Do these novels by DH Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh and EF Benson seem an eclectic selection? They’re three titles you might have bought in the years 1930 and 1931. Are they still relevant today? What kind of reader would you be?

We will discuss three novels published in 1930 and 1931. DH Lawrence’s The Virgin and The Gypsy it was written in 1926 and published posthumously in 1930. Commentators of that time described it as ‘a masterpiece’. We’ll think about why they might have said that, and whether we agree. Evelyn Waugh’s second published novel, Vile Bodies, was also published in 1930, and looks back to Jazz-age London. Stephen Fry has called it Britain’s Great Gatsby. Malcolm Bradbury considers it ‘the high point of the experimental, original Waugh’, will we agree with either assessment?

Our third novel, Mapp and Lucia by EF Benson was published in 1930, and brings together two sets of characters from three previous Benson novels (please ensure you do get the 1931 novel). If the world he created is frivolous, how do we assess this novel? We’ll think about how the worlds these three writers present compare and contrast with our ideas about this period, as well as with each other, as we think about what makes a ‘good read’.

Please read to the end of Chapter 5 of The Virgin and The Gypsy for discussion at the first session.