Decline and Fall - photo 1
Decline and Fall - photo 2
Decline and Fall - photo 3
Decline and Fall - photo 4
Decline and Fall - photo 5

Decline and Fall

Sold
£ 20 160
Auction dateClassic
28.09.2023 13:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1016397
Lot 106 | Decline and Fall
Decline and Fall

Evelyn Waugh

WAUGH, Evelyn (1903-1966). Decline and Fall. An illustrated novelette. London: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1928.



First edition, first issue of the author’s first novel in the original dust-jacket. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to Oscar Wilde’s son Vyvyan Holland ‘for Vyvyan with best wishes from Evelyn’. Waugh met Vyvyan Holland shortly after the publication of Decline and Fall, when Waugh was attempting to repair his marriage. The event is recorded in Selina Hasting's biography of Waugh: ‘Evelyn accompanied his wife to the parties she so loved including a “tropical” party given by Oscar Wilde's son, Vyvyan Holland, where the Bystander flashlighted them looking startled and ill at ease in their safari kit.’ (Selina Hastings, Evelyn Waugh, London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1994).



Both Evelyn Waugh and Vyvyan Holland had had to deal with the consequences of homosexual scandal in their families: Waugh with his brother Alec who was forced to withdraw from Sherbourne School under a cloud at the age of seventeen, the episode providing the basis for Alec Waugh’s infamous semi-autobiographical novel The Loom of Youth, and Holland due to his father's most famous of public cases.



The publication of Decline and Fall is one of mythic twists of fate. Duckworth, which had published Waugh's biography of Rossetti, rejected the book on grounds of ‘indelicacy’. Waugh proceeded to offer the manuscript to Chapman & Hall, in the absence of his father who was the managing director of the firm but was away on holiday. The acting-director agreed to publish the novel, without enforcing any of the emendations demanded by Duckworth. Arthur Waugh returned to London to discover that his son was his firm's newest author. When Arthur Waugh's biography was published three years later, however, Decline and Fall and Vile Bodies, the two novels published under his directorship of Chapman & Hall, were not mentioned. The indelicate material, which Martin Stannard has since revealed in fact did go through some ‘taming’ revisions, was perhaps a bit too much for the elder Waugh. This is the first edition of the author’s first novel, the first issue with ‘Martin Gaythorn-Brodie’ and ‘Kevin Saunderson’ on pages 168 and 169 respectively. Connolly, The Modern Movement 58 (‘Decline and Fall .. is surely one of the wittiest and most original of first novels’); Davis 4.



Octavo. Half title, frontispiece and 5 full-page illustrations by Evelyn Waugh. (A few light spots at lower edges, very minor red ink stain from binding on front endpapers). Original marbled-effect cloth, spine lettered in gilt; original green pictorial dust-jacket with label printed in red on upper wrapper (spine of jacket and edges slightly sunned, tiny chips to ends of backstrip, tear along one fold, small light stain on lower wrapper); housed in a modern black quarter morocco solander box. Provenance: Vyvyan Holland (1886-1967, son of Oscar Wilde; presentation inscription on front free endpaper from the author) – Roger Rechler, his sale, Christie’s New York, 11 October 2002, lot 310.

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
28.09.2023 – 28.09.2023
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
Buyer Premium see on Website
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase

More from Creator

When the Going was Good
When the Going was Good
£1 600
Ninety-Two Days
Ninety-Two Days
£1 600
Love Among the Ruins
Love Among the Ruins
£6 000
Scoop and 5 others
Scoop and 5 others
£3 200
The ‘Sword of Honour Trilogy’
The ‘Sword of Honour Trilogy’
£12 000
A Handful of Dust
A Handful of Dust
£5 000
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited
£25 000
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) and others
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) and others
£100

Related terms

Frequently asked questions

First of all, you should register to be able to purchase at auction. After confirming your email address, enter your personal information in your user profile, such as your first name, last name, and mail address. Choose a lot from the upcoming auction and the maximum amount you want to place on it. After confirmation of your choice, we will send your application by e-mail to the appropriate auction house. If the auction house accepts a request, it will participate in the auction. You can view the current status of a bid at any time in your personal account in the "Bids" section.
Auctions are performed by auction houses and each of the auction houses describes their terms of auction. You can see the texts in the section "Auction information".
The results of the auction are published within a few days after the end of the auction. In the top menu of the site, find the tab "Auctions". Click on it and you will be on the auction catalog page, where you can easily find the category "Results". After opening it, select the desired auction from the list, enter and view the current status of the interested lot.
The information about the auction winners is confidential. The auction winner will receive a direct notification from the auction house responsible with instructions for further action: an invoice for payment and the manner in which the goods will be received.
Each of the auction houses has its own payment policy for the won lots. All auction houses accept bank transfers, most of them accept credit card payments. In the near future you will find detailed information for each case in the section "Auction information" on the page of the auction catalog and the lot.
Shipment of the won lot depends on its size. Small items can be delivered by post. Larger lots are sent by courier. Employees of the auction houses will offer you a wide range to choose from.
No. The archive serves as a reference for the study of auction prices, photographs and descriptions of works of art.
×
Save this search query and get timely email alerts! It is simple and very effective.
генрих хайнлайн (1803 - 1885)
Create a Search Subscription