The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold (1999) - Plot & Excerpts
I never thought I would write a negative review of a novel by Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn Waugh is one of my top two or three favorite authors, and "The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold," until last week, was the last of his novels that I had not read (including his unfinished novel, "Work Suspended"). I was disappointed with it. The story is too slight for novel-length treatment. It might have made for a mildly amusing short story, but as a novel it reads too much like a joke that goes on too long. There is no plot to progress with each succeeding chapter, just an intensifying of the protagonist's hallucinations. The ending is particularly unsatisfying, in that the solution to Pinfold's problems is exactly what we knew it to have been all along. After reading about the book in Douglas Lane Patey's "The Life of Evelyn Waugh" it occurred to me that the novel would have had more of an impact in Waugh's lifetime, as Pinfold's hallucinations mirror many of the public criticisms that Waugh himself had to endure. But from this distance Waugh's social criticism lacks bite.In writing "Pinfold" Waugh seems to have been partly inspired by Muriel Spark's "The Comforters," another novel about seeming halluncinations. Spark's novel is difficult and ambiguous, but better, in my mind, than "Pinfold."
This book falls into my personal category of odd stories. Gilbert Pinfold is an English novelist, a sort of country gentleman whose wife does the farming. He is more than a bit of a stodgy fellow. His middle-aged body is giving him trouble, causing insomnia with twinges of rheumatism. He adds some large drab pills prescribed by his doctor, as well as sleeping powders provided by his druggist to his usual generous consumption of alcohol. We thought self-medicating was a recent phenomenon? Soon enough Pinfold is majorly hallucinating, hearing voices and suffering from deep paranoia. As a cure he decides on a sea voyage, during which he plans to complete his latest novel. But his troubles only magnify at sea. There follow a series of ridiculous incidents which have a slight Kafka flavor mixed with images from an LSD trip gone very wrong. My father would have called this a shaggy dog story. It is one of my least favorite types of story to read. But Evelyn Waugh can't help being humorous and the book is short. I made it through and so did Gilbert Pinfold. (Odd coincidence: Also in 1957 Muriel Spark published The Comforters, in which a novelist heard voices.)
What do You think about The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold (1999)?
This is a remarkable little book. I can't remember how I found Waugh, quite by accident, I suspect. When he is funny he is very funny. This is not his funniest book, but a lovely story all the same about a man going off on a bit a of holiday that turns into a lot of a nightmare. One of those little books that could very easily be one thing and ends up being another. Just as this review could have been one thing - where I spoil the book for you - but ends up being quite another where I tell you no where enough of the story.
—Trevor
I've been encouraged to read a bit of Waugh for a long time. This was my first, knowing that it is rather different from some of his more famous works. Perhaps I was attracted by its brevity. The language, i.e. word choice and descriptions, I think are the best at beginning of the book, which describes Gilbert Pinfold as a middle-aged author on the verge of a nervous breakdown lubricated by a toxic mixture of excessive alcohol and OTC bromides to treat indigestion (autobiographical). I found the beginning more interesting than when he's on the voyage for the remainder of the book. Bits are funny, but I was not moved overall because it didn't seem as profound as I thought it might be.
—Peter
A quite intriguing and insightful read. The first thing I've ever read by Waugh and it certainly inspires me to read more. I found it to be very 'readable' - quite simply written, easy to absorb, yet quite compelling. In ways, I never felt entirely convinced by Pinfold's voices in his head. I don't imagine many readers felt much surprise at the ending of the book. With this in mind, and I can only speak from my experience of course, it felt much more within the realms of a character study than a novel - I didn't feel at all involved in the events threatened towards Pinfold, but more interested in his reaction to them and decline in to paranoia. Definitely worth reading.
—Tim
