Black Mischief, Evelyn Waugh
Black Mischief, Evelyn Waugh
1 Rating(s)
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Black Mischief

Author: Evelyn Waugh

Narrator: Michael Maloney

Unabridged: 6 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/11/2012

Synopsis

"A hilarious and still timely tale of emerging Africa and declining England" (Time), Evelyn Waugh's third novel helped to establish his reputation as a mater satirist.
"We are Progress and the New Age. Nothing can stand in our way." When Oxford-educated Emperor Seth succeeds to the throne of the African state of Azania, he has a tough job on his hands. His subjects are ill-informed and unruly, and corruption, double-dealing, and bloodshed are rife. With the aid of Minister of Modernization Basil Seal, Seth plans to introduce his people to the civilized ways of the West--but will it be as simple as that?
Profound hilarity ensues from the issuance of homemade currency, the staging of a "Birth Control Gala," the rightful ruler's demise at his own rather long and tiring coronation ceremonies, and a good deal more mischief.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Greg

I guess I didn't find the profound hilarity that the description of this book promised. Reading this and Vile Bodies, I'm wondering if creating lots of idiotic straw man characters and having them do and say ridiculous things is really satire or just a lazy way to create 'profound hilarity'. google!......more

Goodreads review by Nigeyb

I have previously really enjoyed 'Scoop', 'A Handful of Dust', and 'Decline and Fall', and had heard good things about this book. Primarily I had heard that it was very funny. Whilst it certainly has a few moments of laugh out loud hilarity overall I thought it was a somewhat incoherent and inconsis......more

Goodreads review by Sketchbook

Azania is the name of the country...a hot-diggity satire on the modern world which should, I hope, offend the Politically Correct...whose brains went into the cannibal pot. Now, can we pray ?......more

Quotes

"Continuously funny."—New York Times

"A hilarious and still timely tale of emerging Africa and declining England."—TIME

"Pure, early Waugh, funny in spots, mildly satirical, wildly absurd, corrupt and erotic....Black Mischief is clever and it is entertaining."—Orville Prescott, New York Times

"To achieve greatness, in the opinion of this devotee of the genre, satire must be rooted not only in a genuine love for the object being satirized but also in an awareness of the object's relation to the entire human condition, regardless of race, color, creed, or geography. Black Mischief, it seems to me, does this to a larger degree than any of the half-dozen near-great pieces of satire written in English in my time, all of them, by the way and by a not-so-odd coincidence, composed by the same Mr. Waugh."—Jerome Weidman, New York Herald Tribune

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