Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall tells the story of Paul Pennyfeather, who we first meet as a blameless undergraduate studying theology in 1920s Oxford. At school he had edited the magazine, been President of the Debating Society, and ‘exercised a wholesome influence for good’ according to his report. Now at Oxford, on the night of the infamous Bollinger Club dinner, he is returning to his college room after listening to an interesting talk on plebiscites in Poland, intending to read a chapter or two of the Forsyth Saga before going bed. Unfortunately, the old school tie he is wearing happens to be similar to that of the rampaging Club. The tie attracts the attention of a drunken Bollinger, who strips Paul of his trousers. Rather than upset the wealthy and well connected attacker, the college authorities choose to blame the incident on humble Paul, accuse him of indecent behaviour, and expel him from the university.

This incident sets the tone of Decline and Fall, where there are laughs, but also reflections on fate and morality if you want that sort of thing. Fortune is a capricious mistress, favouring and condemning with fickle abandon. Following his expulsion, Paul goes to work at a North Wales public school, does quite well, and falls in love with Margot Best-Chetwynde, an immensely wealthy and beautiful windowed mother of one of the pupils. When Margot agrees to marry him, fortune seems to smile on Paul. Actually, no. Margot Best-Chetwynde, apart from having a drug problem, is also in the business of running ‘entertainment clubs’ in Latin America. On the day before the wedding, Margot asks Paul to go to Marseille to smooth out an apparent misunderstanding involving a group of girls en-route to one of her establishments. Paul doesn’t realise that he has been given the job of bribing local police to turn a blind eye to people trafficking. He is arrested, charged and sent to prison.

Paul falls foul of his sense of honour, which prevents him speaking up about Margot, or the Bollinger boy. Because he is good, he is punished, while those with no scruples do well. But Paul is not down and out for too long. Good things sometimes happen to him. The book is called Decline and Fall, but Paul is on a journey of ups as well as downs, maybe even cancelling themselves out into kind of a steady state.

And talking of honourable people, what do we think of the person who wrote this book? He does write some uncomfortable scenes, such as the ones involving Margot’s boyfriend, Chokey. And be warned if you are Welsh, because this author seems to have unpleasant preconceptions about you. But then as soon as I was inclined to get judgy, the wider theme of the novel came along to make me reflect on the shaky basis of judgy-ness. Good qualities can have bad outcomes and vice versa. Decline and Fall suggests that no one is a paragon of virtue in this complicated world, authors included.

Funny, interesting, subtle, unwholesome, ridiculous, philosophical. Well worth reading.