{"id":249,"date":"2014-06-27T20:31:53","date_gmt":"2014-06-27T20:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/?p=249"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:22:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:22:18","slug":"wedding-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/2014\/06\/27\/wedding-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Wedding Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eighty-six years ago today Evelyn Waugh married his first wife Evelyn Gardner at St Paul\u2019s in Portman Square. The whole operation was carried off with characteristic nonchalance \u2013 on the 12th December 1927 Waugh wrote the following in his diary: \u2018Dined with Evelyn at the Ritz. Proposed marriage. Inconclusive.\u2019 The next day Gardner put Waugh out of his misery (he mentions being unable to sleep that night) and accepted the proposal by telephone. There is a gap of six months in the diaries after this point, during which Waugh wrote Decline and Fall <\/em>(1928). By the time they are taken up again on the 22nd June 1928, the two Evelyns have purchased a marriage license because they \u2018got bored of waiting for the right bus\u2019 to Dulwich. In comparison to the current obsession with military levels of wedding planning it is comically offhand, and Waugh\u2019s description of the ceremony itself is no different:<\/p>\n

Evelyn and I were married at St Paul\u2019s, Portman Square, at 12 o\u2019clock. A woman was typewriting on the altar. Harold [Acton] best man. Robert Byron gave away the bride. Alec and Pansy the witnesses. Evelyn wore a new black and yellow jumper suit with scarf.<\/p>\n

The idea of a woman \u2018typewriting on the altar\u2019 during the proceedings is very funny, but sadly untrue. Martin Stannard in Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years 1903-1939<\/em> notes that it was in fact the vicar typing his Sunday sermon, not on the altar but in the vestry. Stannard also points out Waugh\u2019s unenthusiastic account seems at odds to Harold Acton\u2019s impressions of the day, and suggests that despite the romantic reticence in his writing, Waugh really did enjoy the wedding and was very much in love with his new bride. Perhaps his offhand, staccato description of the wedding reflected the impetuous spirit in which it was entered into. Curious readers will find the chapter \u2018My Mock Marriage\u2019 in Selina Hastings\u2019 Evelyn Waugh: A Biography<\/em> particularly interesting in this respect.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

She-Evelyn and He-Evelyn.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

Sadly the marriage was not to last and the pair divorced in September 1929 after Evelyn revealed she had begun an affair with Waugh\u2019s friend John Heygate. Waugh only saw Evelyn once again after their divorce, shortly after he had converted to Catholicism. It has been suggested that this unsuccessful marriage was the catalyst for his conversion, though he had been considering religion for some time previously. Nevertheless it certainly affected his writing, Vile Bodies<\/em> (1930), which Waugh was in the process of writing before the end of his marriage, experiences a dramatic shift in tone that seems to reflect his damaged heart and the desolate feeling of romantic betrayal. \u2018I am escaping to Ireland for a weeks motor racing in the hope of finding an honourable grave\u2019 he wrote to Acton in September 1929, \u2018I have absolutely no plans for the future. Evelyn is to live on at Canonbury. Naturally I have done no work at all for two months. I did not know it was possible to be so miserable & live but I am told that this is a common occurrence.\u2019<\/p>\n

And on that cheery note I will ask if anyone can think of a successful marriage in Waugh\u2019s writing? Or do they all follow this pattern?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eighty-six years ago today Evelyn Waugh married his first wife Evelyn Gardner at St Paul\u2019s in Portman Square. The whole operation was carried off with characteristic nonchalance \u2013 on the 12th December 1927 Waugh wrote the following in his diary: \u2018Dined with Evelyn at the Ritz. Proposed marriage. Inconclusive.\u2019 The next day Gardner put Waugh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/waughandwords\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}