A Handful of Dust

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes child loss and classism.

John Beaver is a poor young Englishman who lives in London with his doting mother, Mrs. Beaver. She works as an interior designer for wealthier members of the middle class, while he does not have a job. Beaver and his mother are members of the middle class, but they are not as wealthy as others. Each morning, they wake up and share their “interchange of gossip” over breakfast (4). Beaver describes the various parties he visits and the gentlemen’s clubs he attends. Since he has no job, he has little money to spend. He is notoriously spendthrift but is often invited to parties when someone drops out “at the last moment” (5). One morning, Beaver mentions an invitation from Tony Last, a wealthy man who lives in a large ancestral home outside London. Tony is married to Brenda, though most people assumed that she would marry Tony’s friend, Jock Grant-Menzies. Beaver dismisses Tony as a “prig,” though he is interested in taking up Tony’s invitation to visit Hetton Abbey, where Tony and Brenda live with their young son John.