Editing Evelyn Waugh (section)

== Oxford ==

[[File:Hertford college Old Quadrangle under the snow.jpg|thumb|[[Hertford College, Oxford]]; Old Quadrangle]]
Waugh arrived in Oxford in January 1922<!--CITEVAR VIOLATION as a  resident student; he had first visited  Oxford - [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]] and [[New College, Oxford|New College]] -  in 1920.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Page |first1=N. |title=An Evelyn Waugh Chronology - Early Years (1903-1921) |date=1997 |publisher=MacMillan Press |page=5 |url=https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/An_Evelyn_Waugh_Chronology/OhqJDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=harold+acton+christ+church+visit&pg=PA16&printsec=frontcover |access-date=3 February 2022}}</ref>-->. He was soon writing to old friends at Lancing about the pleasures of his new life; he informed [[Tom Driberg]]: "I do no work here and never go to Chapel".<ref>Amory (ed.), p. 7</ref> During his first two terms, he generally followed convention; he smoked a pipe, bought a bicycle, and gave his maiden speech at the [[Oxford Union]], opposing the motion that "This House would welcome Prohibition".<ref>Stannard, Vol. I pp. 67–68</ref> Waugh wrote reports on Union debates for both Oxford magazines, ''[[Cherwell (newspaper)|Cherwell]]'' and ''[[Isis magazine|Isis]]'', and he acted as a film critic for ''Isis''.<ref>Waugh, ''A Little Learning''. p. 182</ref><ref>Gallagher (ed.), p. 640</ref> He also became secretary of the Hertford College debating society, "an onerous but not honorific post", he told Driberg.<ref>Amory (ed.), p. 10</ref> Although Waugh tended to regard his scholarship as a reward for past efforts rather than a stepping-stone to future academic success, he did sufficient work in his first two terms to pass his "History Previous", an essential preliminary examination.<ref>Hastings, p. 85</ref>

The arrival in Oxford in October 1922 of the sophisticated [[Old Etonians|Etonians]] [[Harold Acton]] and [[Brian Howard (poet)|Brian Howard]] changed Waugh's Oxford life. Acton and Howard rapidly became the centre of an [[avant-garde]] circle known as the [[Hypocrites' Club]] (Waugh was the secretary of the club),<ref name="Lebedoff">{{cite book|last1=Lebedoff|first1=David|title=The Same Man: George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh in Love and War|date=2008|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DsKX9ExxNDUC&pg=PA30|access-date=21 January 2018|isbn=978-1588367082}}</ref> whose artistic, social and homosexual values Waugh adopted enthusiastically;<ref>Stannard, Vol. I pp. 83–85</ref> he later wrote: "It was the stamping ground of half my Oxford life".<ref>Waugh, ''A Little Learning'', pp. 179–181</ref> He began drinking heavily, and embarked on the first of several homosexual relationships, the most lasting of which were with [[Hugh Lygon]], [[Richard Pares]] and [[Alastair Hugh Graham|Alastair Graham]] (potentially the inspiration for the fictional character [[Lord Sebastian Flyte]] in the novel ''[[Brideshead Revisited]]'', though this is rather disputed and was most likely a blend of numerous individuals including [[Stephen Tennant]]).<ref name= StannardODNB/><ref>Stannard, Vol. I pp. 90, 128</ref>

He continued to write reviews and short stories for the university journals, and developed a reputation as a talented graphic artist, but formal study largely ceased.<ref name="StannardODNB" /> This neglect led to a bitter feud between Waugh and his history tutor, [[C. R. M. F. Cruttwell]], dean (and later principal) of Hertford College. When Cruttwell advised him to mend his ways, Waugh responded in a manner which, he admitted later, was "fatuously haughty";<ref>Waugh, "A Little Learning", p. 175</ref> from then on, relations between the two descended into mutual hatred.<ref>Stannard, Vol. I pp. 76–77</ref> Waugh continued the feud long after his Oxford days by using Cruttwell's name in his early novels for a succession of ludicrous, ignominious or odious minor characters.<ref>Sykes, p. 45</ref>{{refn|"Cruttwell" is a brutal burglar in ''Decline and Fall'', a snobbish Member of Parliament in ''Vile Bodies'', a social parasite in ''Black Mischief'', a disreputable osteopath in ''A Handful of Dust'' and a salesman with a fake tan in ''Scoop''. The homicidal Loveday in "Mr. Loveday's Little Outing" was originally "Mr. Cruttwell". See Hastings, pp. 173, 209, 373; Stannard, Vol. I pp. 342, 389|group= n}}

Waugh's dissipated lifestyle continued into his final Oxford year, 1924. A letter written that year to a Lancing friend, [[Dudley Carew]], hints at severe emotional pressures: "I have been living very intensely these last three weeks. For the last fortnight I have been nearly insane.... I may perhaps one day in a later time tell you some of the things that have happened".<ref>Amory (ed.), p. 12</ref> He did just enough work to pass his final examinations in the summer of 1924 with a third-class. However, as he had begun at Hertford in the second term of the 1921–22 academic year, Waugh had completed only eight terms' residence when he sat his finals, rather than the nine required under the university's statutes. His poor results led to the loss of his scholarship, which made it impossible for him to return to Oxford for that final term, so he left without his degree.<ref>Hastings, p. 112</ref>

Back at home, Waugh began a novel, ''[[The Temple at Thatch]]'', and worked with some of his fellow Hypocrites on a film, ''The Scarlet Woman'', which was shot partly in the gardens at Underhill. He spent much of the rest of the summer in the company of Alastair Graham; after Graham departed for [[Kenya]], Waugh enrolled for the autumn at a London art school, [[Heatherley School of Fine Art|Heatherley's]].<ref name= S93>Stannard, Vol. I pp. 93–96</ref>