Length6h 19m
About this audiobook
"Civilization is founded on the shambles, and every individual existence goes out in a lonely spasm of helpless agony."
Decline and Fall (1928) is Evelyn Waugh's first published novel, a razor-sharp social satire that skewers British society between the wars.
Modest and unassuming theology student Paul Pennyfeather is unfairly expelled from Oxford University after falling victim to a cruel prank by the members of the elite Bollinger Club. After this, he is forced to take a teaching job at an obscure Welsh private school, where he quickly discovers that all the other masters are failures in life.
From there, he drifts into the orbit of the glamorous and morally flexible Margot Beste‑Chetwynde, whose world of wealth and corruption pulls him even further from the life he once imagined and into a series of absurd, darkly comic misadventures in which Paul becomes both a victim and an observer of a society that is far more ridiculous than he is.
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies and travel books, a prolific journalist and book reviewer who is regarded by many as the most brilliant satirical novelist of his day. Waugh's early works—including
Decline and Fall and
Vile Bodies—are biting social comedies, while his later novels—most famously
Brideshead Revisited—take on a more reflective, elegiac tone shaped by his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1930. He was a perceptive writer who used his keen eye for human folly and his experience of the wide range of people whom he encountered to create some of the most distinctive fiction of the 20th century.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (24.7K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, StoryGraph, Amazon
GenreGeneral Fiction
Length6 hrs 19 mins
Narrated byJonathan Keeble
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJan 1, 2024
LanguageEnglish
More from Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited (Annotated)Evelyn Waugh14h 19m4.2 (169)$2 · $0.00
A Handful of Dust (Annotated)Evelyn Waugh9h 50m4.0 (32.4K)$2 · $0.00
Work Suspended and Other StoriesEvelyn Waugh7h 1m3.8 (237)$2 · $0.00
Put Out More FlagsEvelyn Waugh8h 46m3.9 (7.8K)$1 · $0.00
Unconditional SurrenderEvelyn Waugh9h 18m4.2 (2K)$1 · $0.00
ScoopEvelyn Waugh9h 11m3.9 (32.2K)$1 · $0.00
The Ordeal of Gilbert PinfoldEvelyn Waugh6h 31m3.9 (4.1K)$2 · $0.00
Decline and Fall (Annotated)Evelyn Waugh8h 37m4.7 (16)$1.99 · $0.00
Vile BodiesEvelyn Waugh6h 3m$27 · $0.00
WhistlerAnn Patchett10h 45m4.6 (4.6K)$29 · $0.00
Demon CopperheadBarbara Kingsolver21h 3m4.5 (949.4K)$46 · $0.00
To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van Pelt11h 17m4.4 (1.7M)$29 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
Something Like LoveBeverly Jenkins10h 21m4.6 (2.7K)$29 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
White HotIlona Andrews13h 18m4.5 (136.9K)$5 · $0.00
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m4.6 (773)$33 · $0.00
Cast in BloodMichelle Sagara16h 35m4.6 (607)$33 · $0.00
The Captain Blood Trilogy (Annotated)Rafael Sabatini29h 20m4.6 (1K)$3 · $0.00
Ship of the Line (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith11h 13m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
The George Orwell CollectionGeorge Orwell24h 46m4.5 (14.4K)$12 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust15h 38m4.5 (9.2K)$2 · $0.00
Driving ForceElle James4h 58m4.6 (407)$20 · $0.00
When God Calls the HeartBrian Bird, Michelle Cox3h 24m4.6 (439)$10 · $0.00
Five Little IndiansMichelle Good10h 34m4.5 (64.5K)$29 · $0.00
Lolth's WarriorR. A. Salvatore13h 20m4.6 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m4.5 (359.1K)$33 · $0.00
You may also like
My Weirder School #12: Mrs. Lane Is a Pain!Dan Gutman1h 2m4.5 (1.1K)$13 · $0.00
ChesterSyd Hoff8m4.0 (951)$4 · $0.00
My Weirder-est School #12: Lil Mouse Is in the House!Dan Gutman1h 3m4.6 (482)$13 · $0.00
Decline and FallEvelyn Waugh6h 43m3.9 (22.8K)$23
My Weirdtastic School #3: Professor Pitt Is a Nitwit!Dan Gutman56m4.5 (261)$11 · $0.00
A Tale of a TubJonathan Swift4h 52m3.8 (2.6K)$2.30
CandideVoltaire2h 8m4.0 (333.8K)$4.60 · $0.00
Short Stories by SakiHector Hugh Munro11h 29m3.9 (4K)$23
The SatyriconTitus Petronius Arbiter9h 37m3.9 (12.1K)$2 · $0.00
Just PattyJean Webster5h 55m3.9 (1.4K)$2.30 · $0.00
Just PattyJean Webster5h 55m3.9 (1.4K)$2.30 · $0.00
A Pickle for the Knowing Ones (Annotated)Timothy Dexter2h 1m3.7 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Lambkin's RemainsHilaire Belloc2h 44m$2 · $0.00
The League of Picky EatersStephanie V.W. Lucianovic6h 53m4.3 (211)$24 · $0.00
That's Still Not All, FolksJoe Alaskey5h 41m$17
My Weirdtastic School #9: Miss Sherman Is Determined!Dan Gutman1h4.5 (45)$13 · $0.00
Mr. Punch on Tour: The Humour of Travel at Home and AbroadGeorge Du Maurier, Phil May, Charles Keene, John Leech, Edward Tennyson Reed, John Tenniel, L. Raven-Hill, Bernard Partridge, Reginald Cleaver1h 39m$1 · $0.00
Naked in the RideshareRebecca Shaw, Ben Kronengold5h 44m3.4 (533)$24 · $0.00
A Wodehouse Miscellany: Articles & StoriesP. G. Wodehouse3h 22m3.8 (419)$2.30 · $0.00
Four Hundred Humorous Illustrations With Portrait and Biographical SketchJohn Leech34m$2.30