Hubert Duggan was a real guy and he was the source of two characters who don't seem to have that much in common at first glance. Anthony Powell, drawing on his school days, made him the basis of Charles Stringham. Evelyn Waugh, drawing more heavily on his later years and death, made him the model for Lord Marchmain. Duggan's death featured a final visit from a priest (brought by Evelyn Waugh over the objections of others) with results very much like what we see in Brideshead.
It's fascinating to me that the model for Sebastian's father was actually a boy the same age as him.
What definitely is true of both Stringham and Lord Marchmain is
Some readers may be relieved to know that that is the probably the end of comparisons between the two books. The next volume in the Powell series, A Buyer's Market, goes off in a very different direction and the two worlds never cross again.
I knew that Lord Marchmain's death was modeled after Duggan's, but I think of Stringham as a more likable Sebastian.
ReplyDeleteHis humorously self-deprecating line, "Here, sir, Stringham of the Mobile Laundry, present and correct", always makes me laugh.
I see the more likable Sebastian aspect too. What your comment makes me wonder is what Lord Marchmain would have been like as a teen? He might very well have been a more likable Sebastian.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read Dance the first time, as a teen, Stringham broke my heart. I so wanted him to continue in the same form. "There is a jam crisis."
As an adult, I can now see how this sort of thing happens. That golden children don't grow up to be golden adults.