Reviews and News: Matthew Walther remembers Evelyn Waugh fifty years after his death: How do things look half a century on? What is there to assess?…There is the work, of course: the undergraduate journalism and belles lettres, including, rather astonishingly, a persuasive defense of artistic modernism; the early, somewhat spotty short stories; the squib on Rossetti (the anonymous reviewer in the TLS praised the efforts of Miss Waugh); then, suddenly, like some great primeval conjuring, Decline and Fall, one of the most astonishing debut novels in our language, its sudden appearance comparable to the publication of The Pickwick Papers; followed by Vile Bodies, that collage of decay, and the brilliant farce and elegant satire of the long middle period that begins with Black Mischief and ends with Love Among the Ruins… At least as engaging as the work is the life…

Source: Prufrock: Remembering Evelyn Waugh, Dining with Rasputin, and More | The Weekly Standard