In the days of email and the intemet, the alienating effects of the 'instrument' of the telephone may appear minimal. Yet a form of communication which proceeds without any visual aid and is subject to all kinds of mechanical distortion can still present its own confusions and sources of embarrassment. Literary representations of the medium have tended to focus on the muddles and misunderstandings, often exploiting their comic potential. Employing terms and models derived from conversational analysis, this article analyses a telephone conversation from Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1930. I will argue that while Waugh exploits to the full the comedy of the communicative situation he represents, he is also sensitive to the extent to which the constraints and the freedoms of the medium affect his characters' ability to interact with one another.
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