BLACK MISCHIEFWaugh’s third novel is a departure from his first two classic satires of British society. For one thing, Black Mischief is largely set on the fictional East African island nation of Azania, although most of the characters are Brits. Second, Waugh actually has a plot that can be neatly summarized; namely that Basil Seal is a bit of a wastrel MP who travels to Azania where he hooks up with the Oxford educated Azanian Emperor Seth, who wants to bring Progressive Soviet-style government to his tribal subjects. In his earlier and later works, Waugh tends to mock the social mores of the British upper crust. Here, the focus of Waugh’s satire is different; he is mostly pricking at the liberal pieties of his day: animal rights, centralized planning, birth control, and the overall goal of Progress and Modernity. Waugh doesn’t really criticize these ideas, so much as he searches out the wide gap between ideals and practice. In Waugh’s view, progressive ideals are little more than abstract playthings of the rich, which fundamentally uninteresting to those on whose behalf the activists claim to be acting. Waugh also makes sure to have a couple of mercenary characters that are frankly interested in Progress because they can make a buck off of it. What really makes this a departure for Waugh is the richness in the storytelling. His previous books had largely been dialogue driven. “Black Mischief” shows him to be much more adept at creating a fictional universe. His descriptions of Azanian history and society are remarkably detailed. Events in the book such as native feasts, tribal wars, and an aborted coup are vividly rendered, demonstrating that one ofWaugh’s other career was as a travel writer. In many ways this is a good old fashioned travelogue of Europeans travelling through the Dark Continent. Despite all of this, some of the old Waugh humor still shines through. One of the many subplots involve the back and forth between the French and English ambassadors to Azania. The place is a backwater, and the British ambassador is an appropriately querulous fuddy-duddy. The French ambassador, however, carries on as if he were engaged in an East African version of the Great Game. A lot of the book’s humor comes through in these sections. As in Waugh’s other books, there is a dark edge among all of the humor. There is a revolution, and most of the main characters either flee or are killed. A young proto-feminist with Joycean literary pretensions comes to an especially horrifying end, supporting Waugh’s thesis that England’s leading modernists were fatally ignorant of the savagery that often lurks at the edges of the world. Azania finally becomes a League of Nations protectorate, and the last word is given to a pair of British diplomats strolling through the now-quiet streets of Azania, firmly but foolishly convinced that they have brought order to chaos.
Evelyn Waugh travelled in several countries in East Africa. This novel is set in the fictitious island country of Azania, which is an amalgamation of several African countries and Waugh's imagination. He remorselessly satirises colonial officials who have no idea what is going on in the countries they are supposed to be administering, inept Western educated African leaders attempting to modernise their countries, corrupt opportunistic businessmen and even the 'bright young things' back home who don't want to hear his travel stories. He doesn't satirise ethnic African traditions, although we might feel rather uncomfortable with his portrayal of them nowadays.This is mainly the story of Basil Seal and Emperor Seth, although the minor characters provide a lot of the humour. It is very funny, although, of course, since this is Waugh, some of the humour is very dark. It is also more descriptive than some of Waugh's other books and you can see the country he describes.There are some memorable dining experiences, including European 'gourmet' food out of cans, an attempt at a healthy European style banquet and another banquet which I am not going to give the details of, but you will know which one when you get to it. I laughed, but found I had completely lost my appetite.There are one or two things which jar in today's more enlightened times. Connolly and his African wife seem genuinely fond of each other and she is accepted as an equal in society, but would anyone really regard 'Black Bitch' as a term of endearment? Then there is that banquet...
What do You think about Black Mischief (2002)?
yeh im born and raised in the south, i see segregated lines in cities, alive n'"well" racism everyday. its a mess. a black president didnt do anything for them. and now when hillarys president nothings gonna change for women neither, its a sad joke.
—Czarny Pies
Dearest Evelyn, what to make of your uneven and thoroughly racist Black Mischief? Your apologists claim that it lampoons everyone, usually adding: "especially the Europeans", but there's a more than a shade of difference between aloof & irrelevant (Sir Sampson et al) and too stupid to civilize (Seth et al). The quality of your writing is wonderful and there's plenty of laughs to be had in the first two thirds. Ultimately, however, the work collapses once you have to find some way to move to a conclusion... Basil Seal, your stand-in, is the flattest of all your quasi-protagonists and the narrative lacks any real drive owing to the endless introduction of new characters who never amount to more than a few tossed-off witticisms.Ultimately you had very little to say apart from "Africa is full of n*s and a few deluded Europeans who haven't yet noticed that fact." Somehow, you still made it mostly amusing which is a credit to your talent, if not your empathy.
—Eric
Its a hoot from the very first page. Sustained hilarity from the first page to the last. A riot! An uproar! A scream! Its going on my 'laugh-out-loud' list. You rarely see this level of comedy displayed in a novel. Its like one long, erudite, madcap Monty Python sketch. Narrated with utterly taut deadpan restraint. 'Black Mischief' is the very last word in making fun of colonialism. If you ever thought the English dry or humorless; read Waugh. This is truly the pillar underlying all the British wit you've ever encountered.Every single page has something to grin over. Really, almost every paragraph has something to to make one crack a wry smile and shake your head in wonder. What makes it all the more toothsome is knowing how many modern readers are upset and wringing-their-hands over this kind of thing (oh you tragic, scandalized, fan-fluttering Gertrudes and Henriettas..please stay in the drawing-room where you can be safe from books like this). This one book..you could toss out all the straight-faced history books and rest everything on just this one, lampooning interpretation. Seriously! 'Black Mischief' gives you the essence of what it all was, conveys the concise gist of what it was all about. Hammers out the innermost kernel of stupidity behind the whole Empire-building age.
—Feliks
