A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh 1934 - Chapman and Hall Ltd., London - First Edition All over England people were waking up, queasy and despondent.

‘Few writers have walked the line between farce and tragedy as nimbly as Evelyn Waugh, who employed the conventions of the comic novel to chip away at the already crumbling English class system. His 1934 novel,
A Handful of Dust, is a sublime example of his bleak satirical style: a mordantly funny exposé of aristocratic decadence and ennui in England between the wars.’ – Simon Leake.

First edition of what many consider one of Waugh’s best works in a rare and superior example of the dust jacket without restoration.
  ‘After seven years of marriage the beautiful Lady Brenda Last is bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is the pride and joy of her husband, Tony. She drifts into an affair with the shallow socialite John Beaver and forsakes Tony for the Belgravia set. Brilliantly combining tragedy, comedy and savage irony, A Handful of Dust captures the irresponsible mood of the 'crazy and sterile generation' between the wars, The breakdown of the Last marriage, is a painful, comic re-working of Waugh's own divorce and a symbol of the disintegration of society’ [Penguin].

Octavo (book size 19.3x13.2cm), pp. 348 [3 (publishers ads)] [1]. In publisher’s red and black snakeskin-patterned cloth, spine lettered in gilt, all edges trimmed. Dust jacket priced ‘7/6 NET’ to spine.
  Condition: Near fine, little scattered spotting to first and last few pages and to edges of text block, gilt bright to spine, in near fine dust jacket, light wear to one corner only, spine with gentle toning and short closed tear to head.   Ref: 111377   Price: HK$ 125,000