The Fatal Gift : A novel - Softcover

Waugh, Alec

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374153809 ISBN 13: 9780374153809

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973

Synopsis

1013...the writing is expert; Waugh (brother of the far-more-famous Evelyn Waugh) had been a novelist for more than fifty years when he wrote it. With complete naturalness he puts himself, as well as his brother and their real (and often prominent) friends in the book as characters; the narrator's life is, more or less, Alec Waugh's actual life. But the central character, Raymond Peronne, is invented. He is the recipient of the "fatal gift"--but what is that gift? More than physical beauty, Raymond has intelligence, poise, good feelings towards everyone, supreme self-confidence (without any haughtiness). As the second son of a baron, he thinks (and his father thinks) he won't inherit and have to serve in the House of Lords, so, in a certain way, the world is his. Everyone expects great things from this multiply-gifted and likeable man. Instead of rising to his expected prominence in England, he seems to fall in love with the British island of Dominique,in the West Indies--and the island is, perhaps, the true love of his life. Even more fascinating, Waugh examines the all-important question: What comprises the value of a life? You won't know the answer to this question till the final pages. This novel is written by a master. If, like me, you read even Anna Karenina thinking, "This is about as deep an explanation about what life adds up to as a man at Tolstoy's stage in life could write," you may be hungry to find those rare superb novels written by people who are older than Tolstoy was when he created Levin, and hence know even more. Waugh doesn't derive his answer, as his brother might, from any theology, but from his pragmatic and varied experience in the ways of the world. [READER REVIEW]

About this title

About the Author

Alec Waugh, 1898-1981, was a British novelist born in London and educated at Sherborne Public School, Dorset. Waugh's first novel, The Loom of Youth (1917), is a semi-autobiographical account of public school life that caused some controversy at the time and led to his expulsion. Waugh was the only boy ever to be expelled from The Old Shirburnian Society.

Despite setting this record, Waugh went on to become the successful author of over 50 works, and lived in many exotic places throughout his life which later became the settings for some of his texts. He was also a noted wine connoisseur and campaigned to make the 'cocktail party' a regular feature of 1920s social life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 1973
• ISBN 10: 0374153809
• ISBN 13: 9780374153809
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 314