Decline and Fall
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2013
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Bradshaw, John Bowen and Ann Pasternak Slater join Melvyn Bragg to discuss Evelyn Waugh's comic novel Decline and Fall. Set partly in a substandard boys' public school, the novel is a vivid, often riotous portrait of 1920s Britain. Its themes, including modernity, religion and fashionable society, came to dominate Waugh's later fiction, but its savage wit and economy of style were entirely new. Published when Waugh was 24, the book was immediately celebrated for its vicious satire and biting humour.
With:
David Bradshaw Professor of English Literature at Worcester College, Oxford
John Bowen Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of York
Ann Pasternak Slater Senior Research Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:38.7 | For more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co. UK slash radio for I hope you enjoy |
| 0:45.9 | the program. Hello in May 1928 the Times Literary Supplement published a long |
| 0:51.0 | review of a new book about Dante Gabriel Rosetti. |
| 0:54.0 | The reviewer wasn't terribly impressed by the work of the poet's 24-year-old biographer |
| 0:59.0 | who was referred to throughout the article as Miss Evelyn Wall. It's a mistake that would never be made |
| 1:04.8 | again. Within a few months Evelyn War was a household name, the latest sensation of |
| 1:09.4 | literary London. The book that made him famous was not the Rosetta biography, but a comic novel published shortly afterwards. |
| 1:15.0 | Its title was, Decline and Fall. |
| 1:17.0 | It was immediately hailed by reviewers including Arnold Bennett, and it sold in prodigious quantities. |
| 1:22.0 | Centres on the misadventures of a young man Paul |
| 1:25.9 | Pennefather, declined in full abounds in dark humour, cruel satai and memorable caricature. |
| 1:31.8 | It launched the career of one of the 20th century's best |
| 1:34.3 | known and best novelists but also prompted accusations of obscenity and |
| 1:38.3 | immorality. With me to discuss Evelyn Wars novel decline in fall are, David Bradshaw, professor of English |
| 1:44.4 | literature at Worcester College, Oxford, John Bowen, professor of 19th century literature at the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.