Decline and Fall
Chapman & Hall, 1928.
First edition. Original red and black patterned boards lettered in gilt, in green pictorial dustwrapper designed by the author. Six full page line drawings by the author. A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper, which shows a trace of wear to the head of the spine and corners, but is very much less faded on the spine than usual. There is still more than a hint of green to the spine (albeit of an olive hue rather than the forest green of the covers) and the red lettering of the spine label is still bright. Covers are bright and generally crisp. As good a copy as I have seen in twenty years.
The author's brilliant first novel, described by Connolly as "anarchic and experimental, surely one of the wittiest and most original of first novels." The story of the publication of Decline and Fall is now the stuff of legend. The popular version holds that when Duckworth rejected it, Waugh took the manuscript three doors down the road to Chapman & Hall, where his father was managing director. Arthur Waugh was away, so the acting director read the manuscript and agreed to publish it on the spot. A deeper analysis shows this account to be more fable than fact. Certainly Waugh made copious changes to the novel to appease C&H's lawyers, which might also have made the novel acceptable to Duckworth. However, Waugh needed to publish his first novel in a hurry to raise the funds to marry his fiancee, Evelyn Gardner. Gardner's mother, Lady Burghclere, violently opposed the match and was sister in law to none other than Gerald Duckworth. So by refusing Waugh, Duckworth may have felt he might also prevent Waugh's marriage. Waugh, however, used his own family connections to publish the novel, and thereafter Chapman & Hall published all of Waugh's fiction for the remainder of his life.
Connolly 99: 58
Stock ID: 33537
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