William boot scoop5/31/2023 A military coup takes place, the first result of which is a proclamation abolishing Sundays. When a quarrel breaks out in the ruling family (leading to civil war) one faction declares that the Ishmaelites are in fact a white race who must ‘purge themselves of the Negro taint’. Voting is rigged, and ‘the adverse trade balance rectified by an elastic system of bankruptcy law’. The government is run entirely on a system of nepotism: every official is a member of the same family. Like its predecessor Black Mischief, Scoop is largely set in a fictional African country – Ishmaelia. There are three main targets for Evelyn Waugh’s satire in Scoop – African government, the English upper class, and the profession of journalism. Farcical misunderstandings abound, and the workings of the press come in for a great deal of satire. He is surrounded by villainy and deception on all sides. A naive and innocent young man is swept up into events which are beyond his control. It continues the comic themes he had established with Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Bodies (1930), Black Mischief (1932), and A Handful of Dust (1934). Scoop (1938) was Evelyn Waugh’s fifth published novel. Tutorial, study guide, plot summary, web links
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