Penguin Books have announced the publication of a TV tie-in edition of Waugh’s first novel Decline and Fall. This will be issued later this week on 23 March 2017. Aside from a cover photo of Jack Whitehall looking rather clueless in a knitted vest, there is no indication of any special features that will be included in this edition. The list price is £8.99 but it will be on offer from Amazon.uk for £6.99 plus applicable shipping charges and can be ordered for shipment to the US.
It is not clear from available information whether this edition will be based on the original 1928 or revised 1962 texts. In the preface to the 1962 edition Waugh explains that when he offered the text to Duckworths, who had published his first book, Rossetti, they rejected it. So he took it down the street to Chapman and Hall, at a time when his father, the director of that firm, was out of town. The manuscript was examined by his father’s colleague who
made a few suggestions which I accepted…He also made some literary criticisms which were, perhaps, less valuable. The result was a text differing slightly from the original manuscript. In this [1962] edition I have restored these emendations. The changes are negligible but since the book was being reset, it seemed a good time to put the clock back a minute or two.
