Decline and Fall was first published in 1928 and is Evelyn Waugh's first published book. It follows a young, former college student called Paul Pennyfeather, who was expelled from Oxford for obscene behavior. After this, Pennyfeather is offered and accepts a job as schoolmaster at Llanabba Castle. But Paul must deal with an assortment of rather rowdy characters, many of is almost always drunk and another who doubts herself and the world far too much to be productive.
Decline and Fall is at the end of the day a farcical, intelligent, and funny book is really a comment on the decadence and flourishings of 1920s society. The narrative is situated before the start of the Great Depression, which plagued the entire world for over a decade and no doubt resulted in thousands of deaths and countless bankruptcies.
Incidentally, the title of Waugh's book is a mix of two famous books: the first is called The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and The Decline of the West. Not only did the book's title draw from these books, Waugh took a tremendous amount of inspiration from them when writing her book.
