The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold – a Conversation Piece by Evelyn Waugh
London: Chapman & Hall, 1957. First edition. Octavo (about 5 x 7 inches) 184 pages. This book has its original blue cloth cover - however it would not be on Cybergrot if there was not something wrong with it! The cover has suffered quite considerably – from what - we know not. There are blobs and blotches here and there, colour missing, surface texture damaged; gilt lettering on spine is gilt no more and the dust jacket is missing altogether.
However as soon as the book is opened the story is a different one – the condition of the pages can only be described as ‘good’ (not a word we use very often on Cybergrot.com – in fact we had to look it up) no foxing, no stains, no tears, there is not a single piece of squashed pasta between pages 46 and 47, and there is no squashed spider on page 9 (see Village Silhouettes on this site)
This is the most autobiographical of Waugh's novels: while on a sea-voyage he experienced a bout of madness.
In the book, the middle-aged novelist Gilbert Pinfold, (i.e. Waugh) suffers from rheumatism and insomnia goes on a cruise for health reasons and takes large doses of bromide (a sedative), chloral (i.e. chloral hydrate – prescribed for insomnia – it belongs to a group of medicines known as hypnotics,) and crème de menthe, as palliatives for these conditions. He begins hearing voices in his head, accusing him of a wide range of unspeakable (for Waugh) things: that he's a Jew, a homosexual, a coward, a fascist.
It is thought that this insanity was brought on both by the drugs he was taking, and withdrawal from them. But it is also likely that he suffered a brief episode of paranoid schizophrenia.
Waugh received a large amount of mail from people who recognized their own symptoms in Pinfold's!
And if you think you - a mere customer - can come into our illustrious office offering a paultry sum for this fabulous book ........
