Monday, April 21, 2014

Crossover Cover: Vile Bodies

Agatha Runcible, a character from Evelyn Waugh's second novel, Vile Bodies, is mentioned in Josh Reynolds' Carnacki story "Monmouth's Giants." Several characters from Waugh's first book, Decline and Fall, appear or are mentioned in the novel as well. Win included Decline and Fall in Volume 1, as the Egdon Heath Penal Settlement appeared, Egdon Heath being the setting of Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native (the prison also appeared in Kim Newman's story "Sorcerer Conjurer Wizard Witch.") Most of Waugh's novels are connected, and therefore I am reading them for the new volumes. Incidentally, one of the minor characters in Vile Bodies is the ex-King of Ruritania, establishing a connection between Waugh's work and The Prisoner of Zenda. This ex-King is presumably the same former monarch of Ruritania that appears in a few of P.G. Wodehouse's stories.

No comments:

Post a Comment