Scott-King's Modern Europe

When Mr. Scott-King, a middle-aged schoolmaster in the classics, hears that parents "want to prepare their boys for jobs in the modern world" and that "you can hardly blame them, can you?" he replies: "Oh yes. I can and do." In Evelyn Waugh's 88-page story, Scott-King travels to the fictional nation of Neutralia to deliver a speech on a late Renaissance poet. His travails in this ex-Hapsburg state that evinces all the grubbiest aspects of modernity are told with Waugh's typical dry wit and elegant style. Returning to this author will never disappoint.