Decline and Fall is a novel by the English author Evelyn Waugh. It was his first novel and was based, in part, on his schooldays at Lancing College and his own experience as a teacher in Wales. It was published in 1928. Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Evelyn Waugh, as photographed in 1940 by Carl Van Vechten Arthur Evelyn St. ... Lancing College is a prestigious and internationally renowned co-educational English Public School (fee-paying independent school) founded in 1848 by the Rev. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The novel tells the story of Paul Pennyfeather, a student at the fictional Scone College Oxford who is sent down for inadvertently running through the college grounds without his trousers. Having defaulted on the conditions of his inheritance he is forced to take a job teaching at an obscure public school in Wales. Attracted to the wealthy mother of one of his pupils, Pennyfeather becomes private tutor to the boy and is eventually engaged to be married to the mother, unaware that the source of her income is a number of high-class brothels in South America. Arrested on the morning of the wedding, Pennyfeather takes the fall to protect his fiance's honour and is sentenced to seven years at a thinly disguised Dartmoor prison. Fortunately, with some outside assistance he is able to fake his own death and escape. In the end he returns to where he started at Scone, his misadventures having so far failed to register with the academic establishment that he can study under his own name. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... Expulsion at a school or university is defined as removing a student from the institution for violating rules or honor codes. ... A public school, in current English, Welsh and Northern Ireland usage, is a (usually) prestigious independent school, for children usually between the ages of 11 or 13 and 18, which charges fees and is not financed by the state. ... HM Prison Dartmoor is located in Princetown, England, high on Dartmoor, and presents a bleak and formidable sight. ...

Decline and Fall is a social satire lampooning various features of British society in the 1920s with the author's characteristic black humour. The World According To Ronald Reagan - a Finnish satirical poster from 1984 Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ...

See also

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a major literary achievement of the Eighteenth Century, was written by the English historian, Edward Gibbon. ...