A Handful of Dust (signed copy)

London: Chapman & Hall, 1934.

Presentation copy from the author to fellow author Edith de Born (1901-1987), an Austrian-Hungarian member of the aristocracy, who Waugh encountered in Brussels whilst staying with her and her banker husband. Soon after, in 1953 (when this book was signed), he enquired of his friend Nancy Mitford, "Have you heard of the lady who writes under the name Edith de Born — an Austrian-Hungarian-Jewess I suspect – married to a French banker called Bisch?" Adding, "se writes in English quite beautifully." Some compliment from one of the great prose stylists of his time. Waugh reviewed her third novel, Daughter of the House (1953) - before staying as her guest - and found it her most mature novel so far: "Madame de Born has already attracted the admiration of the fastidious by her two previous works; brief, severly (sic) elegant, classical contes. In Daughter of the House she has spread her wings full span. It is a haunting, highly original story; an authentic work of art, classical in form and. Without once transgressing her self-imposed limits, the author produces an effect of breadth and intensity quite unusual in a modern novel, and worthy of comparison with the masters of her craft. It is a complete book, from which nothing could be taken and to which nothing could be added, without loss". His inscription on the first free endpaper reads, "For Edith de Born, the rising hope of English letters, from Evelyn Waugh, Oct 9th 1953". It is entirely probable that he executed the inscription while a guest of the Bischs at their elegant apartments opposite the Parc Royal in Brussels.

Sixth printing of the first edition (one month later). Original snakeskin cloth boards, spine lettered in gilt, endpapers tanned, thumbnail patch of surface wear to head of the spine and a couple of tiny, white specks to upper portion of spine. Slight lean to text block. About fine. With the excellent, clear inscription, elegantly sited three-quarters of the page up. Waugh's fourth major novel, following Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, and Black Mischief, and widely considered his best, the novel combines tragedy, comedy and savage irony, in a dazzling portrayal of the irresponsible mood of the generation that entered adulthood between the wars. After seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last is chagrinned with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride and joy of her husband, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the shallow socialite John Beaver and forsakes Tony for the fast Belgravia set. This breakdown of the Last marriage is a painful, comic re-working of Waugh's own divorce, and a symbol of the breakdown of society.