When asked if his works were satiric, Evelyn Waugh promptly replied, "No. Satire is a matter of period. It flourishes in a stable society and pre-supposes homogeneous moral standards--the early Roman Empire and 18th-Century Europe. It is aimed at inconsistency and hypocrisy. It exposes polite cruelty and folly by exaggerating them. All this has no place in the Century of the Common Man where vice no longer pays lip service to virtue." In spite of his ardent denial, Waugh was a highly articulate satirist. Referring to Waugh's comment, Paul Doyle has noted that "in its way this is Waugh's most satiric utterance and is just about the most genuinely telling and meaningful satiric attack upon contemporary manners and existence that could be stated."