The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold

by Evelyn Waugh

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold remains one of Eveyln Waugh's most remarkable and self-revealing works. Three years before he wrote it, Waugh suffered "a brief bout of hallucination" similar to the one that besets Mr. Pinfold in this wildly witty and occasionally frightening novel.

A successful, middle-aged novelist with a case of "bad nerves," Gilbert Pinfold embarks on a recuperative trip to Ceylon. Almost as soon as the gangplank lifts, Mr. Pinfold hears sounds coming out of the ceiling of his cabin: wild jazz bands, barking dogs, loud revival meetings. He can only infer that somewhere concealed in his room an erratic public-address system is letting him hear everything that goes on aboard ship. And then, instead of just sounds, he hears voices. But they are not just any voices. These voices are talking, in the most frightening intimate way, about him!

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, 20th Century, Literary Fiction, British Literature, Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1957

About the author

Evelyn 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...

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Evelyn Waugh’s later, and lesser known, novels. This, penultimate novel, was published in 1957 and based on a real life experience by the author. In 1954, Waugh – whose health was not good – went on a cruise, in which he experienced hallucinations, caused by medication he was taking.

As such, this is very much a portrait of the author, in middle age, with Waugh tending to both poke fun at himself and show his confusion about how he is both viewed and the modern world. Waugh, as author Gilbert Pinfold, is a man enraged by interviewers, disturbed that he has become a combination of, ‘an eccentric don and testy colonel,’ and dislikes, ‘everything in fact that had happened in his own lifetime.’

With the weather cold, his joints aching, working less, doping himself and drinking too much, he decides to take a cruise. With his wife showing concern, he heads off to sail to Ceylon. However, the change of scene does not seem to help. Rather than a restful cruise, he feels that other passengers are talking about him; that he appears snobbish or drunk. His cabin seems to have noises pumped in from somewhere on board – voices, sermons, threats, arguments and music beset him. Meanwhile, his neighbour, Glover, seems blissfully unaware of all the disturbing events on board.

If you enjoy Waugh’s waspish humour, then you will love this. I found the beginning of the novel, in particular, very funny. However, there is also a poignancy about this book. It is as though Waugh realises he is managing personal interactions badly, but just can’t stop himself and is then distressed about how he is viewed. He was a man who was known as being sharp, sarcastic and fearsome. However, he also had many close friends, who understood, and accepted him. Personally, I think he was a genius and that this novel really did feel as though he wanted to be understood and reach out to his readers. I am very pleased that I read this and wish it was better known, as it deserves a wider readership. A very unusual, interesting, novel.

[Nigeyb · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh was published in July 1957. It was Waugh's penultimate full length work of fiction and is a largely autobiographical account of a period of hallucinations caused by bromide poisoning that he'd experienced in early 1954.

If the novel is accurate this must have been a grim and somewhat scary experience. Most of the action takes place on a cruise ship called the SS Caliban which is on its way to Ceylon. Some of the bizarre hallucinations are related in a humorous way however what Waugh describes must also have been a deeply disturbing period.

I quite enjoyed it but it is undeniably slight, and I'm not convinced this particular piece of autobiography warranted a novel.

3/5



Here's the blurb....

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold remains one of Eveyln Waugh's most remarkable and self-revealing works. Three years before he wrote it, Waugh suffered "a brief bout of hallucination" similar to the one that besets Mr. Pinfold in this wildly witty and occasionally frightening novel.

A successful, middle-aged novelist with a case of "bad nerves," Gilbert Pinfold embarks on a recuperative trip to Ceylon. Almost as soon as the gangplank lifts, Mr. Pinfold hears sounds coming out of the ceiling of his cabin: wild jazz bands, barking dogs, loud revival meetings. He can only infer that somewhere concealed in his room an erratic public-address system is letting him hear everything that goes on aboard ship. And then, instead of just sounds, he hears voices. But they are not just any voices. These voices are talking, in the most frightening intimate way, about him

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a "semi-autobiographical work of fiction", perhaps The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold can only really be understood and appreciated through the lens of the author's real life ordeal. Like the eponymous Gilbert Pinfold, Evelyn Waugh was feeling ill and, suffering from insomnia, self-medicated with powerful sleeping draughts and alcohol. Waugh decided to escape an English winter with a trip to Ceylon, but once aboard ship, he began to have auditory hallucinations that ranged (in his fictionalised account) from the mundane (a dog) to the insidious (voices prompting him to jump overboard).

I assumed that Pinfold/Waugh was suffering from some form of paranoid schizophrenia, but learned that according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists:

Both author and protagonist describe alcoholic hallucinosis – a relatively rare complication of prolonged alcohol abuse which involves the development of psychotic symptoms. In heavy drinkers the disorder tends to occur in the tailing-off phase of a binge rather than on stopping completely, and is characterised by auditory hallucinations.

The self-parodying way in which Waugh unfolds the hilarity and humiliation of Pinfold’s journey belies the imaginable horror of his own experiences. Writing to his wife Laura from his own cruise he describes the “acute persecution mania” from which he is suffering and the discomfort of hearing malevolent voices repeating everything he has thought or read. By this point of his life Waugh had alienated himself from his friends and frittered away most of his money. Service as a Royal Marine in wartime, and supporting his second wife, six children, and an alcohol habit had taken its toll and, like Gilbert Pinfold, the voices heard at sea probably speak of a myriad of unconscious fears. For Pinfold there are questions about sexuality, religious belief, fascism, alcoholism, literary mediocrity, and a death wish. For Waugh we wonder to what extent these are shared.

This diagnosis would explain why the character of Pinfold is eventually cured of the hallucinations in concert with running out of his sleeping draught, and on the advice of his physician, not procuring more. That's pretty much the plot of it, it's a rather thin but enjoyable book, and even though Pinfold's experience didn't fill me with horror exactly, here are a few scenes that struck me for one reason or another. If they mirror actual hallucinations endured by Waugh, they reveal quite a bit about his subconscious mind.



A young woman believes she is in love with Pinfold and her family encourages her to go to him. Her father says--

"You'll not be my little Mimi ever again, any more after tonight and I'll not forget it. You're a woman now and have set your heart on a man like a woman should. The choice is yours not mine. He's old for you but there's good in that. Many a young couple spend a wretched fortnight together through not knowing how to set about what must be done. And an old man can show you better than a young one. He'll be gentler and kinder and cleaner; and then, when the right time comes you in your turn can teach a younger man -- and that's how the art of love is learned and the breed survives. I'd like dearly to be the one myself to teach you, but you've made your own choice and who's to grudge it you?...But for God's sake come on parade like a soldier. Get yourself cleaned up. Wash your face, brush your hair, take your clothes off."

A radio program on the BBC:

"Gilbert Pinfold," he heard, "poses a precisely antithetical problem, or shall we say? the same problem arises in antithetical form. The basic qualities of a Pinfold novel never vary and they may be enumerated thus: conventionality of plot, falseness of characterisation, morbid sentimentality, gross and hackneyed farce alternating with grosser and more hackneyed melodrama; cloying religiosity, which will be found tedious or blasphemous according as the reader shares or repudiates his doctrinal preconceptions; an adventitious and offensive sensuality that is clearly introduced for commercial motives. All this is presented in a style which, when it varies from the trite, lapses into positive illiteracy."

And a hint that Pinfold probably knew that, despite all efforts to find a reasonable explanation for the voices, they were an indication of sickness:

One night they tried to soothe him by playing a record specially made by Swiss scientists for the purpose. These savants had decided from experiments made in a sanatorium for neurotic factory workers that the most soporific noises were those of a factory. Mr. Pinfold's cabin resounded to the roar and clang of a factory.

"You bloody fools," he cried, "I'm not a factory worker. You're driving me mad."

"No, no Gilbert, you are mad already, " said the duty-officer. "We're driving you sane."

This conversation happens to Pinfold with flesh and blood people and makes me wonder if it actually happened to Waugh, and if it did, how ironic:

The (Scandinavian) woman now leant across and said in thick, rather arch tones:

"There are two books of yours in the ship's library, I find."

"Ah."

"I have taken one. It is called The Last Card."

"The Lost Chord," said Mr. Pinfold.

"Yes. It is a humorous book, yes?"

"Some people have suggested as much."

"I find it so. Is it not your suggestion also? I think you have a peculiar sense of humour, Mr. Pinfold."

"Ah."

"That is what you are known for, yes? Your peculiar sense of humour?"

"Perhaps."

"May I have it after you?" asked Mrs. Scarfield. "Everyone says I have a peculiar sense of humour too."

"But not so peculiar as Mr. Pinfold?"

"That remains to be seen," said Mrs. Scarfield.

"I think you're embarrassing the author," said Mr. Scarfield.

"I expect he's used to it," she said.

"He takes it all with his peculiar sense of humour," said the foreign lady.

"If you'll excuse me," said Mr. Pinfold, struggling to rise.

"You see he is embarrassed."

"No," said the foreign lady. "It is his humour. He is going to make notes of us. You see, we shall all be in a humorous book."

I include this scene because I wondered what Waugh had against Westward Ho, though having not read it, and only guessing at which it is of the many books there are by that title, it intrigued me, made me giggle:

Mr. Pinfold fought back with the enemy's weapons (and) set out to wear them down with sheer boredom. He took a copy of Westward Ho! from the ship's library and read it very slowly hour by hour.

This scene is included only because it tweaked in me what Annie Dillard referred to as our own private astonishments (discussed in my review of her book For the Time Being and its relation to Zen Drugs and Mysticism). Remembering his first time parachuting in the armed forces, Pinfold described the freefall thus:

(I)n that moment of solitude prosaic, Mr. Pinfold had been one with hashish-eaters, and Corybantes and Californian Gurus, high on the back-stairs of mysticism.

I enjoyed the way that The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold ended. In what other manner could an author deal with such a trying experience?

Mr. Pinfold sat down to work for the first time since his fiftieth birthday. He took the pile of manuscript, his unfinished novel, from the drawer and glanced through it. The story was still clear in his mind. He knew what had to be done. But there was more business first, a hamper to be unpacked of fresh, rich experience—perishable goods. He returned the manuscript to the drawer, spread a new quire of foolscap before him and wrote in his neat steady hand

The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold

A Conversation Piece

Chapter One

Portrait of the Artist in Middle Age

Overall, this was an interesting look into a descent into madness (even if it was a temporary state brought on by a mix of alcohol and drugs), and also the protagonist's attempts to logically account for everything that's going on. There were many funny bits and the narrator of this audiobook made much of the material (the menace of Goneril was captured beautifully), but even though I went into this knowing that it was semi-autobiographical, I never felt a real connection to the characters or the plot. My only previous experience with Waugh was Brideshead Revisited, which I barely remember, but I would be willing to try him out again.

[Daniel McInerny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I never thought I would write a negative review of a novel by Evelyn Waugh.

Evelyn Waugh is one of my top two or three favorite authors, and "The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold," until last week, was the last of his novels that I had not read (including his unfinished novel, "Work Suspended"). I was disappointed with it. The story is too slight for novel-length treatment. It might have made for a mildly amusing short story, but as a novel it reads too much like a joke that goes on too long. There is no plot to progress with each succeeding chapter, just an intensifying of the protagonist's hallucinations. The ending is particularly unsatisfying, in that the solution to Pinfold's problems is exactly what we knew it to have been all along.

After reading about the book in Douglas Lane Patey's "The Life of Evelyn Waugh" it occurred to me that the novel would have had more of an impact in Waugh's lifetime, as Pinfold's hallucinations mirror many of the public criticisms that Waugh himself had to endure. But from this distance Waugh's social criticism lacks bite.

In writing "Pinfold" Waugh seems to have been partly inspired by Muriel Spark's "The Comforters," another novel about seeming halluncinations. Spark's novel is difficult and ambiguous, but better, in my mind, than "Pinfold."

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny story, easy to read and enjoyable as long as you go on believing what seems to be happening. Actually, that is not hard: the author masterfully hides the real cause of the ordeal. When this unlikely cause is finally revealed, I already lost interest in it as there were much more amusing threads to follow. Recommended as a quick read.

[James Hartley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great, weird book this is, Waugh´s penultimate.
Really, this is fictionalised biography - telling the story of a time Waugh was drinking and drugging so much that he managed to give himself a kind of invasive persection complex.
While on a cruise to recover his health he heard voices, conversations, plots and accusations which linked and interlinked and were all about him and the book is based on this. Gilbert Pinfold is basically Waugh, right down to the clearly autobiographical first chapter - which, like the whole book for me - makes fascinating reading.
While not as sparkling and flinty as other Waugh books, there are still some gems in the texts (and some fairly now-racist language). I read the book in two amused, enthralled sittings. Penfold reminded me Lowry´s Sigbjorn Wilderness and any of DH Lawrence´s characters, though maybe, particularly, Richard Somers in Kangaroo.
Later, reading up on this weird little story which I´d picked out at random from an old collection of Penguins I inherited, I read that one critic had said that early Waugh´s books were never about himself but that his later books were all about himself. I don´t know about that but I got the distinct impression that the book was FOR himself.
My guess, having a little bit of experience of this, is that the writer writes for approval and for the world at first but later realises the folly of this. This is very much Waugh stripped down, without effects and tricks - a kind of take it or leave it book - and I found it very appealing as a result. He talks in that all important first chapter of even the best writers only having a book or two in them and then relying on "professional trickery" for their careers - basically retelling the same story again and again.
Waugh called this his "mad book" and calls his illness one of the most exciting events that happened to him in his life. This also reminds me of Lowry, observing yourself mercilessly at your lowest or strangest points, writing about it unflinchingly, and the books strongest sections are those which Waugh remembers and records his ordeal most vividly. You sense the truth in it all because even the persecution has all the Waugh trappings and trademarks. It is him against him, and funny and witty for it.
It´s a great insight into the human mind, this book, strengthened, not weakened, by our knowledge that it´s all in Waugh´s head.
We all hear voices in our minds - think something nasty someone said to you once, or a famous speech - but this about when those voices get so loud you can´t ignore them: when, in fact, they become real. In this case they happened to a professional writer and he wrote it all down.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read it in one sitting (almost) and just wanted to finish it, just so I would never have to open this book again. When I'd made it through Brideshead Revisited, I thought I'd suffered through the least enjoyable book Waugh had written. Boy was I wrong. THIS one was the least enjoyable. Not even slightly funny, or even sporadically funny. It was a lot of nonsense. I get that this book is based on Waugh's own hallucinations and similar experiences (for all intents and purposes, Gilbert Pinfold is Evelyn Waugh), but not once did I even care about Pinfold/Waugh's predicament. Was I supposed to find these hallucinations and the attendant mental breakdown funny?
Sorry, Evelyn. This one's a dud.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gilbert Pinfold is a successful writer who would like to take life easy as he gets older. He takes a holiday cruise to Sri Lanka (known then as Ceylon), but events during the voyage disturb his equanimity. He keeps hearing things, people talking about him, disturbing him and plotting. Is he being persecuted or are the cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol making him paranoid?
The book is much funnier than the synopsis makes it sound, although I could not help feeling sorry for Gilbert.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this novel years ago and I find it hard to rate because I don't know who, except for a Waugh obsessive, would want to read it. I will never read it again but, elements of it has remained with me for half-a-century, I am not sure it is a good novel, but I think it provides some very interesting insights into Waugh and his demons.

What I remember from my reading is that one of the themes that the 'voices' Pinfold 'hears' mentions, several times if I remember rightly, belittles Pinfold/Waugh's social pretensions (I am convinced that Waugh wrote about himself in the character Pinfold. Whether this is a good reading I leave to literary scolars). In the novel these voices tell Pinfold he is a 'counter-jumper', someone who has wormed his away in amongst his 'betters'. What makes this interesting is that Waugh was a social climber. Waugh had been adopted by a clique of upper class young men at Oxford from schools such as Eton which gave him entre into a world of social connections far from his own middle class roots and his undistinguished school.

It is hard for younger people in the UK and people of any age from outside the UK to understand how rarefied and stratified the English class system was during Waugh's life. The UK class system was much more porous then continental ones, but its acceptance/adoption of outsiders, was always conditional and like the Bourbon's these people 'forgot nothing'. We might see Waugh as securely within the English 'bon ton' but Waugh knew he was not and the insight that long after he had apparently 'passed' and had accomplished far more then any of those who could claim greater pedigree or attendance at a 'better' school mattered greatly to Waugh tells a great deal about inner demons.

It is also significant that Pinfold/Waugh hears voices denouncing him as a 'Pansy'. I think it is another reflection of Waugh's fears, not because he was gay - the term is meaningless for this period - or homosexual or queer - Waugh wasn't but in his youth, in those Oxford days when he 'passed' from his middle class roots into that nebulous English haute bourgeoisie, he had slept with other men, often from a socially superior background. Clearly there are elements of his past that Waugh was challenged by.

It is for its insights on Waugh that this novel intrigued me. But I also found it deadly dull. The Waugh canon would not suffer by its loss but the understanding of Waugh as a man and writer would. If you really want to understand Waugh then this novel is essential reading, but if not, give it a miss.

I am awarding it my compromise, and possibly compromised, three stars because I didn't like it but can't really say it is a bad book. For this reason I have shelved it under only 'literature-england'.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightfully fun little book! Perhaps delightful isn't the best word for a book about a man losing his mind which is based on Waugh's own experience with hallucinations. The subject matter is a bit grim but Waugh's pretty airy prose somehow lightens up what would have an otherwise dark story. Even the cover is adorable!

Apparently I have the version censored for the US market, not that I'm sad to miss out on any racial slurs but I do wonder what was taken out.

My first book by this author, I'm plan on picking up Handful of Dust next.

[Adriana Scarpin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Medo e Delírio num cruzeiro. Quem diria, hein, Waugh?

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

A semi-autobiographical account of a time Waugh suffered hallucinations caused by bromide poisoning and drinking. Gilbert Pinfold, a middle-aged writer isn't feeling well and decided on a boat trip to Ceylon. Onboard, the hallucinations become much worse. I found the narrative confusing because, like Me Pinfold, I couldn't always tell what was supposed to be real.

[Rui Alves de Sousa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evelyn Waugh dá-nos um livro alucinante e surpreendentemente autobiográfico. O autor não faz com que o final seja o objectivo (porque muito cedo no livro adivinhamos a causa de todas as obsessões de que vive o protagonista), mas centra-se sim no caminho até ao desfecho, marcado por situações diversas que nos fazem ficar agarrados à narrativa, e à mente desordenada e cáustica de Pinfold. Na conclusão da historia, depois do óbvio climax revelado, Waugh proporciona um pequeno twist banal, para os nossos dias, mas relevante para a tal componente autobiográfica da obra. Ficamos a questionar quanto é que foi exagerado (ou não), neste relato psicológico de uma personagem com muito pouco de ficcional.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

About halfway through this story, I started wondering if there's any point to it. Now that I've finished, I don't think so.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was stark anfing wurde bald leider wiederholend und vorhersehbar. Obwohl ich dieses Buch nicht wirklich empfehlen würde, werde ich dem Autoren (ja, es ist ein Mann) noch eine Chance geben.

[Kathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. But why did I even put this on my list (seriously though??)

[I guess because it looks very pretty! Looks sometimes is everything, guys]

Conclusion after reading this: don't poison yourself with bromide. Also, how interesting...and I suppose brave of the author to admit to it being an autobiographical work?

On the blurb it says "One reads it with tears of laughter streaming down one's cheeks" - I don't know who this 'one' is supposed to be, but I'm definitely second then (har har, aren't I funny again...still funnier than this book!) While it was an intriguing enough read, it didn't exactly make me laugh (or smile...or anything even close to it). I suppose I had more of a "What the fuck am I reading" kind of face. I was very concerned for the main character, even more so after reading that the book is based on the author's own experiences. It's clear from the start that the protagonist is simply off-the-wall crazy, but not in a way that would rouse any positive feelings on my part. Not even pity, if I'm honest. He's just not a particularly likable guy. I can't say that the introduction ("Portrait of the artist in middle age") helped in forming a positive impression, and after that he already started going mad, sooo...it's not like we know much about "normal" Gilbert. But from what we know, I think I prefer him insane and on bromide.

Still 3.5 stars because A) I like reading about crazy people and I like it even more from their perspective and B) because the last 100 pages (more than 50% of the book!) were actually almost addictive to read. No idea why, but I absolutely couldn't stop reading even though it was a pain in the ass at first because of the over-complicated and still somewhat sluggish-feeling writing style that even induced my OCD (meaning I was reading both the English and translated German version at the same time because of my very unreasonable fear of misunderstanding something otherwise)...so that was annoying. No fault to the author though; or, maybe, do let's fault the author a little bit. I feel like the writing style was actually as pretentious as the protagonist (who, after all, is a version of the author) and I honestly feel like you could've done SO MUCH MORE with the general idea (Shutter Island, anyone?) So yeah, that was disappointing and frustrating, but still, somehow I like this book in a very weird and bipolar way. Literally in two minds about it :) (see what I did there?) I'll definitely not part with the book and not only because of its looks. One day I might even read it again; but one thing I already know for sure: I still won't like Gilbert. He's actually managed to make me feel sympathetic for his imaginary bullies - who are Gilbert's hallucinations, so actually...also parts of the author? Hmm maybe I shouldn't write off Waugh's other work after all! I mean, he did manage to make me like and dislike him at the same time.

(in all seriousness, though, I will very likely give him another chance!)

Other than that, though, I really don't understand the point of this book. After finishing I was like "Ok - so that was useless". What does it tell us? Don't take the wrong medicine or be schizophrenic I guess.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading Waugh's "The Loved One" I thought surely I'd read the oddest of Waugh's works. I was wrong. I liked Waugh's salute to James Joyce here: the first chapter is entitled "Portrait of the Artist in Middle-Age" and the final two lines are "Chapter One Portrait of the Artist in Middle-Age", a riff on a famous conceit in Finnegan's Wake: the end is the beginning. I also liked Waugh's title of the final chapter in this book: "Pinfold Regained" (as in Proust's "Time Regained"). Is Waugh intentionally putting himself into the literary realm of Joyce and Proust? Or is he satirizing the literary world's infatuation with Joyce and Proust by writing a novel in which the author remains delusional during most of the book. (Waugh did suffer through a delusional cruise and one might refer to this novel as auto-fiction.) Whatever, exactly, Waugh is trying to convey is probably a literary mystery of the ages, to be argued about for years to come. And for all the questions raised, for me at least, I have to give this very odd ordeal a 3-star rating.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depressed! This is a novella and to say that I didn't finish it is pretty damning. Add in the fact that it is by Evelyn Waugh( who didn't love Brideshead Revisited?) just added to my dissapointment.

I was really enjoying the beginning of it and was highly amused by the main character and his life. So much so that I was dog earring pages to go back and read them because they were so cleverly done.

Then the crux of the book began, which entails this middle aged author going on a sea voyage to get his health back (did I mention he is kind of a drug addict and a drunk?) and this is when he begins having his hallucinations. Like, a lot of them and then he tries to tell his fellow passengers about it and of course they think he's nuts and it just got very tiresome, very, very tiresome.

I asked myself if I wanted to continue and my brilliant, practical self said "NO!" and now I am on to a delightful novel (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) and am happy!

[Jon Shanks · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very disappointing novel from a generally highly regarded author. From the premise on the back of the book I was expecting a slighlty trippy farce, but instead got a somewhat drab story of a paranoid man hearing voices which seem genuine to start, but become apparant later on to be in the titular character's head and it doesn't really go anywhere with it.

This volume also comes with two other short stories which are slightly better. Tactical Exercise is almost a proto-Hitchcockian story of an unhappy couple and a murder plot. Love Among The Ruins is the best story of the bunch and one I would have been quite happy to see expanded, an odd futuristic (sci-fi?) story which is darkly satirical and still quite relevant, a predecessor to Brave New World, Nineteen Eighty Four and A Clockwork Orange it seems.

[Aabha Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic portrait of what a psychotic episode looks like from the inside. Also this is what happens when you can’t stop mixing various soporifics into you creme de menthe and one of them is bromide.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

meh - just a frazzled Waugh working through his own anxieties.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the opening chapter, The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold is a revealing self-portrait of a particular period in the talented author’s own life. Gilbert Pinfold at fifty is Evelyn Waugh at approximately the same age, and the wild hallucinating ride Gilbert takes is an accurate account of a three-week illness suffered by Waugh himself.

What starts off as sinking spirits and “the need for longer periods of sleep” grows into “the most severe attacks of his ‘aches’…every joint but especially feet, ankles, and knees, agonized him.” To an initial prescription of a sleeping-draft, Gilbert’s doctor adds pills that are “something new and pretty powerful.” Gilbert’s own additions to this medicinal regimen include chloride and bromal, and “not illiberal” quantities of crème de menthe, wine, gin, and brandy.

Gilbert’s true ordeal begins when all medicines fail him and, in a last-ditch attempt to complete his half-finished novel, he sets sail on the Caliban for Ceylon. Once at sea, the hallucinations begin: he hears animal and human sounds, and begins to suspect crew and fellow passengers of all manner of mischief and espionage. The human voices emanate from what Gilbert believes to be a faulty public address system, damaged when the Caliban, a one-class ship, might have been commissioned during the war.

Though missing his signature mixture of scathing satire and comedic slapstick, Waugh nevertheless writes a convincing tale of Gilbert Pinfold’s wild imaginings. Readers almost forget Gilbert’s hallucinations, mistaking them for events of reality. There is some humor in the far-fetched abuse of Gilbert by voices that accuse, ridicule, humiliate, and pity him.

Gilbert regains some semblance of normality when, just as he self-medicated, he cries off the pills and alcohol. He further takes control of matters by abandoning ship at Aden and making alternative travel arrangements for completing his journey to Ceylon. Once there, he further grounds himself with phone conversations with Mrs. Pinfold.

All in all, while not a typical Waugh novel, the tale of Gilbert Pinfold’s hallucinations spiraling in intensity and frequency is masterfully done. The story is all the more gripping for its authentic resonance with Waugh’s personal experience.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It must take a fair bit of gumption to write a lightly-fictionalized account of an episode where you yourself heard voices and entered into the delusion. This is what Waugh does here, as he makes no effort to distinguish himself from the titular Pinfold, an avuncular, middle-aged, conservative Catholic novelist who served in World War II. Waugh pokes fun at himself in the guise of Pinfold, then embarks on a highly amusing account of Pinfold hearing hostile and conspiratorial voices, developing theories and investigating them, then conversing with the voices, battling and negotiating with them.

It is a lightweight novel, but somewhat unusual in its gentle self-mockery.

[Bronwyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure if I liked this, but it was interesting. My copy had a transcript (or part) of an interview Waugh did with the BBC in 1960 about why/how he wrote this, and I thought that was interesting. The novel is pretty much what Waugh went through over a three week period, and so that helped me understand some of the book better (and that’s why the book ends how it does too). It was still tedious in places and overly long, but it was interesting. I’m not sure if I’d reread it or not.

[Megan Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're curious about the works of Evelyn Waugh, reading them is a bit like picking up Vonnegut only to find he's lost his touch. (And, quite frankly, I think Waugh would agree.)

This is difficult to rate. It's the second Waugh I've read, and I *think* I enjoyed it more than The Loved One, but 'enjoy' is not really the word. At times, I was engrossed; at others, it was tedious going.

Completely outside of hallucination, there are many ways a reader might empathize with Pinfold's plight, such as simply having an inner monologue as part of one's daily life.

There is also humor here, though not quite so lightheaded as in The Loved One.

The ending was satisfying, if predictable.

I own one more Waugh. Here we go.

[Angharad · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 really.

I wouldn’t recommend this, as the main story feels quite self indulgent and a bit dull even to the newest biggest Waugh fan (me).

The third story is the strongest and brought the rating up a bit, while I didn’t really understand the second.

[David]

Quite a lot of fun, though ultimately kind of dissatisfying. Hard to explain why.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know until I read this that Evelyn Waugh developed a drug-induced psychosis, caused by excessive intake of chloral, bromide and alcohol over an extended period. He did, and he went on a cruise to detox/recover; and then he wrote this basically autobiographical novel about the experience. It's a great book if you're interested in drug-induced psychosis; if you're not, I wonder if it would just be like a book version of someone telling you about their weird dream.

[Fr. Peter Mottola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A semi-autobiographical account of a middle-aged author whose self-medication for insomnia led to bromide-induced hallucinations. I've you ever wondered, "I wonder what would happen if one of my favorite Catholic authors wrote about doing some really bad drugs," this is the book for you. The first chapter of the book, "Portrait of the author in middle-age," is a gem all by itself.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The exact same thing happened to me the last time I went on a cruise.