A Handful of Dust

　　不堪在哥德式宅院西頓隱居生活的布蘭達，為了擺脫枯燥乏味的生活與先生唐尼，滯留社交頻仍的倫敦，追求浪漫戀情，結果導致家庭瓦解。而唐尼為了擺脫布蘭達的背離及其家屬的需索無度，也棄而遠遊南美洲「尋找一個城市」。

　　然而冗長單調的日子，愈益呈現浪漫之毫不浪漫，與尋找之詭異莫測，邱米女巫「一掬塵土的恐懼」因此映現。

　　作者華歐運用超寫實、引喻、象徵、預言、反諷、神學以及將人內心衝突物化等手法，巧妙呈現了英國階級社會的各種層面，也諷刺了包詭著文明外衣的野蠻人。

　　*本書中譯本<<一掬塵土>>由聯經出版

　　'A whole Gothic world had come to grief . . .'

　　Beautiful Lady Brenda Last lives at Hetton Abbey, a crumbling Gothic monstrosity that is her husband Tony's pride and joy. Bored and restless after seven years of marriage, she drifts into an affair with a worthless young socialite. Abandoning the country for the glamorous yet shallow London scene, Brenda imagines divorce will bring happiness. Instead she and Tony feel lost and isolated - victims of the wreckless times in which they live . . .

作者簡介

　　Evelyn Waugh was born in Hampstead in 1903 and educated at Hertford College, Oxford. In 1928 he published his first novel, Decline and Fall, which was soon followed by Vile Bodies, Black Mischief (1932), A Handful of Dust (1934) and Scoop (1938). During these years he also travelled extensively and converted to Catholicism. In 1939 Waugh was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, experiences which informed his Sword of Honour trilogy (1952-61). His most famous novel, Brideshead Revisited (1945), was written while on leave from the army. Waugh died in 1966.