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Put Out More Flags
Upper-class scoundrel Basil Seal, mad, bad, and dangerous to know, creates havoc wherever he goes, much to the despair of the three women in his life-his sister, his mother, and his mistress. When Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany, it seems the perfect opportunity for more action and adventure. So Basil follows the call to arms and sets forth to enjoy his finest hour-as a war hero. Basil's instincts for self-preservation come to the fore as he insinuates himself into the Ministry of Information and a little-known section of Military Security. With Europe frozen in the "phoney war," when will Basil's big chance to fight finally arrive?
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1942
About the author
Evelyn Waugh
326 books3,126 followersEvelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youth” (1917) a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers; it was all we were taught, really.” He went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he read History. When asked if he took up any sports there he quipped, “I drank for Hertford.”
In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall” in 1928.
In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust” from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.
During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies” (1930), “Black Mischief” (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust” (1934) and “Scoop” (1938). After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,” in which his Catholicism took centre stage. “The Loved One” a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy” about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms” (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen” (1955), “Unconditional Surrender" (1961) - his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again” (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.
Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_W...
In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall” in 1928.
In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust” from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.
During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies” (1930), “Black Mischief” (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust” (1934) and “Scoop” (1938). After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,” in which his Catholicism took centre stage. “The Loved One” a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy” about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms” (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen” (1955), “Unconditional Surrender" (1961) - his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again” (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.
Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_W...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 243 reviews
November 29, 2017
Published in 1942, “Put Out More Flags,” brings back characters from earlier Waugh novels, including some of the Bright Young People from “Vile Bodies” and the caddish Basil Seal from “Black Mischief.” Waugh’s interwar coterie of socialites, who lived for partying and pleasure, were among the generation who paid the price for not taking life, including the threat of Hitler’s Germany, seriously. They were like first-class passengers on the Titanic using shards from the fatal iceberg to chill the last of the champagne:
“In the week which preceded the outbreak of the Second World War—days of surmise and apprehension which cannot, without irony, be called the last days of “peace”—and on the Sunday morning when all doubts were finally resolved and misconceptions corrected, three rich women thought first and mainly of Basil Seal. They were his sister, his mother and his mistress.”
What were the “three rich women” thinking about? The following passages are revealing. First, an exchange between Basil’s sister Barbara Sothill and her husband Freddy, a serving officer:
Freddy: “If there’d been more like us and fewer like Basil there’d never have been a war. You can’t blame Ribbentrop for thinking us decadent when he saw people like Basil about. I don’t suppose they’ll have much use for him in the Army. He’s thirty-six. He might get some sort of job connected with censorship. He seems to know a lot of languages.”
Barbara: “You’ll see…Basil will be covered with medals while your silly old yeomanry are still messing in a Trust House and waiting for your tanks.”
Next, Lady Seal, Basil’s mother:
Now she had a son to offer her country…Basil—her wayward and graceless and grossly disappointing Basil, whose unaccountable taste for low company had led him into so many vexatious scrapes in the last ten years…who had stolen her emeralds and made Mrs. Lyne (Basil’s mistress) distressingly conspicuous—Basil, his peculiarities merged in the manhood of England, at last entering on his inheritance. She must ask Jo about getting him a commission in a decent regiment.
Finally, Basil’s mistress, Angela Lyne. The following is an exchange between Angela and her maid:
Angela: “Well, we’re at war now. I expect there’ll be a lot to put up with.”
Maid: “Will Mr. Seal be in the army?”
Angela: “I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Maid: “He will look different, won’t he, madam?”
“Very different.”
They were both silent, and in the silence Angela knew, by an intuition which defied any possible doubt, exactly what her maid was thinking. She was thinking, “Supposing Mr. Seal gets himself killed. Best thing really for all concerned.”
How does Basil respond to the expectations and desires of his mother, sister and mistress?
With the outbreak of WWII, the opportunistic Basil states his objective early on: "I want to be one of those people one heard about in 1919: the hard-faced men who did well out of the war."
Lady Seal seeks the aid of Sir Joseph Mainwaring (Jo) a well-meaning, well-connected booby of the old school. Sir Joseph arranges a meeting between Basil and the Lieutenant-Colonel of an elite regiment. To please his mother, Basil lunches with Sir Joseph and the colonel. The disastrous interview is summed-up in a brief, understated exchange between Sir Joseph and Lady Seal:
Lady Seal: “I hope Basil made a good impression.
Sir Joseph: “I hope he did, too. I’m afraid he said some rather unfortunate things.”
Lady Seal: “Well, what is the next step?”
Sir Joseph would have liked to say that there was no next step in that direction; that the best Basil could hope for was oblivion; perhaps in a month or so when the luncheon was forgotten…
In fact, Basil initiates a “next step.” He visits his sister at her country home and uses her position as local billeting officer, a person in charge of finding temporary homes for big city children sent to the country to escape the air raids, to set up a racket. Basil uses three horrible children, led by a teen-aged big sister who fancies Basil, to extort money from genteel country folk, mainly retirees, who’ll pay any price to be rid of the monsters. In the course of his scam, Basil manages to pick up an attractive young mistress, a newlywed whose husband is away on duty. Basil finishes his country sojourn by “selling” the obnoxious brats to another billeting officer with similarly larcenous intentions.
Back in London, through a combination of chicanery and luck, Basil obtains a plum job at the War Office, working for the aptly named Colonel Plum. Now an officer in uniform, Basil’s job is to root out subversives. His first idea is to finger a group of harmless bohemians with Marxist leanings, including a former girlfriend, describing them as a dangerous Communist cell. When the colonel tells Basil he’s more interested in Fascists, Basil frames and betrays his friend, Ambrose Silk. Ironically, Ambrose, the falsely accused crypto-fascist, is Gay and half-Jewish. Basil warns Ambrose of an impending arrest and then helps him flee England to relative safety in the Irish countryside. Afterwards, Basil helps himself to Ambrose’s London flat and expensive wardrobe.
Toward the end of the novel, Basil does an about face—sort of.
Waugh’s caustic wit and brilliant prose style are on full display in one of his finest novels.
“In the week which preceded the outbreak of the Second World War—days of surmise and apprehension which cannot, without irony, be called the last days of “peace”—and on the Sunday morning when all doubts were finally resolved and misconceptions corrected, three rich women thought first and mainly of Basil Seal. They were his sister, his mother and his mistress.”
What were the “three rich women” thinking about? The following passages are revealing. First, an exchange between Basil’s sister Barbara Sothill and her husband Freddy, a serving officer:
Freddy: “If there’d been more like us and fewer like Basil there’d never have been a war. You can’t blame Ribbentrop for thinking us decadent when he saw people like Basil about. I don’t suppose they’ll have much use for him in the Army. He’s thirty-six. He might get some sort of job connected with censorship. He seems to know a lot of languages.”
Barbara: “You’ll see…Basil will be covered with medals while your silly old yeomanry are still messing in a Trust House and waiting for your tanks.”
Next, Lady Seal, Basil’s mother:
Now she had a son to offer her country…Basil—her wayward and graceless and grossly disappointing Basil, whose unaccountable taste for low company had led him into so many vexatious scrapes in the last ten years…who had stolen her emeralds and made Mrs. Lyne (Basil’s mistress) distressingly conspicuous—Basil, his peculiarities merged in the manhood of England, at last entering on his inheritance. She must ask Jo about getting him a commission in a decent regiment.
Finally, Basil’s mistress, Angela Lyne. The following is an exchange between Angela and her maid:
Angela: “Well, we’re at war now. I expect there’ll be a lot to put up with.”
Maid: “Will Mr. Seal be in the army?”
Angela: “I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Maid: “He will look different, won’t he, madam?”
“Very different.”
They were both silent, and in the silence Angela knew, by an intuition which defied any possible doubt, exactly what her maid was thinking. She was thinking, “Supposing Mr. Seal gets himself killed. Best thing really for all concerned.”
How does Basil respond to the expectations and desires of his mother, sister and mistress?
With the outbreak of WWII, the opportunistic Basil states his objective early on: "I want to be one of those people one heard about in 1919: the hard-faced men who did well out of the war."
Lady Seal seeks the aid of Sir Joseph Mainwaring (Jo) a well-meaning, well-connected booby of the old school. Sir Joseph arranges a meeting between Basil and the Lieutenant-Colonel of an elite regiment. To please his mother, Basil lunches with Sir Joseph and the colonel. The disastrous interview is summed-up in a brief, understated exchange between Sir Joseph and Lady Seal:
Lady Seal: “I hope Basil made a good impression.
Sir Joseph: “I hope he did, too. I’m afraid he said some rather unfortunate things.”
Lady Seal: “Well, what is the next step?”
Sir Joseph would have liked to say that there was no next step in that direction; that the best Basil could hope for was oblivion; perhaps in a month or so when the luncheon was forgotten…
In fact, Basil initiates a “next step.” He visits his sister at her country home and uses her position as local billeting officer, a person in charge of finding temporary homes for big city children sent to the country to escape the air raids, to set up a racket. Basil uses three horrible children, led by a teen-aged big sister who fancies Basil, to extort money from genteel country folk, mainly retirees, who’ll pay any price to be rid of the monsters. In the course of his scam, Basil manages to pick up an attractive young mistress, a newlywed whose husband is away on duty. Basil finishes his country sojourn by “selling” the obnoxious brats to another billeting officer with similarly larcenous intentions.
Back in London, through a combination of chicanery and luck, Basil obtains a plum job at the War Office, working for the aptly named Colonel Plum. Now an officer in uniform, Basil’s job is to root out subversives. His first idea is to finger a group of harmless bohemians with Marxist leanings, including a former girlfriend, describing them as a dangerous Communist cell. When the colonel tells Basil he’s more interested in Fascists, Basil frames and betrays his friend, Ambrose Silk. Ironically, Ambrose, the falsely accused crypto-fascist, is Gay and half-Jewish. Basil warns Ambrose of an impending arrest and then helps him flee England to relative safety in the Irish countryside. Afterwards, Basil helps himself to Ambrose’s London flat and expensive wardrobe.
Toward the end of the novel, Basil does an about face—sort of.
Waugh’s caustic wit and brilliant prose style are on full display in one of his finest novels.
January 19, 2008
I suspect Basil Seal and Bertie Wooster are two versions of the same person. Bertie is the one that shows up in stories for polite company; Basil is the one that shows up in court transcripts.
May 14, 2021
Maybe 3.5. An enjoyable read, with some great parts and some odd moments. I never know how I feel about Evelyn Waugh's work.
March 4, 2014
I recently read, and very much enjoyed Sword of Honour, like this book, Sword of Honour is a satirical novel about World War Two.
The books that comprise the Sword of Honour trilogy were written in the 1950s and 1960s when Evelyn Waugh was able to put World War Two into some kind of perspective. Sword of Honour also happens to be one of Evelyn Waugh's masterpieces.
Put Out More Flags, an earlier war novel, opens in the autumn of 1939 and all takes place during the twelve months of the war. It was published in 1942.
I have read most of Evelyn Waugh's major works now, and, as usual, the quality of the writing here is a pleasure. The story follows the wartime activities of characters introduced in Waugh's earlier satirical novels Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies and Black Mischief.
The uncertainty and confusion of the so-called "phoney war" are brilliantly evoked, and - as is so often the case - the satire and humour are very black. Basil Seal, who readers may recall from Black Mischief, is the star of the show. His opportunism creating all manner of mischief for those he runs into, and his scam involving a troublesome family of evacuated children is brilliant and sums him up perfectly.
To suggest this book is full of humour would be misleading: one scene involving the troubled and tragic Cedric Lyne visiting his estranged wife Angela, with their son Nigel, for once impressed by him in his army uniform, is absolutely dripping with sadness and melancholy, and demonstrates Waugh's extraordinary skill.
Overall the book felt slightly uneven and a bit rushed. There is much to admire and enjoy, however I conclude this is one of Evelyn Waugh's less successful novels (measured against his exceptionally high standards). It's of most interest to Waugh completists (of whom I am definitely one) and should not be prioritised ahead of his key works: Brideshead Revisited, Sword of Honour, Decline and Fall, and A Handful of Dust.
3/5
The books that comprise the Sword of Honour trilogy were written in the 1950s and 1960s when Evelyn Waugh was able to put World War Two into some kind of perspective. Sword of Honour also happens to be one of Evelyn Waugh's masterpieces.
Put Out More Flags, an earlier war novel, opens in the autumn of 1939 and all takes place during the twelve months of the war. It was published in 1942.
I have read most of Evelyn Waugh's major works now, and, as usual, the quality of the writing here is a pleasure. The story follows the wartime activities of characters introduced in Waugh's earlier satirical novels Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies and Black Mischief.
The uncertainty and confusion of the so-called "phoney war" are brilliantly evoked, and - as is so often the case - the satire and humour are very black. Basil Seal, who readers may recall from Black Mischief, is the star of the show. His opportunism creating all manner of mischief for those he runs into, and his scam involving a troublesome family of evacuated children is brilliant and sums him up perfectly.
To suggest this book is full of humour would be misleading: one scene involving the troubled and tragic Cedric Lyne visiting his estranged wife Angela, with their son Nigel, for once impressed by him in his army uniform, is absolutely dripping with sadness and melancholy, and demonstrates Waugh's extraordinary skill.
Overall the book felt slightly uneven and a bit rushed. There is much to admire and enjoy, however I conclude this is one of Evelyn Waugh's less successful novels (measured against his exceptionally high standards). It's of most interest to Waugh completists (of whom I am definitely one) and should not be prioritised ahead of his key works: Brideshead Revisited, Sword of Honour, Decline and Fall, and A Handful of Dust.
3/5
March 3, 2022
I really enjoy Evelyn Waugh, and this witty satire set at the start of WWII and focusing on the lives of several members of the social upper class was the perfect antidote to some of my recent more contemporary (poorly written and boring) reads.
I think authors back in these times, particularly the well known ones that have survived to this day and whose books are considered to be classics, can really write. Sharp dialogue, perfect characterisations (without caricature), humour, and at times devastating satire/social commentary are the hallmarks of this tale. Also, the vocabulary used is great!
Many years ago, I started a little handbook which I kept near me when I was reading, in which I added words that I read that I previously didn't know the definition to (or at least not well). This has lain dormant for a while, but this book caused it to be reactivated. A couple of examples:
epicure - a person with refined tastes, especially in food and drink
obstreperous - noisy, vociferous, unruly, noisily resisting control
otiose - serving no practical purpose, not required
Overall, highly recommended!
I think authors back in these times, particularly the well known ones that have survived to this day and whose books are considered to be classics, can really write. Sharp dialogue, perfect characterisations (without caricature), humour, and at times devastating satire/social commentary are the hallmarks of this tale. Also, the vocabulary used is great!
Many years ago, I started a little handbook which I kept near me when I was reading, in which I added words that I read that I previously didn't know the definition to (or at least not well). This has lain dormant for a while, but this book caused it to be reactivated. A couple of examples:
epicure - a person with refined tastes, especially in food and drink
obstreperous - noisy, vociferous, unruly, noisily resisting control
otiose - serving no practical purpose, not required
Overall, highly recommended!
May 16, 2013
Thank God for Waugh! Going back to him - it must be ten years since I've read any - is like emerging from a Turkish bath, alive in every pore, your senses quickened and joie de vivre restored. The dialogue is brilliant, the characters sad, odious, weak, shabbily noble - all of them brilliantly anatomised. Waugh's sympathies are huge (and yet in life such a splenetic and selfish man!) and his wit is at full tilt. What a horrible, horrible man is Basil Seal. The evacuee children, the Connollys, are among Waugh's best comic creations. Named, I now realise, for Cyril Connolly!
June 5, 2023
Perhaps the mystery of this novel is how someone so intelligent and lyrically gifted could write something so lightweight. It's an entertaining novel but not very ambitious in its scope. Essentially it makes fun of the British war effort in the early stages of the conflict with the Nazis and features a cast of comically reprehensible characters.
November 12, 2023
Basil Seal in wartime Britain. Last anyone saw him he was advisor to Emperor Seth of Azania in Black Mischief and very little has changed since then. He's still the same cash-strapped layabout, and war presents certain pecuniary opportunities. Favorite secondary characters include aging queen and writer Ambrose Silk and Basil's mistress, Angela Lyne, on whom the war has the most touching/disastrous effect. One muddle follows another in a Waughian play-by-play of the first year of WWII. A word of wartime wisdom: if all else fails, claim to be working for MI9.
I do love a 'war at home' novel, but unlike Spark's The Girls of Slender Means, or Bainbridge's The Dressmaker, or Fitzgerald's Human Voices, all published decades after the war has ended, this one was written and published after WWII had begun but before it had concluded. War, for those unaware, is a ⸻ing silly business.
I do love a 'war at home' novel, but unlike Spark's The Girls of Slender Means, or Bainbridge's The Dressmaker, or Fitzgerald's Human Voices, all published decades after the war has ended, this one was written and published after WWII had begun but before it had concluded. War, for those unaware, is a ⸻ing silly business.
July 13, 2024
Written in 1942 Waugh captures the early years of WW2 with his sarcastic, brutal wit. He brings back characters from previous novels such as Basil Dean who as always lands on his feet. First blackmailing upper middle class couples with the horrible Connolly’s evacuation children. Then lands a cushy job at the Ministry of Information.
An enjoyable read with poignancy in Cedric in Norway and also the ending with Basil surprisingly joining the real army.
An enjoyable read with poignancy in Cedric in Norway and also the ending with Basil surprisingly joining the real army.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2021
The bright young things of Waugh's earlier novels (Decline and Fall & Vile Bodies), some fifteen years on, as bombs begin to fall on London. Thoroughly enjoyable.
January 12, 2020
War has been declared and the the privileged Upper Classes, already feeling the pinch, must now draw in their horns even further, and lay off their domestic servants and reduce the number of butlers, footmen and gardeners. But some of their more enterprising staff have already seen their opportunity war presents, and Barbara Seal’s maids at Malfrey display plenty of get-up-and-go, “Edith and Olive and me have talked it over and we want to go and make aeroplanes”.
But the owners of the country piles must now 'do their bit' and either have the local militia camped on their lawns with their sprawling tented villages, and the officers made welcome in their drawing rooms, or take in children evacuees despatched from Birmingham and billeted upon them by the local authorities. Meanwhile their husbands seek to use the wheels of patronage and secure an easy wartime occupation.
The incorrigible Basil Seal is typical of many of his class, a fellow dilettante like the pompous Alastair Digby-Vaine Trumpington, they are ‘networking’ and using connections being kept busy seeking cosy sinecures, or commissions into respectable regiments as long as they don’t get posted overseas or anywhere likely to see front line action. Their amusing escapades make enjoyable reading and Waugh writes elegantly and with breathtaking ease describing their mishaps, like when Basil Seal seeks to exploit the opportunity to billet some insufferable and undisciplined working class children on local gentile society. He is not amiss to some nefarious wartime profiteering..and as with all Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant satires there is plenty of absurdity and jiggery-pokery, and tom-foolery, and lampooning, but also some poignant melancholia, for instance the pathetic and diminishing Mrs Angela Lynne, forced to return from the South of France at the outbreak of war, and let down by her lovers, she descends into alcoholism.
It’s a wonder that this novel was published at all, as it was written at the height of the military crisis in 1942, and showed the appalling chaos at the Ministry of Information and the crazy labyrinthine bureaucracy at the War Office, where applications for posts were met with layers of obfuscation and indecision. Waugh shows in this scathing and merciless attack on British institutions they were hide bound, complex hierarchies, unable to prioritise, or follow a co ordinated plan.
A wonderful read.
But the owners of the country piles must now 'do their bit' and either have the local militia camped on their lawns with their sprawling tented villages, and the officers made welcome in their drawing rooms, or take in children evacuees despatched from Birmingham and billeted upon them by the local authorities. Meanwhile their husbands seek to use the wheels of patronage and secure an easy wartime occupation.
The incorrigible Basil Seal is typical of many of his class, a fellow dilettante like the pompous Alastair Digby-Vaine Trumpington, they are ‘networking’ and using connections being kept busy seeking cosy sinecures, or commissions into respectable regiments as long as they don’t get posted overseas or anywhere likely to see front line action. Their amusing escapades make enjoyable reading and Waugh writes elegantly and with breathtaking ease describing their mishaps, like when Basil Seal seeks to exploit the opportunity to billet some insufferable and undisciplined working class children on local gentile society. He is not amiss to some nefarious wartime profiteering..and as with all Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant satires there is plenty of absurdity and jiggery-pokery, and tom-foolery, and lampooning, but also some poignant melancholia, for instance the pathetic and diminishing Mrs Angela Lynne, forced to return from the South of France at the outbreak of war, and let down by her lovers, she descends into alcoholism.
It’s a wonder that this novel was published at all, as it was written at the height of the military crisis in 1942, and showed the appalling chaos at the Ministry of Information and the crazy labyrinthine bureaucracy at the War Office, where applications for posts were met with layers of obfuscation and indecision. Waugh shows in this scathing and merciless attack on British institutions they were hide bound, complex hierarchies, unable to prioritise, or follow a co ordinated plan.
A wonderful read.
September 5, 2017
What a strange novel: It starts showing the adventurers of a lot of ne'er-do-wells trying to avoid doing anything serious for the "Great Boer War" as some of them call it. Included are characters from Evelyn Waugh's earlier novels such as Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, and Black Mischief.
They whirl around trying not to get their fingers burnt, but eventually the war calls out to them, and even the reprobate Basil Seal volunteers for a commando posting. What starts out as a comedy ends up with several characters rolling up their sleeves and deciding that they better get along with it.
Put Out More Flags is named after the following lines from a Chinese sage quoted by Lin-Yutang and appearing in the front of the book:
They whirl around trying not to get their fingers burnt, but eventually the war calls out to them, and even the reprobate Basil Seal volunteers for a commando posting. What starts out as a comedy ends up with several characters rolling up their sleeves and deciding that they better get along with it.
Put Out More Flags is named after the following lines from a Chinese sage quoted by Lin-Yutang and appearing in the front of the book:
A man getting drunk at a farewell party should strike a musical tone, in order to strengthen his spirit ... and a drunk military man should order gallons and put out more flags in order to increase his military splendour.The British military, as usual, do not get much respect from Waugh. His ne'er-do-wells, on the other hand, have some sand deep in their fundaments.
August 17, 2025
Put Out More Flags by sublime Evelyn Waugh
10 out of 10
Evelyn Waugh is one of the greatest writers, with perhaps more books than any other genius among the most appreciated and popular novels, to be found on The All-TIME 100 Novels list - http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10... - The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... and plenty of other respectable compilations, with phenomenal works like Brideshead Head Revisited, the superb The Loved One, magnificent Scoop…on these and a few other wonderful works you can find notes at - http://realini.blogspot.com/
Though it is surely a subjective perspective, Basil Seal seems to be the most interesting, if not the main character of Put Out More Flags, with his dashing personality, a special sort of courage that borders insolence and then crosses the line into plain rudeness, involved in so many scandals, from stealing his mother’s jewelry to guiding a party of British people at the Italian lakes, only to get infuriated, throw their possessions and passports into one such body of water and abandon them without means there, a man so ruthless as to put a friend in maximum danger and then force him to become an exile, because he – Basil – just wanted to get into the spotlight, obtain some kudos and perhaps some promotion…most of all though, he has this mischievous character, as he confesses to his lover, extremely wealthy Angela Lyne – actually, one of his affairs, perhaps the most important one – he is interested in the maneuvers that get him the money and not in the cash itself so much, more the devious acts he commits to get them.
As the war starts, his mother wants to get him a suitable position within the army, feeling, or rather hoping that if he had not found something honorable in peacetime, now it is his moment, and thus she contacts the man who has always tried to get him out of trouble, a high official with a stupid take on events – he would insist even after the fall of France and the disastrous course of the war in the first period that it is all for the better, since he has a manic obsession which he keeps repeating, that Italy would join the Allies, if only they convince France to make concessions…now that France has fallen, he is oblivious to the fact that Britain stands alone (well, with that immense empire wherein the sun never sets that they used to have) but he is quite joyful that France is no longer an obstacle in the path to get Italy in the home team…
For some time though, Basil would join his sister, Barbara Sothill, at her mansion in the country, at Malfrey, where she is in charge with homing children and some women, who have been sent from cities that authorities fear would become targets for bombardment, only they have three siblings, the Sullivans, that become a terror for the region and their exploits would have such an impact as to be mentioned in parliament, when they debate some bill on the subject of refugees…indeed, this looks like a commando more than a party of three children, where the elder is between 10 and 18, the numbers she had given are compounded and a doctor estimates she is probably 16, a younger brother who is viciously cruel and a rather simple, smaller sister that wets the bed, the chairs and much else and she does not do only that, in one of the houses where they are assigned and when the farmer shows the boy how a goose is killed – a most unfortunate idea – she returns a little later to find that six ducks and the poor old cat have been beheaded by this Taliban before their age and thus refuses to have anything more with these children, just like the rest of the members of this hereto tranquil community…
Enter the stage Basil, who takes over from his sister because he likes provocations – and to confront others – and sees a way to use the atrocity of these small demons – well, the sixteen year old sister is the ring leader and the others obey her commands, when she says attack, they destroy everything in sight, but they can also sit quite, is that is the order of the day – and takes them to a home that has advertised in the paper, willing to take in some paying visitors, and after he traps them into thinking that he has some friends that will want to pay to stay there, he just throws the grenade and states that he is the official officer relocating the refugees and they have to take them him, against their protestations and the now humble affirmations that it would be terribly difficult, they have so little means, whereas only minutes ago it had been plain that the man who had retired from service in the Far East had some quite high class standards and they had been interested, he and his wife, to share generous accommodations with people of the same class…
It would be a terrible eight weeks for them, isolated by a massive snowfall, at the end of which they rush to freedom – so does the paying guest they had had and the two maids, as did everyone else in the path of these commando children – and he wants to talk with the sister of the enemy, but it is Basil who says to him ‘you do not want these poor little ones to be killed in an air raid’, only to get what sounds like a mirthful, if dark answer – ‘there is nothing I would love more’- followed by an arrangement proposed by the Machiavelli of the countryside, who suggest that poor families would look at a sum of money and accept the atrocious guests, if the overwhelmed, destroyed host would like that…there are 30 pounds in this transaction and this devilish character continues with his enterprise, during which he has an affair with a woman who had just been married (!), before her husband would join some military unit…
His lover, Angela Lyne, is considered a very smart woman, which in the parlor and according to the chauvinism, sexist views of the time was called ‘she had the conversation of a man’, loved to stay out of the public eye – indeed, her husband, Cedric, would suggest a divorce, seeing that she was so intoxicated with the outré, wild Basil Seal, but she refused because she hates having her name in the papers, being the subject of discussion or any annoyance that could come from the take that society could have on such matters at that time… staying alone in one of the many properties they have in the family – on her side, Cedric had been in a different class before they got married – Angela becomes an alcoholic and engaged in a scandal though she hates this so much, when she goes to see a movie and she has an argument at the ticket box, where she protests against the restriction imposed on the rows available, given that she cannot see from the back, where she has to go and she ends up in a stupor, falling on the pavement, inebriated as she is and when friends find her, her ordeal is public knowledge…
Basil Seal would reach a paroxysm of vileness when he tries to play his vicious games in the Intelligence community, trying to sell first some of his friends with radical views, as a communist cell and then, when he is urged to find infiltrated Nazis, he makes up a story in which his friend, Ambrose, is portrayed as a Nazi agent of some kind, though in reality this man is the exact opposite, and as a result of these machinations, the publisher is arrested, Ambrose has to escape to Ireland – prompted by the one who has betrayed him – and scruples less Basil Seal takes over the apartment, the expensive clothes – on which he has his new lover, stolen from his former superior officer replace the A monogram with his B…
PS: there is a Brancusi statuette in one of the flats…
Posted 4th April 2020 by realini
10 out of 10
Evelyn Waugh is one of the greatest writers, with perhaps more books than any other genius among the most appreciated and popular novels, to be found on The All-TIME 100 Novels list - http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10... - The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list - https://www.theguardian.com/books/200... and plenty of other respectable compilations, with phenomenal works like Brideshead Head Revisited, the superb The Loved One, magnificent Scoop…on these and a few other wonderful works you can find notes at - http://realini.blogspot.com/
Though it is surely a subjective perspective, Basil Seal seems to be the most interesting, if not the main character of Put Out More Flags, with his dashing personality, a special sort of courage that borders insolence and then crosses the line into plain rudeness, involved in so many scandals, from stealing his mother’s jewelry to guiding a party of British people at the Italian lakes, only to get infuriated, throw their possessions and passports into one such body of water and abandon them without means there, a man so ruthless as to put a friend in maximum danger and then force him to become an exile, because he – Basil – just wanted to get into the spotlight, obtain some kudos and perhaps some promotion…most of all though, he has this mischievous character, as he confesses to his lover, extremely wealthy Angela Lyne – actually, one of his affairs, perhaps the most important one – he is interested in the maneuvers that get him the money and not in the cash itself so much, more the devious acts he commits to get them.
As the war starts, his mother wants to get him a suitable position within the army, feeling, or rather hoping that if he had not found something honorable in peacetime, now it is his moment, and thus she contacts the man who has always tried to get him out of trouble, a high official with a stupid take on events – he would insist even after the fall of France and the disastrous course of the war in the first period that it is all for the better, since he has a manic obsession which he keeps repeating, that Italy would join the Allies, if only they convince France to make concessions…now that France has fallen, he is oblivious to the fact that Britain stands alone (well, with that immense empire wherein the sun never sets that they used to have) but he is quite joyful that France is no longer an obstacle in the path to get Italy in the home team…
For some time though, Basil would join his sister, Barbara Sothill, at her mansion in the country, at Malfrey, where she is in charge with homing children and some women, who have been sent from cities that authorities fear would become targets for bombardment, only they have three siblings, the Sullivans, that become a terror for the region and their exploits would have such an impact as to be mentioned in parliament, when they debate some bill on the subject of refugees…indeed, this looks like a commando more than a party of three children, where the elder is between 10 and 18, the numbers she had given are compounded and a doctor estimates she is probably 16, a younger brother who is viciously cruel and a rather simple, smaller sister that wets the bed, the chairs and much else and she does not do only that, in one of the houses where they are assigned and when the farmer shows the boy how a goose is killed – a most unfortunate idea – she returns a little later to find that six ducks and the poor old cat have been beheaded by this Taliban before their age and thus refuses to have anything more with these children, just like the rest of the members of this hereto tranquil community…
Enter the stage Basil, who takes over from his sister because he likes provocations – and to confront others – and sees a way to use the atrocity of these small demons – well, the sixteen year old sister is the ring leader and the others obey her commands, when she says attack, they destroy everything in sight, but they can also sit quite, is that is the order of the day – and takes them to a home that has advertised in the paper, willing to take in some paying visitors, and after he traps them into thinking that he has some friends that will want to pay to stay there, he just throws the grenade and states that he is the official officer relocating the refugees and they have to take them him, against their protestations and the now humble affirmations that it would be terribly difficult, they have so little means, whereas only minutes ago it had been plain that the man who had retired from service in the Far East had some quite high class standards and they had been interested, he and his wife, to share generous accommodations with people of the same class…
It would be a terrible eight weeks for them, isolated by a massive snowfall, at the end of which they rush to freedom – so does the paying guest they had had and the two maids, as did everyone else in the path of these commando children – and he wants to talk with the sister of the enemy, but it is Basil who says to him ‘you do not want these poor little ones to be killed in an air raid’, only to get what sounds like a mirthful, if dark answer – ‘there is nothing I would love more’- followed by an arrangement proposed by the Machiavelli of the countryside, who suggest that poor families would look at a sum of money and accept the atrocious guests, if the overwhelmed, destroyed host would like that…there are 30 pounds in this transaction and this devilish character continues with his enterprise, during which he has an affair with a woman who had just been married (!), before her husband would join some military unit…
His lover, Angela Lyne, is considered a very smart woman, which in the parlor and according to the chauvinism, sexist views of the time was called ‘she had the conversation of a man’, loved to stay out of the public eye – indeed, her husband, Cedric, would suggest a divorce, seeing that she was so intoxicated with the outré, wild Basil Seal, but she refused because she hates having her name in the papers, being the subject of discussion or any annoyance that could come from the take that society could have on such matters at that time… staying alone in one of the many properties they have in the family – on her side, Cedric had been in a different class before they got married – Angela becomes an alcoholic and engaged in a scandal though she hates this so much, when she goes to see a movie and she has an argument at the ticket box, where she protests against the restriction imposed on the rows available, given that she cannot see from the back, where she has to go and she ends up in a stupor, falling on the pavement, inebriated as she is and when friends find her, her ordeal is public knowledge…
Basil Seal would reach a paroxysm of vileness when he tries to play his vicious games in the Intelligence community, trying to sell first some of his friends with radical views, as a communist cell and then, when he is urged to find infiltrated Nazis, he makes up a story in which his friend, Ambrose, is portrayed as a Nazi agent of some kind, though in reality this man is the exact opposite, and as a result of these machinations, the publisher is arrested, Ambrose has to escape to Ireland – prompted by the one who has betrayed him – and scruples less Basil Seal takes over the apartment, the expensive clothes – on which he has his new lover, stolen from his former superior officer replace the A monogram with his B…
PS: there is a Brancusi statuette in one of the flats…
Posted 4th April 2020 by realini
May 6, 2024
I found this book a bit tricky. I felt like I was missing a lot of context - partly because half the characters are returning from previous Waugh books that I’ve not read and partly because it was a satire of WW2 intricacies that I also don’t know
April 15, 2023
Seeking aphorisms, I read this book. Learning that the following came from this work, I suspected there must be more:
Unfortunately, there is not much else. On the same page, we have this:
Waugh wrote this during the war, on a ship heading the long way back to Britain heading from North Africa down around the Cape rather than attempting the Mediterranean. It is, he claims, 'the only book I have written purely for pleasure.' His pleasure, note, not ours. For Basil, one of the main characters is an opportunistic wretch, 'a philistine and a crook'. Like too many in this work: phoney. So we have the dilemma of delightful prose and despicable people. The work cannot be completely dismissed though. Think about this:
It is a curious thing, he thought, that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.
Unfortunately, there is not much else. On the same page, we have this:
The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish.This is a novel set in a time when the world headed for horrors: the biggest global conflict. In musical terms, it was the Sonata form, or more bluntly, the Phoney or Bore War. Then the bombs start dropping and sitzkreig becomes blitzkreig.
Waugh wrote this during the war, on a ship heading the long way back to Britain heading from North Africa down around the Cape rather than attempting the Mediterranean. It is, he claims, 'the only book I have written purely for pleasure.' His pleasure, note, not ours. For Basil, one of the main characters is an opportunistic wretch, 'a philistine and a crook'. Like too many in this work: phoney. So we have the dilemma of delightful prose and despicable people. The work cannot be completely dismissed though. Think about this:
We can’t go arresting people for what they say in a private conversation in a café. I’ve no doubt we shall come to that eventually, but at the present stage of our struggle for freedom, it just can’t be done.’Are we there yet?
March 8, 2021
Unpopular opinion maybe but I think this is still my favourite of all his books. So many books published around and about the time of WWII, written without the benefit of hindsight, can make for uncomfortable reading now - Pigeon Pie, The Heat of the Day, even Gaudy Night have their share of "yikes" moments - but POMF still hits the mark.
(Insert obligatory "if I could resurrect a historical figure to bop in the snoot Evelyn Waugh would probably be among my first choices but damn he sure could write prose huh" disclaimer here)
(Insert obligatory "if I could resurrect a historical figure to bop in the snoot Evelyn Waugh would probably be among my first choices but damn he sure could write prose huh" disclaimer here)
August 2, 2007
The general image of Britain at the beginning of the second World War is very different from the polite, quietly ridiculous society portrayed here. The story follows an aging rascal (Basil, who I came to hate), his aristocratic family, and his friend Ambrose, a flamboyantly gay writer. The talk is witty, the characters vivid, and the plot mostly serves to show how wrong all the experts where when it came time for war.
June 16, 2014
Evelyn Waugh's look at the first year of Britain's involvement in WW2 revolves around Basil Seal. Seal and his friends & family are typical Waugh characters and his depiction of the Ministry of Information was hilarious! It is an interesting look at how many Brits felt at the beginning of the war, an attitude easily forgotten in the events that followed.
August 16, 2019
Waugh is clearly a masterful writer and there were parts that I found funny. I can understand why some may really enjoy and even love this book, but his satire of the British aristocracy during the phony war just didn't draw me in. I also found his portrayal of women lacking.
September 6, 2021
Waugh, Evelyn. Put Out More Flags.
Basil Seal is a rogue and a scoundrel. He grew up with too much money. Unlike the modern American rich kids who are simply wastrels, Basil is not lazy. In fact, he is probably too industrious. He comes up with numerous rackets that capitalize on the confusion in the early days of World War II.
Like in all of Waugh’s novels, we get a perfect glimpse into the decayed social structure of the pseudo-intellectuals (i.e., Marxists) in Britain. The novel is not necessarily happy, few of Waugh’s are, but its wit is razor sharp. For reasons one can’t fathom, Basil is often in the company of the avant-garde Marxists. He tells one surrealist painter who is frightened by the war, “You know I should have thought an air raid was just the thing for a surrealiste; it ought to give you plenty of compositions--limbs and things lying about in odd places you know” (Waugh 32).
On a Marxist Heaven
“[Basil] is a man for whom there will be no place in the coming workers’ state; and yet, thought Ambrose, I hunger for his company. It is a curious thing, he thought, that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilised taste. Nanny told me of a Heaven that was full of angels playing harps; the communists tell me of an earth full of leisure and contented factory hands. I don’t see Basil getting past the gate of either” (69-70).
As in all of Waugh’s novels, we see beyond the brutal satire and occasionally glimpse that beautiful world that was old England.
Basil Seal is a rogue and a scoundrel. He grew up with too much money. Unlike the modern American rich kids who are simply wastrels, Basil is not lazy. In fact, he is probably too industrious. He comes up with numerous rackets that capitalize on the confusion in the early days of World War II.
Like in all of Waugh’s novels, we get a perfect glimpse into the decayed social structure of the pseudo-intellectuals (i.e., Marxists) in Britain. The novel is not necessarily happy, few of Waugh’s are, but its wit is razor sharp. For reasons one can’t fathom, Basil is often in the company of the avant-garde Marxists. He tells one surrealist painter who is frightened by the war, “You know I should have thought an air raid was just the thing for a surrealiste; it ought to give you plenty of compositions--limbs and things lying about in odd places you know” (Waugh 32).
On a Marxist Heaven
“[Basil] is a man for whom there will be no place in the coming workers’ state; and yet, thought Ambrose, I hunger for his company. It is a curious thing, he thought, that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilised taste. Nanny told me of a Heaven that was full of angels playing harps; the communists tell me of an earth full of leisure and contented factory hands. I don’t see Basil getting past the gate of either” (69-70).
As in all of Waugh’s novels, we see beyond the brutal satire and occasionally glimpse that beautiful world that was old England.
June 11, 2013
"...and a drunk military man should order gallons and put out more flags in order to increase his military splendour." --quoted by Lin Yutang in The Importance of Living, and by Evelyn Waugh in the frontispiece of this delicious satire.
We rejoin the idle, scheming Basil Seal in the autumn of 1939, as the second World War is breaking out across Europe and all of England is mobilizing. He's wryly aware that the era of Bright Young Things is over for good; in fact, his halfhearted attempt to join a regiment (as orchestrated by his mother) are rebuffed, due to the commander's personal dislike of him and the fact that he is nearing his upper thirties, and only young men are wanted.
So Basil does what he does best: he dabbles. His sister is the billeting officer for her area, so he stumbles backward into helping her find a series of homes for an incorrigible family of three displaced and horribly misbehaved children, and the bewildered homeowners pay him off to remove the children to their next victims. Basil manages to make a nice living this way, then turns in an old friend for sedition, takes over the fellow's apartment, and finally finds his place in the war by the very end.
Through his unsavory vision, we see how England rapidly converted from the drawing-room to the battlefield in the course of a year. Basil resists finding a war job until it's absolutely necessary, and watches his friends and acquaintances join forces with the war effort. Waugh wrote this book in real time; it came out in 1942, so the voices and attitudes are those of the upper class that were part of his daily round. We see the language change from society shorthand to military doublespeak, the outfits from tea gowns to fatigues, and the attitudes from conversation to action.
His writing is extraordinary, and his sense of humor is quintessentially British. Though the subject is grim and we know the outcome, as the author did not at the time of writing, his social commentary is spot-on. This is the event that defined a generation, and to see it through Waugh's biting satire is entertaining and unforgettable.
We rejoin the idle, scheming Basil Seal in the autumn of 1939, as the second World War is breaking out across Europe and all of England is mobilizing. He's wryly aware that the era of Bright Young Things is over for good; in fact, his halfhearted attempt to join a regiment (as orchestrated by his mother) are rebuffed, due to the commander's personal dislike of him and the fact that he is nearing his upper thirties, and only young men are wanted.
So Basil does what he does best: he dabbles. His sister is the billeting officer for her area, so he stumbles backward into helping her find a series of homes for an incorrigible family of three displaced and horribly misbehaved children, and the bewildered homeowners pay him off to remove the children to their next victims. Basil manages to make a nice living this way, then turns in an old friend for sedition, takes over the fellow's apartment, and finally finds his place in the war by the very end.
Through his unsavory vision, we see how England rapidly converted from the drawing-room to the battlefield in the course of a year. Basil resists finding a war job until it's absolutely necessary, and watches his friends and acquaintances join forces with the war effort. Waugh wrote this book in real time; it came out in 1942, so the voices and attitudes are those of the upper class that were part of his daily round. We see the language change from society shorthand to military doublespeak, the outfits from tea gowns to fatigues, and the attitudes from conversation to action.
His writing is extraordinary, and his sense of humor is quintessentially British. Though the subject is grim and we know the outcome, as the author did not at the time of writing, his social commentary is spot-on. This is the event that defined a generation, and to see it through Waugh's biting satire is entertaining and unforgettable.
August 30, 2023
This 1942 novel was a satire like many of his earlier novels but also contained some seriousness, apropos to it being written right in the middle of WWII.
The story’s chief focus is on Basil Seal, previously a lead character in Black Mischief. Storylines also follow various characters in Basil’s orbit including his sister Barbara, his mistress Angela and her husband Cedric, the left-wing gay Jewish writer Ambrose Silk and Peter Lord Pastmaster who, along with the aristocrat Alastair Trumpington, had been introduced in Decline and Fall. The storylines all deal with the characters’ various actions during the beginning of the British war effort in late 1939 through 1940. Waugh uses these storylines to satirize several aspects of Britain’s military response along with the art and literary worlds. While there is some poignancy in the satire that elevates it, it was something else about the satire that made it so appealing this time.
Normally, Waugh’s satire elicits a smattering of smiles from me but in this book it elicited a chockful of chuckles. The storyline about Basil’s efforts at billeting the rambunctious war refugee Connollie children was responsible for most of the chuckles. The existence of that storyline alone guaranteed this book no less than a 4-star rating. However, all the storylines culminated in some form of satisfying manner, be it satirical, poignant or both.
I preferred this Waugh to most of his more highly regarded works. I rate it as 4 stars.
The story’s chief focus is on Basil Seal, previously a lead character in Black Mischief. Storylines also follow various characters in Basil’s orbit including his sister Barbara, his mistress Angela and her husband Cedric, the left-wing gay Jewish writer Ambrose Silk and Peter Lord Pastmaster who, along with the aristocrat Alastair Trumpington, had been introduced in Decline and Fall. The storylines all deal with the characters’ various actions during the beginning of the British war effort in late 1939 through 1940. Waugh uses these storylines to satirize several aspects of Britain’s military response along with the art and literary worlds. While there is some poignancy in the satire that elevates it, it was something else about the satire that made it so appealing this time.
Normally, Waugh’s satire elicits a smattering of smiles from me but in this book it elicited a chockful of chuckles. The storyline about Basil’s efforts at billeting the rambunctious war refugee Connollie children was responsible for most of the chuckles. The existence of that storyline alone guaranteed this book no less than a 4-star rating. However, all the storylines culminated in some form of satisfying manner, be it satirical, poignant or both.
I preferred this Waugh to most of his more highly regarded works. I rate it as 4 stars.
April 26, 2014
This is a satirical comedy looking at how a group of upper class English socialites respond to the beginning of WWII. It bridges the gap quite nicely between the social class Waugh first began satirising in Vile Bodies (which itself anticipated the Second World War by a number of years) and the romanticisation of the pre-War period and incorporation of deeper religious themes which Waugh attempted to address in Brideshead Revisited. It also sits quite nicely alongside Waugh's other WII satire, the Sword of Honour trilogy.
March 31, 2017
Este lo he leído en español, pero no lo veo en GoodReads. Bueno, solo decir que nada que ver con Retorno a Brideshead.
November 25, 2019
I found this an entertaining book and marvel that it could have been published in wartime. I am fairly sure it doesn't bear much scrutiny in its handling of a variety of subjects, downright creepy to a modern eye in places, and is in many ways a desperately sad book, but it is very funny with some glorious character names. The highlights are probably Basil Seal's various scams: his effective use of MI13, the evacuee racket and his fake fascist conspiracy. I also loved Peter Pastmaster making up his mind which woman to marry after they rescue the worse for wear Angela Lyne.
January 18, 2021
The characters are aristocratic dilettantes. The setting is WWII England. The competition for the most extravagant and memorable of the colorful cast is easily won by the 30-something Basil Seal. Basil is a favorite character of Waugh. He is the adult upper-class British equivalent of Tom Sawyer.
Basil is frivolous, mischievous and incorrigible. His antics are also indulged and even grudgingly admired by his closest friends and connections.
Basil, brilliant but lazy, wins friends and jobs with ease only to quickly loses interest and move on. With the onset of the war, his fawning mother and beloved sister hope that the directionless man-child Basil will finally find a purpose. The mischievous Basil continues his corrupt ways. He poses as a billeting agent and extorts money from honest English patriots who opt to pay Basil rather than endure the torture of hosting his hell-bent charges. He also takes a position in the Ministry of Information whose mission is to rout out fascist sympathizers. Lacking any substantial suspects, he tricks a long time literary friend named Ambrose into editing a manifesto that may be incorrectly interpreted as Nazi propaganda. He wastes no time is exposing Alister as an enemy of the state and claiming credit for routing out Alister's subversion influence. This abhorrent and guileless Basil should be condemned as the villain he is. Like Huck, we find ourselves charmed with the affable miscreant.
Basil represents the intersection of the decline of British Empire with the chaos of WWII. The absurdity of the elitist arrogance of the British upper class as it faces the very real threat of defeat at the hands of Germany is brilliantly presented. Basil's mother stubbornly ignores sheltering during the blitz of London. Basil's wealthy mistress's husband vaults headlong into enemy fire more concerned about paperwork than death. An inept aristocratic navy officer named Cedric Lyne does his best to avoid any real wartime responsibility only to fail at his first test of leadership. Waugh provides many examples of the affluent British characters laughably failing to adapt to wartime conditions. Waugh worries about the softness of the British nobility and leaders as they encounter the gritty challenges of 20th century globalism and more urgently the war with Germany.
Back to Basil
Besides the incongruity of British elites and WWII demands, Waugh dives deeper into Basil's personal life. Many years after writing the original novel, Waugh released a delightful addendum "Basil Seal Rides Again" to revisit the ne'er-do-well antihero. In the original book, the bond between Basil and his sister Barbara is especially close. His sibling connection is arguably stronger that that for his mother or his mistress and future wife Angela. In "Basil Seal Rides Again" he and Angela's now adult daughter Barbara (yes, named after his beloved sister) has fallen in love. Without giving away the ending, a parallel and reconsideration of Basil's love of his sister Barbara is reasserted.
Waugh deserves his considerable acclaim. His wit is razor sharp. His dialog is unparalleled and serves as a exemplar of efficient, realistic and proper technique. The challenge of reading Waugh is his many varied character introductions and rapid scene changes. It is easy to lose track of who is who. Waugh rushes forward unapologetically in spite of the potential for confusion. Like a Christopher Nolan movie, Waugh does not dumb down or explain the action. He trusts that the audience will either eventually connect the dots or reread his book to discover what was misinterpreted during the first impression.
Check it out and forgive Basil his many sins.
Basil is frivolous, mischievous and incorrigible. His antics are also indulged and even grudgingly admired by his closest friends and connections.
Basil, brilliant but lazy, wins friends and jobs with ease only to quickly loses interest and move on. With the onset of the war, his fawning mother and beloved sister hope that the directionless man-child Basil will finally find a purpose. The mischievous Basil continues his corrupt ways. He poses as a billeting agent and extorts money from honest English patriots who opt to pay Basil rather than endure the torture of hosting his hell-bent charges. He also takes a position in the Ministry of Information whose mission is to rout out fascist sympathizers. Lacking any substantial suspects, he tricks a long time literary friend named Ambrose into editing a manifesto that may be incorrectly interpreted as Nazi propaganda. He wastes no time is exposing Alister as an enemy of the state and claiming credit for routing out Alister's subversion influence. This abhorrent and guileless Basil should be condemned as the villain he is. Like Huck, we find ourselves charmed with the affable miscreant.
Basil represents the intersection of the decline of British Empire with the chaos of WWII. The absurdity of the elitist arrogance of the British upper class as it faces the very real threat of defeat at the hands of Germany is brilliantly presented. Basil's mother stubbornly ignores sheltering during the blitz of London. Basil's wealthy mistress's husband vaults headlong into enemy fire more concerned about paperwork than death. An inept aristocratic navy officer named Cedric Lyne does his best to avoid any real wartime responsibility only to fail at his first test of leadership. Waugh provides many examples of the affluent British characters laughably failing to adapt to wartime conditions. Waugh worries about the softness of the British nobility and leaders as they encounter the gritty challenges of 20th century globalism and more urgently the war with Germany.
Back to Basil
Besides the incongruity of British elites and WWII demands, Waugh dives deeper into Basil's personal life. Many years after writing the original novel, Waugh released a delightful addendum "Basil Seal Rides Again" to revisit the ne'er-do-well antihero. In the original book, the bond between Basil and his sister Barbara is especially close. His sibling connection is arguably stronger that that for his mother or his mistress and future wife Angela. In "Basil Seal Rides Again" he and Angela's now adult daughter Barbara (yes, named after his beloved sister) has fallen in love. Without giving away the ending, a parallel and reconsideration of Basil's love of his sister Barbara is reasserted.
Waugh deserves his considerable acclaim. His wit is razor sharp. His dialog is unparalleled and serves as a exemplar of efficient, realistic and proper technique. The challenge of reading Waugh is his many varied character introductions and rapid scene changes. It is easy to lose track of who is who. Waugh rushes forward unapologetically in spite of the potential for confusion. Like a Christopher Nolan movie, Waugh does not dumb down or explain the action. He trusts that the audience will either eventually connect the dots or reread his book to discover what was misinterpreted during the first impression.
Check it out and forgive Basil his many sins.
September 8, 2018
Put Out More Flags is classic Evelyn Waugh in terms of his signature satire and farce among the social elite—which he does so well. Furthermore, fans of Waugh’s earlier novels will rejoice to know they will meet up again with one or two characters from those earlier works. In his own preface to this book, Waugh admits of those characters, “I was anxious to know how they had been doing since I last heard of them…”
The protagonist in this instance is Basil Seal who, in the language of his day would be labeled a rascal and a bounder, or a cad and a scoundrel, someone who, despite his mischief and misdemeanors, is a likeable fellow overall. The time period is the early days of World War II, and Basil is consumed with two driving ambitions: making money and becoming a war hero.
Now, it’s not that Basil’s family is impoverished by any means. On the contrary, his mother provides him a generous allowance for his personal indulgences, but still finds herself frequently paying off his debts when they become over-indulgences. Accordingly, the allowance is suspended. In terms of war heroism, Basil only thinks of achieving this without actually doing anything remotely dangerous or life-threatening—soldierly trench warfare, for example. And so he begins his creative endeavors.
First, he concocts a scheme, which involves masquerading as a billeting officer responsible for placing three wildly errant evacuee children into the country homes of wealthy, unsuspecting gentry. Then, when the juvenile delinquents’ unruly behavior becomes intolerable to the hosts, Basil offers to remove the children—for a hefty price, of course. Even when discovered, Basil manages to sell his ingenious scheme to another enterprising man for mutual secrecy and a good sum of money to boot.
Basil’s attempts at war heroism are far less successful than his money-making endeavors. When he flunks an interview for a privileged position in the army (“arranged” by his mother begging a favor of a prominent government official), Basil tries to interest the Ministry of Information into the strategic wisdom of annexing Liberia. When that too fails, he finagles a job in the War Office. But the job is without promise, so Basil executes a plan to persuade a close friend to write material resembling German propaganda—and then betrays his friend to the authorities. However, guilt then compels Basil to effect his friend’s escape to Ireland.
In between failed attempts at money-making and war heroism, Basil’s dalliances include amorous flirtations with a wealthy, lonely woman, estranged from her husband, and a frivolous Bohemian artist. In one particularly dastardly deed, he borrows money from the former woman to indulge the latter.
Despite being predominantly an entertaining comedy targeting the upper class of society, the progress of war in Put Out More Flags affords Waugh the chance to highlight serious themes—unrequited love, untimely but honorable death, war-sundered families—even while poking fun at them. Though not as wickedly funny as earlier novels—Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, and Scoop, for example—this fast-paced, highly-enjoyable book is still well worth reading!
The protagonist in this instance is Basil Seal who, in the language of his day would be labeled a rascal and a bounder, or a cad and a scoundrel, someone who, despite his mischief and misdemeanors, is a likeable fellow overall. The time period is the early days of World War II, and Basil is consumed with two driving ambitions: making money and becoming a war hero.
Now, it’s not that Basil’s family is impoverished by any means. On the contrary, his mother provides him a generous allowance for his personal indulgences, but still finds herself frequently paying off his debts when they become over-indulgences. Accordingly, the allowance is suspended. In terms of war heroism, Basil only thinks of achieving this without actually doing anything remotely dangerous or life-threatening—soldierly trench warfare, for example. And so he begins his creative endeavors.
First, he concocts a scheme, which involves masquerading as a billeting officer responsible for placing three wildly errant evacuee children into the country homes of wealthy, unsuspecting gentry. Then, when the juvenile delinquents’ unruly behavior becomes intolerable to the hosts, Basil offers to remove the children—for a hefty price, of course. Even when discovered, Basil manages to sell his ingenious scheme to another enterprising man for mutual secrecy and a good sum of money to boot.
Basil’s attempts at war heroism are far less successful than his money-making endeavors. When he flunks an interview for a privileged position in the army (“arranged” by his mother begging a favor of a prominent government official), Basil tries to interest the Ministry of Information into the strategic wisdom of annexing Liberia. When that too fails, he finagles a job in the War Office. But the job is without promise, so Basil executes a plan to persuade a close friend to write material resembling German propaganda—and then betrays his friend to the authorities. However, guilt then compels Basil to effect his friend’s escape to Ireland.
In between failed attempts at money-making and war heroism, Basil’s dalliances include amorous flirtations with a wealthy, lonely woman, estranged from her husband, and a frivolous Bohemian artist. In one particularly dastardly deed, he borrows money from the former woman to indulge the latter.
Despite being predominantly an entertaining comedy targeting the upper class of society, the progress of war in Put Out More Flags affords Waugh the chance to highlight serious themes—unrequited love, untimely but honorable death, war-sundered families—even while poking fun at them. Though not as wickedly funny as earlier novels—Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, and Scoop, for example—this fast-paced, highly-enjoyable book is still well worth reading!
November 14, 2020
The Bright Young Things of Waugh's previous novels have grown older but not any wiser. Set during the "Phoney War," the first months at the start of WWII when there were few battles on the Western front, the affluent characters spend there days lamenting the shortage of servants, trying to get into fashionable regiments where they think they will see no action, arguing in cafes, and dealing with the "horror" of having to house evacuees. Waugh's satire is as vitriolic as ever, so expect no happy endings here.
September 3, 2024
My lower appreciation for this may have to do with reading it in pieces over a couple of weeks, but I suspect there might be more to it than that. It’s funny and sharp in its takedown of a certain type of self-absorbed member of the upper classes, but this is the first time I remember really feeling Waugh’s misanthropic tendencies as a little off-putting. There is a lack of affection for anyone that kept me at a distance throughout.
May 20, 2025
This was an interesting one. Although it has its funny moments, I felt like the overall plot was a little too meandering for my tastes (and I am certainly not someone who generally needs a clear-cut plot, so that's saying something) and I thought the cast of characters was a little too large for the scope of the novel. I was thoroughly amused while reading this, but I doubt I'll pick it up again.
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