The Ordeal Of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh has written classic novels such as A Handful of Dust, Brideshead Revisited, and Love Among the Ruins throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

I came across a 1957 first edition hardcover copy of The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold and thought I would try him out.

It's a strange little book, based strongly on events that happened to Evelyn Waugh. In fact, Waugh later admitted, "Mr. Pinfold's experiences were exactly my own." He was advised to write the book by a doctor of psychiatry who interpreted Waugh's hallucinations as consequences of prolonged consumption of drugs and alcohol.

Pinfold is a middle-aged novelist on the brink of a nervous breakdown. To cure his nerves, he starts taking an unappetizing cocktail of drugs, which don't help. He then 'takes the air' on a sea cruise on the SS Caliban bound for Ceylon, where his crisis deepens. Almost as soon as they are underway, he starts hearing voices through the ceiling and walls of his cabin: wild jazz bands, barking dogs, plots amongst the crew and captain. Indeed, he thinks there are planted microphones and speakers in his room broadcasting at all hours. He believes he can hear derogatory conversations about him amongst the passengers, increasing his paranoia and causing him to react to them at dinners and on deck in increasingly strange ways.

It has been called a comic masterpiece, and while it is humorous, it's written in a way that we feel his suffering at losing touch. When Gilbert finishes the voyage, though, he has found an odd solution and is in a much better place.

It wasn't the most fascinating book, being English and from the 1950's it was as dry as you might expect. The strange escapades were entertaining and the characters, however slight, were well written. It has been republished many times over the years. I am happy to have stumbled upon it.

1957 / Hardcover / 232 pages