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Brideshead Revisited

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 33,835 ratings · 1,962 reviews

The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sis...more

Paperback, 326 pages

Published March 30th 2000 by Penguin (first published 1945)

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Jun 20, 2010 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

********Please note - contains spoilers ************

One's head is rather spinning, there are so many terribly good things and likewise so very much abject wretchedness it's hard to begin. Let us try.

1) This book is the twisted story of a homosexual affair, which I was truly not expecting it to be. It's famously set amongst the upper classes, firstly in Oxford, so you get pages of blissed-out descriptions of life amongst British aristocratic students in the 1920s and how many plovers eggs they ea...more

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Jun 18, 2013 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, catholic, british, world-war-ii, social-class, grace, catholic-100, religion, modern-library-100, movie, movies, television, time-100

“Surely I was made for some other purpose than this.” Brideshead Revisited, p. 280

Charles Ryder seeks wholeness. He meets Sebastain Flyte while studying at Oxford University, and Sebastian’s aristocratic Catholic family (the Marchmain family) absorbs and enchants Charles, an agnostic, during the decades between World Wars. Charles falls in love with Sebastian, his family estate (Bridesehead), his parents, and, finally, with Sebastian’s beautiful sister Julia. Through his association with the Ma...more “Surely I was made for some other purpose than this.” Brideshead Revisited, p. 280

Charles Ryder seeks wholeness. He meets Sebastain Flyte while studying at Oxford University, and Sebastian’s aristocratic Catholic family (the Marchmain family) absorbs and enchants Charles, an agnostic, during the decades between World Wars. Charles falls in love with Sebastian, his family estate (Bridesehead), his parents, and, finally, with Sebastian’s beautiful sister Julia. Through his association with the Marchmains, Charles witnesses the end of youth, the decline of aristocracy, and the discovery of faith.

Evelyn Waugh, a convert to Catholicism, states in his preface that the theme of “Brideshead Revisited” is “the operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters.” Waugh entitles his final section, “Twitch Upon the Thread,” Chesterston’s metaphorical phrase which compares divine grace to fishing. “I caught him with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread.” (200) In other words, through almost imperceptible moments of grace, God brings people into his Kingdom.

Waugh possessed a Catholic imagination, which saw Christianity as the backbone of Western culture and the force which gave humans discipline as well as dreams. In his preface, Waugh laments that the religiosity of “Brideshead Revisited” lost him “such esteem as I once enjoyed among my contemporaries and led me into an unfamiliar world of fan mail and press photographers.”

The title, “Brideshead Revisited,” refers to Charles’ return to the Brideshead estate (named for the head of Bride’s Stream) when billeted there as an officer during the Second World War, and Charles indulges in nostalgia by remembering his prewar experiences with the Marchmain family. Says Charles:

My theme is memory, that winged host that soared about me one grey morning of war-time. These memories, which are my life– for we possess nothing certainly except the past–were always with me. Like the pigeons of St. Mark’s, they were everywhere, under my feet, singly, in pairs, in little honey-voiced congregations, nodding, strutting, winking, rolling the tender feathers of their necks, perching sometimes, if I stood still, on my shoulder; until, suddenly, the noon guns boomed and in a moment, with a flutter and sweep of wings, the pavement was bare and the whole sky above dark with a tumult of fowl. (203)

In between the WWII opening and closing, Waugh divides his story into sections. In the first, Charles at Oxford develops an intense friendship with Sebastian. During summer vacation, Charles follows Sebastian to his home at Brideshead and then to Venice to spend time with Sebastian’s father who lives in atheistic exile with his mistress. Sebastian resents Charles’ infatuation with his family, especially Charles’ romantic interest in in his sister, Julia. As Charles grows closer to the family, Sebastian descends into dissolution and alcoholism. Charles believes that Catholic nonsense has driven Sebastian into dissipation, but Sebastian says he needs God more than ever.

Sebatian:“I believe that. It’s a lovely idea.” [Charles: “But you can’t believe things because they’re a lovely idea.”] Sebastian: “But I do. That’s how I believe.” (76) “I believe God prefers drunkards to a lot of respectable people.” (130)

After a decade, Charles and Julia, both married to others, become lovers and move into Brideshead. Despite the fact that he is now with the woman he loves, Charles still feels empty. “I remained unchanged, still a small part of myself pretending to be whole.” (205) Julia, remarks: “The worse I am, the more I need God. I can’t shut myself out from his mercy. (307)

After witnessing how a sinful Catholic dies, Charles discovers wholeness. What epiphany awaits Charles as he sits at the deathbed of another? Does God win or lose? Is there a love that takes priority over romantic love? Can an illicit love for another person become “a rival good to God’s love?”

Waugh writes with satirical elegance. I seek balance, and one of the ways I find the Aristotlean Golden Mean is to read quality literature representing widely divergent worldviews: optimistic and pessimistic; spiritual and material. Waugh’s view is distinctly Catholic, and I think it helpful to read writers possessed of a Catholic imagination like Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy, who serve as a check and a balance to existentialists like Beckett and Camus.

Like Charles, I seek wholeness. Through diversity, I hope to discover the rich complexity of human response to mystery and to shun dogma, cant, and talking points--a rule more often met by me in the breach rather than in the observance, so I keep reading for constant course correction.

December 27, 2012(less)

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Jul 24, 2011 Schmacko rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I just finished rereading Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, a book I pick up every couple of years or so. This time I read it because of the new movie version movie (the one with Emma Thompson as the Lady Marchmain Flyte). As a critic, I get to see a pre-screening of the new movie on Tuesday; I am taking Dr. Steve. Also, I am a huge fan of the original, very-literal British miniseries from 1981 (it is the first thing that brought Jeremy Irons to international attention, and it had the excessi...more

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Apr 12, 2010 David added it · review of another edition

Disclaimer: The views expressed hereafter by Mr. God's-Love concerning Evelyn Waugh's novel are exclusively his own and should not be interpreted as a disguised or fictionalized representation of my own views. The following, you must understand, is merely an act of reportage. Having not previously read the novel in question, I am ill-equipped to make judgments with respect to the reasonableness of Mr. God's-Love's opinion, although I might point out, relevantly or not, that he has been twice dia...more Disclaimer: The views expressed hereafter by Mr. God's-Love concerning Evelyn Waugh's novel are exclusively his own and should not be interpreted as a disguised or fictionalized representation of my own views. The following, you must understand, is merely an act of reportage. Having not previously read the novel in question, I am ill-equipped to make judgments with respect to the reasonableness of Mr. God's-Love's opinion, although I might point out, relevantly or not, that he has been twice diagnosed by ruddy-faced country physicians as suffering from a terminal case of dementia praecox, as well as from herpes of course and from a rural affliction known colloquially as the Spirit of the Dark One Writhing in the Cerebral Cortex. Nevertheless, I present his views, such as they are and without authorial interference, as a service to the community which currently appears exceptionally in need of servicing.

     I had not laid eyes upon Mr. God's-Love since the Winter Solstice festivities, when we supped on dainty fried gristle fingerlings and pickled chestnuts under the most silvery and garish moonlight in which I can ever recall bathing my erect nipples. (But my memory, they say, has grown feeble and occasionally delusional.) Yet... you must try to imagine my surprise when a bearded fellow accosted me -- goosing me suddenly, as if he were nary an apparition suddenly given weight and matter to supply me with that very gluteal rousing which delivered me a good metre up and out of my own flesh!
     He resembled no one so much as Merlin Olsen -- only just recently snatched by the hand of the creator like a limp anchovy and stuffed into his gob, whole. Still, if this were a Father Murphy whose jointy fingers tasted the inflection of my buttocks in that onion field, it was surely a revised, semitic version, with a glint of avarice -- outshining, I daresay, the North Star -- and a genetic aptitude for entertainment law practice.
     'Good heavens!' said I, quivering and crumpling like an iced hooker. 'Can it truly be that you are the one who, as well as I can rightly remember, did go by the name that I know as nearly and tenderly as mine own mother's who did die from lead poisoning (so much did she enjoy the taste of vintage paint!) and who (now I'm speaking of you and not my mum) has ever earned my greatest esteem -- and not only mine but that of vagrants and filthmongerers the world over -- and is called, so well as I can recall... Mr. God's Love!'
     'Yup,' said he. He was on occasion, you see, given to fits of reticence and needed of coaxing, or booze -- whichever was ready-to-hand. 'Check it thusly. I have only just this very moment finished Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. That chick wrote one fucked-up book, but it's verily as problematic as it is joysome.'
     Repulsing his kneading palm from my pert derriere, I then endeavored to inform him that Evelyn Waugh was not so much a bird as a half-gay gentleman who bethought his feces weren't malodorous and that 'joysome' was not by the strictest accounts an actual word. But Mr. God's-Love, an extremist in the most moderate sense of the term, would have none of it.
     ''Tis so, fucko,' he rebutted. 'But never mind. This book: Oh, it longs to be beautiful and exceptional, but in the end it takes a good spill in the muck of conservatism and glib generational arrogance. In its finer moments, it ascends to the heights that Proust only dared dream of (so suck it, Proustlover!), but at its lowliest, it's cheap and swindling.'
     'Oh, so you're set on three stars -- or perhaps two then?' I inquired of him, stuffing my crested cravat into my glen check vestment dicky which did so ride up on me.
     'Four or three,' said he, crushing corn tortilla chips in the elongated central pocket of his zippered and hooded sweatshirt. 'Prolly three. But 'tis a right monstrous thing to decide upon a rating for a tome which is, disparately, abysmal and fucking amazing. I would that one could perform such a thing as a crappendectomy on Brideshead Revisited, and then would I clutch it to my bosom, weep with it, dress it in a tiny sailor uniform, and take it 'round town in a souped-up pram. I would think so much of it then, you understand. But as it is, it evens out somewhere around middling...'
     Then did he look up into the night sky and sigh -- once, desperately, longingly -- and he took leave of me, muttering as he did so -- saying, as nearly as I can gather, 'Let me go now, fucko. I am needful presently of a little Steve Miller...'
     Thus did it pass.(less)

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Jun 11, 2013 Aubrey rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-06-12, rage-against-the-sexuality, on-hand, reviewed, 2-star

2.5/5

When I first started reading this book, I was puzzled, lost even in my effort to find what exactly the author was attempting. As time and pages passed, I grew horribly angry with it all, and wondered if I would be able to finish and review the story without a note of fury running through it and wrecking what analysis I could present. Now that I've finished, I find myself saddened by the entire experience. With that in mind, let me explain.

This story had a great deal of potential in it, obli...more 2.5/5

When I first started reading this book, I was puzzled, lost even in my effort to find what exactly the author was attempting. As time and pages passed, I grew horribly angry with it all, and wondered if I would be able to finish and review the story without a note of fury running through it and wrecking what analysis I could present. Now that I've finished, I find myself saddened by the entire experience. With that in mind, let me explain.

This story had a great deal of potential in it, oblique mentions of heartrending stories of religious guilt and tortured shame and individual souls beating themselves bloody on the walls of an uncaring sociocultural framework, and it is largely this potential that kept me going through pages of insipid characters running around, trampling on everyone without the slightest attempt to understand their desires or care about the ones of others. To put it plainly, I loathed every single one of them, the narrator most of all, who made great friends with the one person whose storyline could have redeemed the entire book. Instead of caring the slightest bit for said 'friend', he wasted countless pages on selfish pursuits of 'love' and 'art' and philosophical meanderings that were the most pitifully idiotic things I have seen in a long time. Why is he alone? Why does life pass him by? What is beauty, history, and why has he been driven from Arcadia? Because he's an emotionally stunted git who makes friends and discovers passions and finds love and doesn't care about any of it, or if he does chooses to expound on it in the most unbelievable of ways, drawing upon learning and knowledge that are nothing more than unrealistic information dumps formatted in purple prose more laughably ridiculous than beautiful (excessive semicolons are not to everyone's taste).

And then I thought to myself, wait. It isn't just the narrator that suffers from this, but the entire cast of characters, the whole story even, a whole flat mess of caricatured nonsense that is trying to convey a message in the most contrived of methods. Which means only one thing. This is the author that is failing miserably at delivering, and there's no wonder why.

This is the kind of book that English classes would adore, or at least the teachers would, as while the work is not so great in itself, it is the perfect springboard for discussion of all matters of issues. Best of all, the flat characters that drown their passions in meaningless prattle, the obvious distinctions between when the author is droning out plot and when he is attempting at themes and meaning, the constant hints at powerful emotions of religious suffering, cultural decay, and sexual deviancy? All perfect material for discussions and essays, as there are barely any obvious overtones that students could grasp at, a paltry amount of quotes for easy access to what teachers would consider to be "critical thinking". Chances are, this is what the author took away from the classroom, and these are the methodologies by which he chose to write his book.

It's disappointing, really, to see the effects of classroom indoctrination in something deemed a classic, which raises the question of what a "classic" really implies. I've read many that are certainly worthy of the title in my mind, novels that pushed and pulled at my sensibilities, opened my mind to gorgeous forms of prose and powerful emotional themes, changed my worldview countless times while managing to achieve the simple goals of making me laugh, cry, feel for characters that I will never truly know but love nonetheless. This book, though. It fulfills the aspects required for the average education well enough, and is worthwhile in its own way. But it could have been so much more, and the fact that it isn't is a tragedy in itself.

Back when I was still feeling angry with the story, I considered not reading the rest of the author's works that I have added. I've decided that I will, but not for a while, and only for the hope that he made some improvements. It's not his fault that the education concerning literature is not what it could be, and shows itself so plainly in his writing. I can only hope for improvement in the future.(less)

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Aug 03, 2007 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: the well-read and those who claim to be

Shelves: favorites

An English novel dating from near the end of World War II, Brideshead Revisited is an elaborate and fascinating reminiscence of a time passed. A novel told in reverie by eyes looking back.

At the core of the novel is the friendship between Oxford classmates Charles (the narrator) and Sebastian. One thing separates Charles and Sebastian. Class. A ubiquitous theme in the best English novels, portrayed here as well as it is in any counterpart in English fiction. One thing unites them. Affection. Per...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: campus, 1940s

Soup of oseille, sole in white wine sauce, caneton à la presse, caviare aux blinis, lemon soufflé, wines, cognac, and cigars – few scenes in Brideshead Revisited (1945) better capture the sumptuous, decadent texture of the Waugh's encomium and critique of British aristocracy between the wars than Ryder's dinner at Paillard's. Indeed, one of the great pleasures of the book is savoring the novel's rich settings: Oxford, London, Venice, Paris, the Maghreb, and of course Brideshead Castle. We get to...more Soup of oseille, sole in white wine sauce, caneton à la presse, caviare aux blinis, lemon soufflé, wines, cognac, and cigars – few scenes in Brideshead Revisited (1945) better capture the sumptuous, decadent texture of the Waugh's encomium and critique of British aristocracy between the wars than Ryder's dinner at Paillard's. Indeed, one of the great pleasures of the book is savoring the novel's rich settings: Oxford, London, Venice, Paris, the Maghreb, and of course Brideshead Castle. We get to peek inside the posh rooms of Oxford undergrads, wander through stately mansions, attend balls with the wealthy and influential, and cross the Atlantic, first class, on the Queen Mary.

Like the different courses of the meals he so temptingly describes and like the sumptuous variety of settings he so intricately details, Waugh's style, too, pleasantly alternates: at times richly "rhetorical and ornamental," at others light, spare, and refreshing, occasionally bitter, frequently poignant. From a technical point of view, the book leaves you satisfied, even surfeited.

But after sampling all this rich fare, you may still find that the plot leaves you empty and questioning. Like Hardy's Jude the Obscure, which profoundly influenced Waugh's novel, Brideshead Revisited is a study of the tension between the appetites of the flesh and the pull of the spirit. If you've read Hardy's last novel, you'll quickly recognize that Charles and Julia's affair is Waugh's retelling, his gentler "revisitation," of Jude and Sue Bridehead's harrowing relationship (hence the title of Waugh's book). Brace yourself: the enigmatic outcome of Waugh's book may be almost as maddening as the disturbing conclusion of Hardy's tragedy.

I was absorbed in Brideshead Revisited for 250 pages, interested for the next 90, but mystified and disappointed by the last 10... still, the book gets four stars, almost five, because in spite of the ending, maybe because of it, I'm ready to turn to page 1 and read the whole thing all over again.(less)

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Sep 23, 2008 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, brit-lit, worlds-lost-dead-and-dying, owned, give-me-seven-years, 20th-century-postwar-to-late, grand-opera

It is difficult to encapsulate a book which strives to reach for so much over the course of its pages. I'm sure I will miss some things, but perhaps that's best with a book like this. An epic style classic, I mean. There's always something more to dig out of it.

The writing style is one of the most striking things about the book, let me just put that out there. This is due to the hodgepodge nature of the thing. The beginning of the book has quite a bit of high Romanticism, of a style more appropr...more It is difficult to encapsulate a book which strives to reach for so much over the course of its pages. I'm sure I will miss some things, but perhaps that's best with a book like this. An epic style classic, I mean. There's always something more to dig out of it.

The writing style is one of the most striking things about the book, let me just put that out there. This is due to the hodgepodge nature of the thing. The beginning of the book has quite a bit of high Romanticism, of a style more appropriate to the 1840s than the post WWII era- to the point where its utter cheesiness seems out of place, which often gives way to Madox Ford type of prose- unobtrusive, mild, wiltingly despairing, Lost Generation feelings. Towards the end of the book, you get some very modern, intentionally shocking bits and some existentialism. The Romanticism has entirely died. Obviously the choice of styles illustrates the journey of the main character/the main Flyte family through the novel, but I thought it was also an interesting way of encapsulating popular styles of writing that prevailed at the time, particularly in Britain in the interwar era. One of the major points of the book is to give a reading of the English character, and the styles covered many sides of it, I think.

As to the story itself, it is a long metaphor for the death of the old way of life in England. A powerful English Catholic family, the Flytes, slowly crumbles from the inside as member by member by member they are struck down into death or into irrelevancy, doomed to live out their days as shadows of their former brilliance, unable to let go of the past or work with the future. The narrator, Charles Ryder, is not one of the family, but he is perfectly placed to see each demise as it occurs. It is a superemely heartbreaking piece as we get to see the crushing of each character's hopes and dreams in excruciating detail. I found myself becoming attached to the family, in spite of how awful and distancing that they could be, so well done to Waugh for that one. It does endow one with a sense of helplessness, though, just like the characters, that there is nothing that really could be done for them, prisoners as they are of ideology, centuries of history, societal expectations, family dramas, repressed (or not so repressed) sexuality, rand of course, and most of all, religion.

The Catholic yarn of the novel burns perhaps the brightest of all. It is continually present, even under circumstances that one would believe had no call for it. Which is the point of it. Waugh paints a Catholicism that is everywhere, in everything, allows its followers no freedom, no room to grow and change, nothing entirley of their own, of a Big Brother type God/Church who sees everything. It is an ideology of no escape, which we see several characters- most notably the tragic Sebastian- struggling against. It is a condemnation of the stranglehold that the Church places on human beings, or being human at all. It is the Church, in the end, despite all the helping factors of society, the past, the changing-too-fast present, that ultimately destroys the hopes and dreams of all the main characters. Charles, Sebastian, Julia, Lord Marchmain, Lady Marchmain, all of them. They cannot escape it. Not even Charles, who isn't even a Catholic, but is merely in love with this family infused with it. One of the most constant questions by Charles is, "Do you always talk about religion so much?" or "Why bring God into it?" totally uncomphrending that the family can't get God /out/ of anything.

Lady Marchmain stands in for God on Earth, while Sebastian is the hugely flawed Christ character. He's actually something of a cross between Christ and a Drowning Ophelia, but really, in terms of action, is there much difference? Especially since Sebastian is really a Christ of the Jesus in the Garden variety, that is of the "let this cup pass from me," variety. It is said over and over again that he has a calling, that he is holy yet rather heathen, and even he ends up in the embrace of the Church. A pathetic embrace it may be, yet he ends in serving it despite whatever he might have willed or tried to forget through his drunkenness and wandering. Sebastian is the most heartbreakingly beautiful pieces of the story, though he fades out of view in the second half. He still manages to drive the motion, to keep Charles' reluctant love.

In the way all the characters end and the total presence of belief, despite not wanting to, I was reminded very strongly of Graham Greene. He made a lot of similiar points (if perhaps more passionately) in The End of the Affair. The final cry of, "God, just leave me alone!" at the end of that novel is echoed on page after page here. I do think that it is done better and with more finesse by Greene, but I will grant that Waugh had a lot more to deal with and probably had to be a bit more crude on this topic.

I should also probably mention that there is a very strong homosexual element to the story. Charles spends the first half of the book in love with Sebastian, and the second half chasing the shade of him, his sister Julia. It is presented as a platonic love (at least Waugh mentions nothing about them actually having sex) but nonetheless an obsessive one. He does deal in rather surprisingly explicit detail with other gay relationships in the person of Anthony Blanche, Sebastian's German lover, etc. They even visit gay clubs and there is a lot of very open talk about people being gay. I was surprised by that in a novel published almost 50 years ago, especially one with such a strong Catholic element to it. A lot of people's sexuality is questionable, and the idea of being in love with a person, an idea, more than being sexually attracted to either gender is brought up again and again. Rather progressive for its time, I thought.

... okay, I've rather rambled on, haven't I? In sum, very well written, epic, handles a lot more than one would think it could, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. Though, I won't lie, being an anglophile helps to get you through the slower bits and through the rolling your eyes at the cheesy Romanticism and crazy Ophelia characters.

Right. Really done now!

(less)

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May 12, 2011 Sandy Tjan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, bbc-big-reads, british-literature, ebook, world-war-ii

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED

There was once a noble house called Brideshead
Of sacred and profane memories
Seat of the last of the Marchmains
An ancient pile with a false dome
Where painted classical deities cavorted
Reflected in gilt mirrors
Echoed in carved marbles
The chapel was Art Nouveau
The drawing room Chinoiserie
And the whole thing flanked by colonnades and pavilions
Lady Marchmain was a lady of religion
Perpetually at her Matins, Lauds and Vespers
Lord Marchmain had long fled the magnificent coop
To live...more

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Sep 25, 2007 Lauren G rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

this book hit me, hard. i read it for a course in 'catholic literature' which was the same course in which i read 'diaries of a country priest,' and 'le grand meaulnes.' it was an excuse for my favorite professor to teach a small group of students about his all-time favorite books. he made up the name so he could teach it as a theology/literature course.

we read brideshead, then watched the film version with jeremy irons. growing up immersed in an anglophile household, i was amazed i'd waited to...more

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Jun 17, 2007 Matthew Klobucher rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Since I first read it, Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece Brideshead Revisited has unequivocally been my favorite book. It's haunting, melancholy, ironically humorous swan song to all that is elegant and beautiful and pure in this world captivated me. It echoed in eloquent, lucid, and devastatingly satiric paragraphs my firm conviction that true Beauty and Love and even God Himself exist not far beyond the pale glitter of a heartless, selfish, utterly apathetic and drear world. It is an ode to the ideal...more

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Sep 08, 2009 Joe rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Two totally separate, virtually unrelated books with over-the-top narration and no arc. Brideshead Revisited is divided into two books that take place ten years apart from each other. The narrator/main character is almost unrecognizable from one to the other, and no real explanation is given. Is a simpering fool in the first book, and a cold jerk in the second. His main obsession in the first book is almost entirely and perfunctorily absent from the second, and vice versa with his obsession from...more

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Oct 20, 2007 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

This is one of the two books I tend to read at least once a year (the other one is Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov). I've probably read it at least 25 times and I get something new from it every time. He's one of those writers who makes the English language sound decadent and beautiful.

It definitely contains the single best passage about food that I've ever seen - the scene with Charles Ryder and Rex Mottram eating pressed duck and caviar blinis in a little restaurant in London. The way he writes ab...more

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Feb 08, 2008 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic

Read this book after the PBS series years ago. The series was true to the book and depicts the elegance and tragedy of a lost period in British life. It is the story of two young men, their family, and the intertwinement of their lives. Life was slower, people dressed for dinner, there was thoughtful conversation. Nonetheless there is illness, repression, alcoholism. Read the book and rent the DVD. Timeless classic.

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Jan 20, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fiction, gay, u-of-chicago, edminster-group

In his letter of 7 January 1945 Evelyn Waugh wrote to Nancy Mitford that (regarding Lady Marchmain) "no I am not on her side; but God is, who suffers fools gladly; and the book is about God." Nancy, in a subsequent letter (17 January 1945) commented that she was "immune from" the "subtle" Catholic propaganda supposedly in the novel. Well, I guess that I am in Nancy's camp, recognizing the excellence of this G.E.C. (Great English Classic) and in my own way fascinated by the role of God in it, I r...more In his letter of 7 January 1945 Evelyn Waugh wrote to Nancy Mitford that (regarding Lady Marchmain) "no I am not on her side; but God is, who suffers fools gladly; and the book is about God." Nancy, in a subsequent letter (17 January 1945) commented that she was "immune from" the "subtle" Catholic propaganda supposedly in the novel. Well, I guess that I am in Nancy's camp, recognizing the excellence of this G.E.C. (Great English Classic) and in my own way fascinated by the role of God in it, I remain unmoved by any hidden proselytizing (perhaps too harsh a word). Brideshead Revisited is possibly Evelyn Waugh's greatest novel and certainly one of the best English novels of the twentieth century. The demonstration of the battle between the culture of a civilization dying in the aftermath of World War I and the modern "hollow" culture of the the twentieth century plays out in this drama of a family and their estate, Brideshead. The journey of Charles Ryder, who guides us through this story, from his first encounter with Sebastian Flyte and his first visit to Brideshead keeps the reader rapt until the final pages, when under the shadow of the Second World War Charles returns to Brideshead for a final visit. His growth through encounters with the Flyte children and their mother and father plays out against the background of the Brideshead and all that for which it stands. Waugh uses comic relief in a judicious manner to lighten the way for the reader in a way that keeps the serious themes of the novel from becoming overwhelming. This classic novel also provides a beautiful depiction of the experience of going up to Oxford during the 1920s.

Further thoughts: In his letters Waugh claims that the theme of the novel is death, but I am not sure we should trust the author to be completely accurate in that sweeping summary of what appears, upon reading, to be a complicated and thoroughly multi-layered meditation on, yes death, but also memory and loss and the source of spiritual nurturing for human beings. Charles finds his passion in art and is as successful in that endeavor as he is unsuccessful in love. The sadness that surrounds his relationships with the various members of the Marchmain clan mirrors the sadness of their decline. I am reminded of Mann's Buddenbrooks from the turn of the century which limned a not dissimilar family decline. In Brideshead a significant question is whether Charles can overcome his two lost loves--both of whom moved away from him more than he from them--with the love of life that he acquires through art. His journey involves a tumult of emotion and imagery told in such a compelling and magnificent way that it is easy to lose ones self in the prose. Rather than bias the reader I will not provide a conclusion or even hint where I come out with regard to Charles life other than to suggest that, as Eliot once said with poetic grace, the end is there in the beginning.

If you like magnificent writing, biting wit, England (Oxford in particular) or Venice, or the serene beauty of traditional manners you will love this book(less)

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Dec 07, 2011 Alison rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Catholics, alcoholics, interested in the classics

Shelves: alltime100novel, modernlibrary100best

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I should have liked Brideshead Revisited much more than I did. Widely considered a classic, it's passages are more poetry than narrative, rich, dense, and beautifully constructed. The story is of love, family, and religion (THE BIG THREE!). Unfortunately, toward the end, I lost enthusiasm for the story and it's resolution.

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder tells of the young Charles Ryder, student at Oxford, and how he becomes aquainted with an arist...more I should have liked Brideshead Revisited much more than I did. Widely considered a classic, it's passages are more poetry than narrative, rich, dense, and beautifully constructed. The story is of love, family, and religion (THE BIG THREE!). Unfortunately, toward the end, I lost enthusiasm for the story and it's resolution.

Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder tells of the young Charles Ryder, student at Oxford, and how he becomes aquainted with an aristocratic family--Lady Marchmain and her estranged husband, and their children Bridey, Julia, Cordelia, and most infamously, Sebastian. Like most families, they have their issues, which I won't go into at length here. The most interesting to me was Sebastian, whom we meet at age 19 while he is an undergrad at Christ Church. I HAVE TO MENTION THAT HE CARRIES A TEDDY BEAR...and also, he develops a drinking problem as he attempts to escape from what he considers an overbearing family among other inner demons.

Charles and Sebastian become embroiled in one of those famous are-they-or-aren't-they ambiguous male friendships slash platonic romances. Charles describes his regard for Sebastian in this passage...

"But I was in search of love in those days, and I went full of curiousity and the faint, unrecognized apprehension that here, at last, I should find that low door in the wall, which others, I knew, had found before me, which opened on an enclosed and enchaned garden, which was somewhere, not overlooked by any window, in the heart of that grey city."

Later, we are led to believe that their romance was a "forerunner" for relationships to come.

Themes in Brideshead include religion, family, and relationships, and the part they play in the human psyche; how they influence our decisions, how they free us or bind us, how they strengthen or weaken us. My favorite motif is of memory..."that winged host that soared about me one grey morning of war-time" and how we can truly only understand, accept, and make sense of our experiences as we are looking back on them.(less)

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Aug 07, 2008 Edan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I know it's terrible to admit this--but I didn't dig Brideshead Revisited. Well, I did, at first: I liked the descriptions of Oxford after WWI, and Sebastian with his teddy bear named Aloysius (really, if someone had told me about the bear I would've read this novel years ago!). But then the story just meandered and hemmed and hawed through years and years. I found the narrator dull, and his relationship to Julia just didn't matter to me. I had no interest in the Catholic themes, which the entir...more

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Apr 13, 2007 Julz rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: re-reads

Both the book and the mini-series are compulsively re-read and re-watchable to me.I like Waugh's more acerbic/comic works as well, but this work, which many dismiss as too sentimental, is my hands-down favorite.

In addition to a delightfully complex set of characters and relationships, there are so many quotes which so perfectly evoke the feeling of longing for a time which has long since past:

"I had been there before. I knew all about it."

"It was as though someone had switched off the wireless,...more

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May 09, 2013 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Downton Abbey?

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: Kandice Sharren

Shelves: fiction, literary-fiction, novels, classics

I joked to a friend I knew I was back in literary-land again at the reappearance of all the semi-colons. In fact, there doesn't seem much difference in style, and not much in voice, between this 1944 novel by Waugh and Bronte's 1853 novel Villette which I read recently. Both have elegant, rather plush prose styles with a leisurely pace and fondness for extended metaphor, both are very, very English, told through first person narrators and both deal with Catholic themes. Villette harshly critique...more I joked to a friend I knew I was back in literary-land again at the reappearance of all the semi-colons. In fact, there doesn't seem much difference in style, and not much in voice, between this 1944 novel by Waugh and Bronte's 1853 novel Villette which I read recently. Both have elegant, rather plush prose styles with a leisurely pace and fondness for extended metaphor, both are very, very English, told through first person narrators and both deal with Catholic themes. Villette harshly critiqued Roman Catholicism from an English Protestant point of view, its narrator Lucy Snowe seeing it as bearing a fruit of "ignorance, abasement, and bigotry." Evelyn Waugh's Charles Ryder is presumably of Protestant roots but calls himself an agnostic--and he falls more than a little in love with the entire Catholic Flyte family and their faith. They, of course, are differently situated than the Belgium Catholics in Villette as English Catholics in between the two world wars. Catholics in England had been persecuted for centuries and barred from public life from "Elizabeth’s reign till Victoria’s." A bit isolated, discriminated against, especially in aristocratic circles marrying within only a few families, their situation reminded me more of the Jewish experience in recent centuries than that of Christians in Christian dominated countries. Evelyn Waugh was a convert to Catholicism so naturally his view is more positive than Bronte's, or at least seemed less caricatured. He wrote in a letter to Nancy Mitford included in the back matter that Brideshead Revisited is "steeped in theology" and suggested to his publisher that if they didn't like the original title an alternative might be "A Household of Faith." The subtitle is "The Sacred and Profane Memoirs of Captain Charles Ryder."

For all of that the Flytes' religion as depicted in the book seemed more the source of needless tragedy than strength for each of them, driving them to lives hopeless and loveless. It could be that given I'm tone deaf on spiritual subjects--I do try to understand what is so important in so many lives but I admit it's pretty lost on me--that this just isn't a theme that could resonate with me. That may be why the ending fell flat with me and felt so unsatisfying. Nor did I find it the moving experience that my friend who recommended it to me did. I don't know I can say I much identified or sympathized with any of the characters, who seemed the cause of their own destruction despite all their privileges and gifts. They lived in a very rarefied atmosphere indeed of tea and crumpets, fox-hunting, old piles with private chapels, footmen, valets, nannies and chauffeurs. Sebastian, who charms almost everyone, from almost all the characters in the book to many readers, left me rather cold. The narrator, an indifferent parent and husband, left me colder. He laments a dying world where "wealth is no longer gorgeous and power has no dignity." The kind of aristocratic wealth and power a tiny few were born to, but almost no one could or did earn, so again I think the nostalgia for that lost world was something for which I felt a decided lack. Yet note I rated this novel fairly highly. It did have the rather voyeuristic thrill of a Downton Abbey world, at times deliciously gossipy and eccentric, almost satiric (especially in the first part), and there is the almost Victorian gleam of Waugh's prose, wit, and rather biting social commentary. I did read it with pleasure and it sped past while I was transported to another world.(less)

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Jun 23, 2010 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-reads

For the first several pages, I wondered what I'd gotten myself into and if I would want to finish. The formal language felt unfamiliar, but I came to love both the prose and the story. The story is told in the first person by Charles Ryder. In the prologue he is in the British Army at the beginning of WWII moving to a new camp, which he finds is the estate called Brideshead. Yes, he has been here before. The remainder of the novel is the telling of the circumstances of his prior knowledge of thi...more

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May 16, 2008 J rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the great pleasures of my college years was the discovery of Evelyn Waugh. There are a great many authors and books from that time period that shine with a transcendent memory so lasting that to encounter the works in later years is to be just a little disappointed. Part of what made them so effecting was the immediacy and constancy of the feeling one has in one’s early twenties that your mind is a flower always bursting open. The right book in those years can alter your life in a way tha...more

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May 09, 2009 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, 2008, 1001-books-list

This is a thinking book. Initially my first reaction, upon completing the book, was this: "What a bunch of assholes."

After further reflection, I stand by that statement, but I can see how each of the characters was flawed, and how the individual failings of each character were exacerbated by relationships with the others'.

For me, most of the book seemed to be an attack on Catholicism, which caused so many rifts in the Flyte family. Throughout, both Sebastian and Julia struggle so much against t...more

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Aug 15, 2008 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I enjoyed this book. It was, for the most part, absorbing but I definitely had no trouble putting it down.
The end irritated me a great deal. Waugh used religion to neatly wrap up the story and, at the end, I felt like I'd been force-fed C.S. Lewis. How can there not be a god and all that. Or, at the least, how can you deny or dismiss the faith of others no matter how wrecked their lives are because of that faith.
It's not that I'm against people writing about their religion and, especially in f...more

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Jul 05, 2010 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

4 and 1/2 stars

I enjoyed this book tremendously: the writing, the wit, the characters, the dialogue. Geek that I am, I even reveled in the structure of the sentences -- all those semicolons (no one uses them as much anymore); I loved them! Even after saying all this, I'm giving it 4 (and a half) stars, instead of 5, though I'm not sure why.

In theme and (sometimes) temperament, this book reminded me, at times, of The End of the Affair, a novel which affected me much more than this one did. Perhap...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Jordan Gregory rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Divorcees, Anglophiles, "Catholics"

I took you out to dinner to warn you of charm. I warned you expressly and in great detail of the Flyte family. Charm is the great English blight. It does not exist outside these damp islands. It spots and kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills art; I greatly fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you. (273)

Charles Ryder is a spectator. Not of noble and courageous feats, nor of high danger and adventure; rather, he observes the "charm" and subsequent decline of the very proper, very Eng...more

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Dec 05, 2008 Carrie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-pre-1960

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'd been wanting to read this ever since seeing the 2008 film. I'd never seen the PBS version (although the edition I read was to accompany the series), so I wasn't one of the many who complained the 2.5-hour version paled so much in comparison to the 6-hour version. After reading the book, I have no idea why so many reviewers slammed the modern version for being untrue to the novel -- it does condense some material, leave out one important minor character, and throw in flirtation between Julia...more I'd been wanting to read this ever since seeing the 2008 film. I'd never seen the PBS version (although the edition I read was to accompany the series), so I wasn't one of the many who complained the 2.5-hour version paled so much in comparison to the 6-hour version. After reading the book, I have no idea why so many reviewers slammed the modern version for being untrue to the novel -- it does condense some material, leave out one important minor character, and throw in flirtation between Julia and the narrator where it never occurred. However, the film would have seemed jerky and illogical without the added flirtation because the narrator's voice, no single event, is so instrumental in revealing how his relationship with Julia begins.

Now that I've got that off my chest...I have several nitpicks even though I enjoyed this book about as much as any upperclass British drama. (Hey, if it's got a country house, I'm there.) First, Waugh's metaphors boggle me. They seem disconnected, not quite accurate, and florid, despite his well-crafted writing. Every time Charles lapses into reverie, I start scratching my head. Whuh? I guess I like my metaphors to be clean and useful, not an excuse to pontificate on beauty.

Second, Charles is really a bastard. He refers to his two children, one of whom he has never even met, as "her [his wife's] children." He is about as cold as a frozen fish. I got the opinion that the only reason Charles ends up bisexual is because Julia looks so much like Sebastian. If there were no Julia, Charles would most certainly have remained homosexual. (Not that I'm comparing homosexuality with coldness; it's his coldness to his wife that betrays his homosexuality.)

Third, the whole Catholic subplot, conveyed with the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the head, seems written by someone who is certainly NOT Catholic. I guess I'll have to check Waugh's religious beliefs, because I'm merely guessing. I understand being Catholic in Britain during the first half of the century was a disadvantage, but the extent to which the religion ruined the lives of an entire family comes off as rather ridiculous -- overbearing mother or not. I would think her children would be intelligent enough, and well bred enough, to understand the bigger picture of religion.

Despite these drawbacks, I did enjoy the book and would try Waugh one more time before waving goodbye.(less)

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Feb 27, 2008 Avis Black rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics-i-loathed

I've never understood what people see in Waugh. Every book by him is both lame in humor and generally unlikeable, with the exception of his autobiography.

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Feb 23, 2009 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Brideshead Revisited was the 21st book I have read on my quest to complete the list compiled by the Modern Library of the Top 100 English Language Novels of the 20th Century.

Being nearly devoid of organized religion for most of my life, I was at times fascinated by the overriding theme of Catholic/religious morals versus human needs and desires. I generally find that religion is little more than a nuisance in our society today and I get the feeling that Mr. Waugh shared that sentiment in his tim...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Jake Pomeroy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I discovered this book in the same way in which I discovered many of the books I've read in the last six months - I found it on a number of lists of the one-hundred best books of the twentieth century, and, seeing it so frequently listed on different lists of similar purpose, decided that, if so many people, critics and regular readers alike, spoke so highly of it, then there must be something akin to truth in all the praise, coming as it did from so many different sources and, presumably, many...more I discovered this book in the same way in which I discovered many of the books I've read in the last six months - I found it on a number of lists of the one-hundred best books of the twentieth century, and, seeing it so frequently listed on different lists of similar purpose, decided that, if so many people, critics and regular readers alike, spoke so highly of it, then there must be something akin to truth in all the praise, coming as it did from so many different sources and, presumably, many different people with varied tastes and experiences. I thus picked it up from the library and commenced reading it. I must confess myself somewhat conflicted by the work, overall, although I am certainly glad to have read it, as it is clearly significant, with many interesting things to say, and some beautifully evocative passages, with almost universally florid prose which is a delight to read.

My confusion arises from the conclusion the author, Englishman and Oxford graduate Evelyn Waugh, seems to be driving at, to whit, that ultimately we must give up the things we most desire in life, those that bring to us a happiness which we all seek, and few find, in favor of a suffering the author seems to perceive as necessary to achieve a particularly Catholic form of grace. I, quite simply, reject this notion on all its grounds, and because of this, found the ending, in which many of the main characters who have spent their lives rejecting the Catholic faith of their elders, choosing instead to live lives on their own terms and seek happiness in the way best suited to themselves, return, under various forms of duress and artificially imposed guilt, to the religion which had caused them so much, in my mind, unnecessary consternation throughout their lives. Two of the main, and indeed most tragic characters in the book, are the most prominent examples of this phenomenon: Lord Sebastian Flyte and his sister, the Lady Julia Flyte. While both characters are quite different in temperament and outlook, they share many similarities, from their physical appearances and bearing, to their basic rejection of the faith of their overbearing mother, Lady Marchmain.

Sebastian in particular is a tragic figure of the highest proportion. We, the readers, are first introduced to him when, after a night of drunken revelry, he sticks his head into the window of the narrator, and main character Charles Ryder's ground floor apartment at Oxford, and vomits unceremoniously on his floor, then simply leaves with no explanation or apology for his behavior, leaving the bemused and irritated Ryder to clean up the mess. The next day, however, Charles receives a letter of apology from Sebastian, begging forgiveness for his unseemly behavior of the previous night, and inviting Charles to a luncheon by way of making amends. Charles is, at this point, determined to mix only with the 'right type of people' during his matriculation at the prestigious Oxford, guided in this endeavor mostly by the advice of his elder cousin Jasper, an upperclassman rather obsessed with status and social standing, and wishing to impart his 'wisdom' to the younger first year Charles, lest he fall in with 'undesirables' and acquire a bad reputation amongst the 'proper sort of people,' a fate Jasper seems to consider the height of impropriety, and thus worth avoiding at all costs. He explains to Charles that it is expected that during his first year at the university he should fall in with the 'wrong type of people,' which can be forgiven as it is quite common, but will almost certainly spend his second year shedding his initial friends in favor of a more respectable set. Charles initially accepts this advice, and is quite haughty and dismissing of those he considers eccentrics who refuse to conform. Indeed, before Sebastian vomits into his window and subsequently invites him to lunch, Charles was well aware of the young lord's existence, since Sebastian was known campus wide as a strange eccentric to be avoided by the 'better sort,' for a variety of reasons, the most obviously visible of which is his strange predilection to wander about the campus with a large teddy bear tucked under his arm, whom he refers to as 'Aloysius' and to whom he attributes various qualities the inanimate bear clearly cannot actually possess, most notably a 'haughtiness' and distinct disapproval of various things, foremost among them disloyalty of friends. Upon finding out one of his friends has been speaking ill of him behind his back, an unconcerned Sebastian simply states, in one of a great many hilarious scenes, "Did he? Aloysius wouldn't approve of that at all, would you, you pompous old bear?"

Charles at first disapproves of Sebastian for his non-conformist, seemingly carefree attitude, following the advice of the proper to a fault Jasper. However, after consenting to attend the luncheon to which he is invited after a drunken Sebastian vomits through his window, finds himself inexplicably drawn to the young lord because of his easy, unpretentious charm and zest for the hedonistic lifestyle, his love for the many pleasures a life of privilege has to offer. Through his friendship with Sebastian, which in many ways seems almost romantic in nature, Charles discovers within himself a love of pleasure and leisure, and comes to reject his cousin Jasper's advice towards rigid propriety being the 'proper' way to live.

The close friendship between the two quickly blossoms into a near inseparability, to the detriment of both their studies, but through which the two young men discover a love of pleasure and new experiences, through which they both come to grow into the men they will become in later years, albeit in very different ways. Charles is drawn to Sebastian's natural charm, his irreverence, his rejection of the traditional values and conformity which then marked the vast majority of the students at the prestigious Oxford, much to the chagrin of Charles former friends and, particularly, Jasper, who confronts Charles about the latter's 'improper' behavior, warning his cousin that he has become noticed in a negative way for his habits (such as drinking champagne in the middle of the day and wandering, drunk and boisterously yelling along with Sebastian, through the quad), and is becoming known as an eccentric around campus, a state which Jasper, slavishly beholden to what he sees as the proper way to live, considers abhorrent, presenting his criticism as merely trying to provide the proper guidance for his wayward cousin. Charles replies, quite simply, that he enjoys the company of 'undesirables,' and firmly rejects his cousin's council, leading to an estrangement between the two which Charles regrets not at all.

His close friendship with Sebastian borders on a romantic attachment, as I said, and it is left intentionally vague by Waugh, the author (himself 'outed' as a bisexual in a recent biography, having engaged in several homosexual affairs during his own matriculation at Oxford, though he later married a woman and had several children), whether or not the two ever actually moved beyond being extremely close, yet platonic 'romantic friends' into an actual sexual relationship, most obviously hinted at in the following passage, wherein Charles, whose mother was killed as an ambulance driver in the first World War and whose father was distant and aloof, reflects that through his friendship with Sebastian he was being given a version of the happy childhood that had been denied him in his youth, saying that this child-like happiness had, instead of the traditional toys with which children play, those taking the form of "silk shirts and liqueurs and cigars and naughtiness high in the catalog of grave sins," further saying that "there was something of nursery freshness about us that fell little short of the joy of innocence." Many readers cite this description of the nature of Charles and Sebastian's happiness and inseparability, specifically of its 'naughtiness high in the catalog of grave sins' as a reference to a clandestine sexual relationship between the two, which was considered a mortal sin within the Catholic ideology so prominent within the Oxford community of the time (the early 1920's). As I said, though, this is open to interpretation, and while it is clearly stated, at various points, how much Charles loved Sebastian, and commented on by other characters that their mutual love was deeper and more profound than most male friendships, it is never expressly stated that it ever went beyond an incredibly close, intense bond of two individuals who found endless pleasure in their mutual company.

Sebastian, as I previously stated, is an intensely tragic figure, which becomes obvious later when, partially because of his overbearing, intensely Roman Catholic mother's attempts to control his 'heathen' predilections toward hedonistic pleasures and bring him properly into the church, and partially because of his inability to adapt to the often ugly realities of the world that stand in the way of his desire for an undemanding life of simple, unchanging pleasure, he gradually transforms from somebody who drinks often and at odd hours merely for the pleasure of it, into a self-medicating, debilitating drunkard, consuming increasingly unhealthy amounts of alcohol to dull his near constant depression at the passage of time and the constant demands of his family and of adult life. These demands, indeed reality itself, are constantly encroaching on his child-like zeal, epitomized in the passage in which Sebastian laments his aging and his world's changing nature, saying to Charles on one of their excursions into the countryside: “If it could only be like this always – always summer, us always alone, the fruit always ripe and Aloysius in a good temper...” (once again attributing a personality to his teddy bear, a further sign of his perpetual refusal to accept the reality of adulthood).

I found Lord Sebastian Flyte to be the most fascinating person in the novel, and the most complex of the characters. He resents his family for their aristocratic charm, and tries to keep Charles from meeting them at all costs, fearful as he is that they will 'take' Charles, who views as 'his', from him and make him their own, indicative of another defining characteristic of his: his viewing of other people as possessions of his to be protected fiercely and at all costs. His constant companion, Aloysius the teddy bear, is another indication of this, since the bear unequivocally belongs only to Sebastian, and, though obviously an inanimate stuffed animal, acts as a surrogate friend and constant for the peculiar young lord, incapable as he is of 'abandoning' him, as his father has (Lord Marchmain quickly realized, after his marriage to Lady Marchmain and his conversion to Catholicism to appease her, that he hated both his wife and the religion she had thrust upon him, and responds by simply abandoning his family and his religion at the Brideshead estate to move to Venice with his mistress, Clara, depriving Sebastian and his siblings of a consistent father figure, though he keeps in semi-regular touch through letters and is always generous in constantly sending money to his children - though ignores his wife entirely). At one point, while Charles is staying for an extended period of time with Sebastian at the Brideshead estate, the former inquires who a person is, to which Sebastian replies, 'Oh, just one of Julia's,' indicating that the person in question belongs to his sister Julia, while he hopes to keep Charles as exclusively his, thus his constant fear that the rest of his family will charm and eventually claim Charles as their friend as well, resulting in Charles abandoning him, his constant fear realized. Sebastian's subsequent drastic downfall into extreme alcoholism is, at least partially, a result of his belief that this very thing has happened, as Charles visits Brideshead more and more frequently, and for extended periods of time as Sebastian's guest but, despite the latter's best efforts, develops a close friendship with his mother and two sisters (the Ladies Julia and Cordelia Flyte), thus depriving Sebastian of his 'possession' and leading to his feeling that Charles has 'abandoned him' and 'taken his family's side against him,' though Charles, while enjoying the company of the rest of the Brideshead clan, is devoted to Sebastian completely and without any reservation.

I spoke earlier of Sebastian's sister Julia as another character epitomizing what, to my atheistic self, as the off-putting 'moral' of the novel (which I recognize is a reaction that others of a more religious bent, especially Catholics, will likely not share), but I will decline to discuss her here, as to do so would involve spoiling many aspects of the latter portion of the novel, and this review has already spoiled more plot points than I had intended going into it. I will thus end here with my final summation: Brideshead Revisited is a beautifully written (Evelyn Waugh is one of the best prose stylists I've ever read, plain and simple) novel with fully realized, exceptionally flawed characters that grow and change, if not mature, over the course of the novel in believable, if, as I said, somewhat off-putting ways, and highly evocative descriptions of what it was to be part of the English Aristocracy in the post World War I world. Indeed, the malaise that infected not only Great Britain, but much of Western Europe, is highly prevalent in the novel, expressed in various ways too numerous to get into in this review, to the point that it can be seen as a beautifully written, highly evocative period piece about the conflict between desires and happiness that are deemed either 'sacred' or 'profane,' and how we each struggle (or at least those brought up Catholic struggle) to reconcile the two. Despite what I found to be a disappointing conclusion reached by Waugh, I found it to be an immensely well written, often hilarious, sometimes heart-breakingly sad, and ultimately worthwhile novel. I highly recommend it as a book well worth reading, despite its flaws as I see them.

I will end by providing an example of the novel's greatest strength, Waugh's beautifully written insights into friendship and the pleasures of youth gradually lost as we age:
- “The languor of youth - how unique and quintessential it is! How quickly, how irrecoverably, lost! The zest, the generous affections, the illusions, the despair, all the traditional attributes of youth - all save this come and go with us through life...These things are a part of life itself; but languor - the relaxation of yet unwearied sinews, the mind sequestered and self-regarding, the sun standing still in the heavens and the earth throbbing to our own pulse - that belongs to youth alone and dies with it.” -
(less)

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Jan 06, 2013 ♪ Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-star

It’s difficult to review a book like this. The themes are huge and there’s so much packed into a mere 350 pages.

The story is told in flashback by Charles Ryder, an army officer who comes across the Brideshead estate while moving from one camp to another. He knows it well, having been close to the Marchmain family and having spent much time at their home years before.

Charles meets Sebastian Flyte (second son of Lord Marchmain) while studying at Oxford. The two quickly become inseparable. Sebasti...more

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About Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youth” (1917) a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers; it was al...more Evelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youth” (1917) a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers; it was all we were taught, really.” He went on to Hertford College, Oxford where he read History. When asked if he took up any sports there he quipped, “I drank for Hertford.”

In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall” in 1928.

In 1928 he was married for the first time to Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust” from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.

During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies” (1930), “Black Mischief” (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust” (1934) and “Scoop” (1938). After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,” in which his Catholicism took center stage. “The Loved One” a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honor Trilogy” about his experiences in World War II (“Men at Arms” (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen” (1955), “Unconditional Surrender" (1961) his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again” (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.

Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, passed away on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.

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Trivia About Brideshead Revisited

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Quotes from Brideshead Revisited

“I should like to bury something precious in every place where I've been happy and then, when I'm old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig it up and remember.” — 227 people liked it

“Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all.” — 189 people liked it

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avg rating	preview: Brideshead Revisited Goodreads rating: 3.98 (33835 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/111620.Brideshead_Revisited?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1339284588l/111620.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/111620.Brideshead_Revisited?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh[/url]

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