Editing Decline and Fall (section)

{{Short description|1928 novel by Evelyn Waugh}}
{{Other uses}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox book  | 
| name          = Decline and Fall
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = File:Evelyndeclineandfall.jpg
| caption       = First edition cover
| author        = [[Evelyn Waugh]]
| illustrator   = Evelyn Waugh{{cn|date=April 2024}}
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United Kingdom
| language      = English
| series        =
| genre         = <!-- [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Novel categorisation]] -->Satire
| publisher     = [[Chapman and Hall]]
| release_date  = 1928
| english_release_date =
|dewey= 823.912
| media_type    =
| pages         = <!-- First edition page count -->
| preceded_by   = <!-- Preceding novel in series -->
| followed_by   = [[Vile Bodies]]
}}
'''''Decline and Fall''''' is the first novel by the English author [[Evelyn Waugh]], first published in 1928. It was Waugh's first published novel; an earlier attempt, titled ''[[The Temple at Thatch]]'', was destroyed by Waugh while still in manuscript form. ''Decline and Fall'' is based, in part, on Waugh's schooldays at [[Lancing College]], undergraduate years at [[Hertford College, Oxford]], and his experience as a teacher at [[Arnold House, Llanddulas|Arnold House]], a former private school in north Wales.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kermode|first1=Frank|title=Decline and Fall (Introduction)|date=1993|publisher=Everyman's Library|location=London|isbn=1857151569|page=x}}</ref> It is a social [[satire]] that employs the author's characteristic black humour in lampooning various features of British society in the 1920s.

The novel was written at [[Plas Dulas]] in north Wales, while staying with the archaeologist [[Richard MacGillivray Dawkins]].<ref name="bbc">{{cite web| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8388000/8388149.stm | title=Writers drawn to Llanddulas mansion | publisher=[[BBC]] | work=[[BBC News]] | location=UK | date=1 December 2009 | access-date=14 February 2025 }}</ref> In 1925, he taught at [[Arnold House, Llanddulas|Arnold House]] preparatory school, nearby in the village of [[Llanddulas]], and his experience during this time influenced the fictional school [[Llanabba Castle]] in the novel.<ref name="evelynwaughsociety">{{cite web| url=https://evelynwaughsociety.org/2011/plas-dulas-to-be-demolished/ | title=Plas Dulas to be demolished | publisher=[[The Evelyn Waugh Society]] | website=evelynwaughsociety.org | first=Antony F. P. | last=Vickery | date=14 December 2011 | access-date=14 February 2025 }}</ref>

The novel's title is a contraction of [[Edward Gibbon]]'s ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]].'' The title alludes also to the German philosopher [[Oswald Spengler]]'s ''[[The Decline of the West]]'' (1918–1922), which first appeared in an English translation in 1926 and which argued, among other things, that the rise of nations and cultures is inevitably followed by their eclipse.

Waugh read both Gibbon and Spengler while writing his first novel.<ref>David Bradshaw, Introduction p. xviii Penguin 2001, ''Decline and Fall'' {{ISBN|978-0-14-118090-8}}</ref> Waugh's satire is unambiguously hostile to much that was in vogue in the late 1920s, and "themes of cultural confusion, moral disorientation and social bedlam&nbsp;... both drive the novel forward and fuel its humour".<ref>David Bradshaw xxv/xxvi introduction 2001 Penguin edition</ref> This "undertow of moral seriousness provides a crucial tension within [Waugh's novels], but it does not dominate them".<ref>Ian Littlewood, ''The Writings of Evelyn Waugh'' Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983 {{ ISBN|9780631136064}}</ref> Waugh himself stated in his author's note to the first edition "Please bear in mind throughout that IT IS MEANT TO BE FUNNY".<ref>{{cite book |title=Evelyn Waugh:  The Critical Heritage |date=1984 |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |location=London |isbn=978-0710095480 |page=81 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Evelyn_Waugh/JkNeP2w0qD4C |access-date=14 April 2025}}</ref>

In the text of the 1962 Uniform Edition of the novel, Waugh restored a number of words and phrases that he had been asked to suppress for the first edition.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://evelynwaughsociety.org/2017/penguin-uk-issue-tv-tie-in-edition-of-decline-and-fall/|title=Penguin UK Issue TV Tie-in Edition of Decline and Fall | publisher=The Evelyn Waugh Society|website=evelynwaughsociety.org|language=en-US|access-date=3 September 2018}}</ref>

The novel was dedicated to [[Harold Acton]], "in homage and affection".<ref>Acton, ''Memoirs of an Aesthete'' ({{isbn|9780571247660}}), p. 203</ref>