Word: cynic
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Sharp Look. In his crisply written trilogy, Waugh seems to be turning back from the mannered romanticism of Brideshead Revisited. But this is not the exuberant young cynic of Decline and Fall, Black Mischief and A Handful of Dust; sophistication has been supplanted by weary wisdom, not-so-innocent merriment by middle-aged melancholy. The upperclass war the trilogy chronicles-in bars and blackouts, billets and beds-will for many bear only a limited resemblance to any real war they knew or imagined. Its dialogue is so Britishly British that it is bound to set some New World teeth...
Seven Plays, by Bertolt Brecht. Roguish laughter, a cynic's sneer, tears of compassion, and a lacerated concern with the spectacle of man selling his fellow...
Seven Plays, by Bertolt Brecht. Roguish laughter, a cynic's sneer, tears of compassion, and a lacerated concern with the spectacle of man selling his fellow man keep exciting, if contradictory, company in the works of this remarkable playwright...
...Goethe's, loving wisdom, seeks omniscience. Power inspires sharper drama than knowledge, particularly for those without the German to follow Faust's speculations and soliloquizings. Goethe's Mephistopheles, on the other hand, boasts some of the internationalism of Hell. Less fiend than cold-blooded mocker and cynic, he is full of wit and mischief, and Gustaf Gründgens, who plays him nimbly enough, has the one role that can often make action as expressive as words...
...Hans Winterschild, a Nazi infantry officer, is the loser of the title, and so, by reasonable extension, is Germany. But what if Hans and Hitler had been the winners? There are times when The Loser all but implies that the Allies would have been proved wrong, or so a cynic could argue. Hans is a case-history figure, a dedicated Nazi who never had to contend with conscience. When he is ordered to destroy an entire town, he does his part with no questions asked. Men, women and children are methodically shot down, the church burned with...