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Brideshead Revisited
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Brideshead Revisited - Waugh
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This novel reminds me a bit of The Forsyte Saga, in that this is another story looking at how a family copes with the changing values and patterns of life in England during the first half of the 20th Century. The family is seen mostly from the perspective of a family friend, an artist named Charles, who started out in school as a friend of Sebastian, who was about the same age. Sebastian's family is among the minor nobility, such that Sebastian's sisters are actually realistic in dreaming about marrying a minor prince. The family is Catholicand rather conservative, but society is moving ahead with or without them, and pretty soon Sebastian's alcoholism is the least of their worries. Charles, the protagonist in the story, is a pretty self-centered man by the middle of the book, going off on long trips to 'paint' while his wife is home with his kids, who he seems to have no interest in whatsoever. Thankfully for his wife and kids' sake, Charles starts an affair with Julia, the now-also-married sister of Sebastian, and after a few years of a scandalous affair, Charles's wife finds a new love interest, and wants a divorce so she can remarry, this time to a man who actually knows and cares about her kids. This is a well-enough written book, and much shorter than the Forsyte Saga, but overall I liked the Forsyte Saga better.
I gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads. It's worth reading, and not unpleasant, but not one of my favorites.
The first part was great. You follow these two rich, careless Oxford students who might be gay or not - this was published in the 1940s - and it's all vibes no plot. The writing is beautiful, the dialogue witty, you can see the influences on A Secret History. (Also: the wine tasting scene).But then in part two you realize there's not enough character development to keep you interested in the vibes. What is this about anyway you wonder? But you think it might be the classical middle-of-a-classic-is-boring problem.
Wrong. The last part is the worst. The characters end up making the worst choices and you are left with no one to root for, but also it is so boring that you don't care what happens to anyone.
Safe to say I was extremely disappointed by how this experience turned out.
A novel about Charles Ryder and his interaction with the family of Brideshead. It was published in 1945 and it addressed the sacred and profane. Grace is examined through the Roman Catholic family, Marchmain. It was revised by the author in 1959. I believe I read the revised version. I listened to an audio version read by Jeremy Irons who did a splendid job with the various voices. Charles befriends Sebastian. This friendship is one of love. Later Charles attraction to Julia is because she reminds him so much of Sebastian. It is never fully disclosed to be a sexual relationship but it could have been. Charles marries and later divorces. He married for what his wife could do socially for him and not for love. He divorced and was to marry Julia but that never works out and the story ends with Charles alone and childless. The setting is during WWII. The title comes from Charles coming to Brideshead as the military takes it over for a camp and then he recalls his interactions with the family and this home and it ends with Charles in the military trying to get the camp set up.