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What is the best Evelyn Waugh novel of all time?

By YPB Team

From savage social satires that skewer high society to the wistful elegy of a doomed aristocratic family, this lineup spans a career of sharp wit and quiet heartbreak. Which one earns your vote?

  1. Brideshead Revisited — ranked #11
    Brideshead Revisited
    Waugh's 1945 masterwork about nostalgia, faith, and an aristocratic Catholic family seen through a young Oxford friend's eyes.
    1000pts
  2. Vile Bodies — ranked #22
    Vile Bodies
    A 1930 satire of London's frivolous Bright Young Things skewering high society between the wars.
    813pts
  3. Black Mischief — ranked #33
    Black Mischief
    A 1932 satirical novel about modernization schemes gone awry on the fictional African island of Azania.
    724pts
  4. Scoop — ranked #44
    Scoop
    A 1938 satire of sensationalist journalism following a nature columnist mistakenly sent to cover an African war.
    665pts
  5. Scott-King's Modern Europe — ranked #55
    Scott-King's Modern Europe
    A 1947 novella satirizing a classics schoolmaster's surreal trip to a fictional Eastern European police state.
    517pts
  6. Love Among the Ruins — ranked #66
    Love Among the Ruins
    A 1953 dystopian novella satirizing the welfare state and euthanasia in a bleak future Britain.
    517pts
  7. Put Out More Flags — ranked #77
    Put Out More Flags
    A 1942 wartime satire tracking a group of English friends and rogues at the outbreak of World War II.
    517pts
  8. Helena — ranked #88
    Helena
    A 1950 historical novel imagining the life of Saint Helena, mother of Roman Emperor Constantine, and her quest for the True Cross.
    423pts
  9. The Loved One — ranked #99
    The Loved One
    A 1948 dark satire of the American funeral industry and Hollywood expatriate life in Los Angeles.
    423pts
  10. Decline and Fall — ranked #1010
    Decline and Fall
    Waugh's 1928 debut satire following the misadventures of an Oxford student expelled into a chaotic career in teaching and crime.
    310pts
  11. Men at Arms — ranked #1111
    Men at Arms
    The 1952 opening volume of the Sword of Honour trilogy, following Guy Crouchback's bumbling entry into wartime military service.
    310pts
  12. Officers and Gentlemen — ranked #1212
    Officers and Gentlemen
    The 1955 second volume of the Sword of Honour trilogy, centered on the chaotic Battle of Crete.
    310pts
  13. The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold — ranked #1313
    The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
    A 1957 semi-autobiographical novel about a writer's paranoid hallucinatory breakdown at sea.
    310pts
  14. A Handful of Dust — ranked #1414
    A Handful of Dust
    A 1934 tragicomic novel about the collapse of an English country marriage and its devastating aftermath.
    0pts
  15. Unconditional Surrender — ranked #1515
    Unconditional Surrender
    The 1961 concluding volume of the Sword of Honour trilogy, following Guy Crouchback through the war's disillusioning final years.
    0pts

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