Decline and Fall is Evelyn Waugh’s brilliantly absurd debut novel—a razor-sharp satire of British society in the 1920s, full of biting wit, eccentric characters, and a wildly entertaining plot. With this book, Waugh announced himself as a master of comedy and social critique, blending farce with a keen eye for the hypocrisies of the upper class, the education system, and the Church.<br/>The novel follows the misadventures of Paul Pennyfeather, an unassuming Oxford student whose quiet life is abruptly derailed by a scandalous incident. Expelled from university through no fault of his own, Paul is launched into a series of bizarre and often hilarious episodes as he becomes a teacher at a disreputable boarding school and later becomes entangled with the glamorous, wealthy, and morally ambiguous world of high society.<br/>Through Paul’s misfortunes, Waugh paints a darkly comic portrait of a world teetering on the edge of moral collapse—a world where absurdity reigns and justice is little more than a farce. Rich in irony and satire, Decline and Fall remains one of Waugh’s most enduring works, as relevant today as it was nearly a century ago.