THE ORDEAL OF GILBERT PINFOLD

The bizarre experiences which overtake and almost overcome Gilbert Pinfold, a successful British novelist of fifty years, form a slight novel- which is also something of a literary vagary for Evelyn Waugh. Pinfold, a man of means but diffident interests, leads a life of well-guarded privacy in Lychpole, England, and only boredom along with a certain stiffness of the joints marks his advancing years. His growing need for "stimulated geniality" (liquor) by day and unconsciousness (sleeping-draughts) by night has its injurious effects; his memory becomes as spotty as his skin and more and more unfit, he decides on a restorative trip to India. On the boat, he deteriorates rapidly and is the victim of all kinds of tormenting phantasmagoria. He overhears calumniating conversations on deck and in the dining room, and the voices pursue him to his cabin where he has constant hallucinatory experiences which drive him toward self-destruction. Finally, debarking sooner than he had planned, he returns to England to regain his health, his sanity and his identity.... A rather macabre fancy, curiosity- along with the expected cleverness of phrase- combine to make a small diversion of delusion; it is not, however, Waugh at his strongest-or his best.