Argentine Press Notes Waugh Anniversary and Complete Works

The Buenos Aires Herald carries an article by Felicitas Casillo marking the 50th anniversary of Waugh’s death and explaining the project that will publish the Complete Works of Waugh. The article begins with a summary of Waugh’s achievement as a writer:

One of the most notable features of Waugh’s identity was his sense of humour; sometimes acid, sometimes tenderly childlike, an elegant form that tends to assume the boldest criticism. In many aspects he was a true rebel; a Catholic in an Anglican country, he harshly criticized British society during the first half of the last century…Waugh’s protagonists are closer to suffering rather than corruption. They often suggest uncomfortable and surprising spiritual pursuits in a society where even transgression had taken the form of cliché. Deep down, his characters, like Julia and Sebastian Flyte, in his famous novel Brideshead Revisited (1945), are fragile and wounded. It’s not guilt or evilness that drives their actions, but the radical pursuit of a greater good that would overcome even their own misery.

There is also an interview with Martin Stannard about the Complete Works Project. Here’s an excerpt:

The edition comprises 43 volumes, including all of Waugh’s writings: novels, short fiction, essays, articles, reviews, diaries and letters. 85 percent of his correspondence is still unpublished…The Complete Works project was initiated by Alexander Waugh, Waugh’s grandson, who curates the Evelyn Waugh Archive at his home in Somerset. I’ve worked on this idea with him and Oxford University Press (OUP), the publisher. We aim to publish everything we can find, the unexpurgated diaries, all his artwork and a new bibliography. I am the Principal Investigator for the Arts and Humanities Research Council funding, so the project is based at the University of Leicester…This project represents the biggest single contribution to Waugh studies, and is probably the largest scholarly edition of a modern author. We include cutting-edge digital humanities technology. We also have a dedicated website which allows all our twenty-three editors to share and search archived data, and invites members of the public to contribute their knowledge.

 

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