ABSTRACT
Waugh's is an especially interesting case, because we can trace in his fiction a shift from the indulgent treatment of folly prayed for by the dying Christ to the far harsher attitude of those who call for retribution. Waugh's conversion to Catholicism was two years in the future, but already original sin seems to him a more plausible explanation. Waugh would have been hard put to explain why he is so lenient toward the one, so severe toward the other. Paul's gullibility over Margot is as reprehensible as Tony's over Brenda. Waugh, however, is not writing a savagely subversive skit on an unjust society, rather a jeu d'esprit in which the spirit of nihilistic fun overwhelms every other consideration. Waugh had already written a short story, 'The Man Who Loved Dickens', based on his own experiences while travelling in South America. Waugh's contempt for Tony's facile creed explains the care with which he emphasizes the emptiness of Tony's religious professions.
