The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh (Thirty Story Titles). Vol.1. Illustrated: The Balance, A House of Gentlefolks,The Manager of ‘The Kremlin’, Love in the Slump, Too Much Tolerance and many others

by Evelyn Waugh

The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh (Thirty Story Titles), Vol. 1 presents a remarkable collection of short fiction by one of Britain’s most brilliant satirists. This first volume gathers early and mature works alike, including The Balance, A House of Gentlefolks, The Manager of “The Kremlin”, Love in the Slump, and Too Much Tolerance. Together, these stories reveal Waugh’s sharp eye for human weakness, his mastery of irony, and his ability to blend comedy with a sense of moral decay in modern society.

Waugh’s world is one of eccentric aristocrats, struggling artists, naïve romantics, and cynical opportunists — all caught between tradition and change. His characters, often both absurd and tragic, embody the confusion of the interwar years, when old values clashed with the restless energy of the new age. Through finely observed dialogue and precise, witty narration, Waugh captures the social manners, ambitions, and hypocrisies of English life with unmatched elegance.

Beyond their humor, these stories offer profound reflections on isolation, disillusionment, and the search for meaning in a fractured world. The Complete Stories of Evelyn Waugh not only showcases his stylistic brilliance but also traces the evolution of a writer whose irony and moral vision shaped twentieth-century English prose.

• The
- The Balance
- A House of Gentlefolks
- The Manager of ‘The Kremlin’
- Love in the Slump
- Too Much Tolerance
- Excursion in Reality
- Incident in Azania
- Bella Fleace Gave a Party
- Cruise
- The Man Who Liked Dickens
- Out of Depth
- By Special Request
- Period Piece
- On Guard
- Winner Takes All
- An Englishman’s Home
- The Sympathetic Passenger
- My Father’s House
- Lucy Simmonds
- Charles Ryder’s Schooldays
- Compassion

•
- The Curse Of The Horse Race
- Fidon’s Confetion
- Multa Pecunia
- Fragment Of A Novel
- The An Anti-Climax

• Oxford
- Portrait Of Young Man With Career
- Antony, Who Sought Things That Were Lost
- Edward Of Unique Achievement
- They Dine With The Past
- Conspiracy To Murder
- Unacademic A Nature Story
- The National Game

628 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 27, 2025

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...