British Library Posts Article on BYPs

The British Library has posted an article on its website about the Bright Young People of the interwar years. This is by Dr Milena Borden and is entitled: “Bright Young Things: behind the party mask.” Dr Borden concentrates on how the period was reflected in the writing of four novelists: Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Nancy Mitford and Henry Green. The article opens with this quote from Waugh:

Evelyn Waugh pronounced the best definition: ‘There was between the wars a society, cosmopolitan, sympathetic to the arts, well-mannered, above all ornamental even in rather bizarre ways, which for want of a better description the newspapers called “High Bohemia.”’… The Bright Young Things included writers, artists, society women and rich club members memorably satirised by Waugh in Vile Bodies (1930). 

The quote is cited to an article about Cecil Beaton included in Essays, Articles and Reviews (p. 568). Dr. Borden goes on to comment on how Waugh’s writings reflected modernism and his participation in WWII as well as, briefly, on his non-fiction.

 

Share
This entry was posted in Academia, Articles, Essays, Articles & Reviews, Vile Bodies and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.