Arguing that Waugh's comedy should be viewed as a way of challenging seriousness rather than a covert way of purveying it, this new examination of the relationship between Waugh's life and work examines the elements of escapism in his art and gauges their limit. Littlewood examines the texture of the novels, surveying such modes of response as humor, romanticism, nostalgia and religion in order to describe the precarious balance between Waugh's real and imaginative life.