What do you after a war that kills millions, followed by a flu epidemic that kills millions more? It’s interesting that, when people faced a similar disaster in the Black Death, it brought forth Boccacio’s tales of wit and lust, the Decameron. In the 1920s, it brought the Roaring Twenties and two completely different takes on the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure and experience that encapsulated the decade: in Britain, Evelyn Waugh wrote Decline and Fall, in America F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby.

Decline and Fall is tragedy disguised as farce, The Great Gatsby is farce dressed as tragedy. Which pretty much sums up the difference in attitudes between an empire in decline and an empire on the rise. They are both great books, although The Great Gatsby is probably better while Decline and Fall is definitely funnier. Both should be read to understand the period after the Great War and the mind set that went on to produce our own world. And they’re also just wonderful books!