Evelyn Waugh's debut novel is a biting satire of English society in the 1920s. Sent down from Oxford after an innocent mishap, the hapless Paul Pennyfeather becomes a schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle, a chaotic Welsh boarding school populated by eccentric masters. There he falls for Margot Beste-Chetwynde, a glamorous wealthy widow whose fortune derives from an unexpected source. Paul's fortunes spiral through scandal, prison, and a convenient death, before he returns—remarkably unchanged—to where he began. With absurdist humor and icy wit, Waugh skewers public schools, high society, and the arbitrary cruelties of fate in this sparkling comic masterpiece.
