Whereas Mr. Waugh considers it “common” to pile plates after a meal, Orwell thought it “unproletarian” to drink in a saloon bar; whereas Mr. Waugh’s wardrobe is based on sporting prints of the late Nineteenth Century, Orwell’s followed the general lines of a workman in Punch jokes of the same period. If Orwell had not been able to convince himself that he was once down and out in Paris, and to dress and play the part, however imperfectly, the probability is that he would never have written Animal Farm or 1984. In the same way, Mr. Waugh’s masquerade has been essential to his work. Without it we might well have lacked his delightful comedies, in the Wodehouse manner (though Wodehouse with a decided dash of vinegar), that little masterpiece.The Loved One, as well as Brideshead Revisited, his books on the war, and,finally, Pinfold.
Perhaps this is where the English view of Brideshead originated. I wonder if Muggeridge, after he became himself a Catholic, finally managed to get through it and realized how much it is about sorrow for one's sins.
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