for variety though so I’m really pleased you’re enjoying it!
LikeLiked by 2 people