'Masked parties, Savage parties, Victorian parties, Greek parties, Wild West parties, Russian parties, Circus parties, parties where one had to dress as somebody else (...) all that succession and repetition of massed humanity... Those vile bodies'
This quote gets to the heart of the novel. In fact, it ends with 'Those vile bodies', which reminds us of the novel's title. A whole list of different types of party is reeled off by the narrator, from 'Masked parties' to 'Greek parties' to 'parties where one had to dress as somebody else'. This list suggests that parties are a constant feature of the lives of the novel's characters. But, although it starts positively, the quote ends more negatively, with the words 'all that succession and repetition of massed humanity... Those vile bodies', which we could interpret as an indication of debauchery or hedonistic behavior.
'On a splintered tree stump in the biggest battlefield in the history of the world, Adam sat down and read a letter from Nina.'
This quote appears in the last chapter of the novel, called 'Happy Ending'. By this time, Adam finds himself isolated in a battlefield setting, which critics have interpreted as symbolic of a First World War battlefield (the novel was published in 1930). This quote captures brilliantly the combination of the personal and the political in the novel, giving the reader the distinct impression that love can flourish, and that love matters, irrespective of the brutality of the context.
'There was rarely more than a quarter of a mile of the black road to be seen at one time. It unrolled like a length of cinema film. At the edges was confusion; a fog spinning past.'
This quote is a good example of Evelyn Waugh's ability to use imagery very well. The quote comprises three short, simple sentences, but the image the reader has in their mind of the scene described is anything but simple, thanks to the quiet beauty of Waugh's writing. What adds to the enigmatic quality of Waugh's writing is that, as any speaker of English will soon see, the phrase does not always make sense. In 'At the edges was confusion', for instance, we know what confusion is and means, so we know there cannot literally be 'confusion' at the sides of a road. What Waugh is doing here is to suggest things rather than spell them out, making each reader picture the scene for themselves.
'You don't hear much about Hope these days, do you? Plenty about Faith, plenty about Charity. They've forgotten all about Hope. There's only one great evil in the world today. Despair.'
These words, some of the most famous in the entire novel, are spoken by Mrs Ape. Since the novel is set in the 1920s, it is not unrealistic to imagine that her words relate to the First World War, also known as 'The Great War' and 'The War to End All Wars', which was seen by many as having destroyed a generation of young men. For many, having seen such a violent conflict, there could be no hope for humanity's progress. Against those opinions, Mrs Ape is encouraging Adam and his friends to revive Hope and to cast out 'Despair', which she calls the 'one great evil in the world'.
