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Customer Reviews of Brideshead Revisited

Quite a good novel by an author I never cared for. . . .
This is another of those books that has been on my to-read list for years, which people regularly recommended but which I kept pushing down the list . . . probably because I've never been particularly partial those other works of Waugh's which I've read -- superficial and stilted parodies like _Decline and Fall,_ _Vile Bodies,_ and _The Loved One._ But _Brideshead_ is, happily, quite different and shows Waugh at what I take to be his best. Charles Ryder, artist and scion of a minor upper class family, is a captain during World War II whose unit is posted to a large estate (Brideshead), a place where he spent some of the happiest, and unhappiest, times of his life back in the early 1920s, when he was at Oxford with Sebastian Flyte, the younger son of the wealthy and Catholic Marchmain family. The first part of the book is the story of the rise and fall of the friendship between Ryder and Sebastian, who hates his mother and sinks into alcoholism. The second part, which seems disconnected, is the story of Charles's success and the collapse of his marriage, and of his tenuous affair with Julia, Sebastian's sister. And that's about all the plot there is. But I enjoyed the book mostly for Waugh's mastery of character evolution, his depiction of the changes in Sebastian's grasp on the real world and on the growth of Ryder's cynicism. The supporting characters are fascinating: Sebastian's eldest brother, Brideshead (a lovely name!); the younger, pious sister, Cordelia; their friends, Anthony Blanche and Boy Mulcaster, who grow from tiresome undergraduates to men occasionally worth listening to; Julia's Canadian husband, Rex Mottrom; Sebastian's parents and Charles's father, and even quite minor figures in the story. There are also some great comic scenes, such as the thoroughly heathenish Rex's efforts to be converted to Roman Catholicism to please Julia's family, and Cousin Jasper's disquisition on how to be a proper Oxford Man. And Waugh's take on the peculiarities of the Anglo-Catholic world are very good. On the other hand, few of these characters are actually worth the reader's sympathy; they all have far too much money and the associated freedom to do just as they please, and none of them ever contributes much, if anything, to society at large.

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The epitome of British Literature
Just as *The Great Gatsby* captured the grand excess of the American Jazz Age, so too does Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece *Bridehead Revisited* capture the age of pre-war decadence. The clash between have and have not, so called class and commonness and Catholocism and athieism is brilliantly laid agains a backdrop of education and sexuality. A true coming of age novel, *Bridehead* captures a portrait of a young Charles Ryder as an artist. Content to live his destiny of middle class anguish, Charles meets the challange of his lifetime in Sebastian Flyte. Sebastian, an over grwon child, introduces Charles to a teddy bear named Aloysius, as well as his own upper crust band of misfits family who change the way Charles thinks about life, love, religion and money forever. From Oxford to the war, Waugh gives the reader a hint of a Britain loyal to the monarchy, yet more loyal to themselves. Read *Brideshead* with an open mind of the beauty you are receiving as a reader: the sybolism of the flower throughout, grand side characters like Anthony Blanche, and the little red light near the end that ties up Charles Ryder's visit to Brideshead in the same manner the green light across the lake summed up Gatsby's.

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Brideshead Revisited .
Set in England during the reigns of George V, Edward VIII and George VI, Evelyn Waugh explores in this novel, the varying degrees of spirituality of members of the Marchmain family and the relationships that exists between them and others who share their lives. Some family members weigh desires and progressive attitudes against social and religious convention and find the latter lacking, while others cling to old religious and social practices and seek to continue to enjoy the opulence of a soon to be, bygone era.

Waugh documents the excesses and eventual downfall of the youngest son Sebastian, whose burden it is to confront his disillusionment with his faith, with his morally incorruptible mother. Lady Marchmain's control over her children using her charm, piety and the religious doctrine she devoutly observes is unquestionable. Each member of her family is affected to varying degrees, including the absent husband.

The novel's narrator and protagonist Charles Ryder, is a self-confessed agnostic and friend of Sebastian. The story commences with Charles, who, at a low ebb in his life, is commissioned to command an infantry regiment during World War II and is despatched by train to an unknown location. His sullen mood determines that he neither feels the need to know his destination nor does he particularly care. Upon alighting the train to make camp Charles discovers he is within sight of Brideshead, the castle that was the Marchmain ancestral home and location of much happiness for him twenty years earlier. Charles recalls that precious time and relates the story with a deep sense of nostalgia and recognition that those languid days of love and abundance are gone forever.

Lady Marchmain commands abidance to Catholicism 'in a voice as quiet as a prayer and as powerful' from four very different children. The elder son, Brideshead is pious and conservative, unamusing and annoyingly narrow-minded. Julia is a contemporary woman, smart and very beautiful. She agonises over her marriage to a 'colonial' who doesn't understand centuries of observance to certain social protocol and devotion to a church, which he considers encourages the perpetuation of guilt for its own purposes. As Julia's angst is disclosed she is portrayed as a complex young woman who must reject her faith to marry. She eventually finds herself disappointed with her choices and is left wondering how life could have gone so awry.

Sebastian is 'the most conspicuous man of his year by reason of his beauty, which is arresting, and his eccentricities of behaviour, which seem to know no bounds'. Sebastian's charm captivates Charles from the first moment he sees him. They become inseparable and live life at Oxford to the full, however Charles eventually realises that Sebastian drinks to escape, rather than 'through an excess of high spirits, in the love of the moment and with the wish to prolong and enhance it'. Charles must eventually come to the conclusion that he has 'lost' his perpetually sullen friend.

Cordelia is the youngest of the Marchmain children. She is too young and devout of faith to fully understand her brother's dilemma, however she loves him unconditionally. Cordelia also seems too young to be aware of her mother's need to control, yet after Lady Marchmain dies, Cordelia confides to Charles that her mother 'was saintly but she wasn't a saint' and that 'when people wanted to hate God, they hated mummy'. There is a resigned acceptance at her inability to love her mother and of the lapse of faith of her father, sister and beloved brother.

Sebastian's deep depression and inner battle to reconcile his beliefs with his mother's expectations of him, are exemplified by Charles' responses in the conversation that he and Sebastian shared 'in the collonade with the papers'. Sebastian would not find true solace in his relationship with Charles because he perceived that Charles could not grasp the gravity of his dilemma, despite their mutual love. Waugh's decision to portray Charles as irreligious adds depth to Sebastian's dilemma. The reader is left with the distinct feeling that love does not 'conquer all' and that the chasm between being unaffected by religion and the need to be devout of faith is too wide to bridge for these two introspective young men. The book's most amusing dialogue occurs when Sebastian, unable or not wishing to try to defend his faith, exclaims 'Oh don't be a bore, Charles. I want to read about a woman in Hull who's been using an instrument'.

Lady Marchmain attempts to solicit Charles 'to her side' in order that he assist her to deny Sebastian the alcohol he increasingly relies upon. Initially charmed by her, Charles eventually recognises her ploy and rather than winning his confidence, Lady Marchmain's emotional blackmail succeeds in 'closing the low door in the wall' and Charles is destined to no longer meet Sebastian in their 'enchanted garden'.

Charles loses contact with the Marchmains until many years later when he and Julia are literally thrown together on a ship in a storm. It is a fitting climax to Charles' involvement with the Marchmain family that he and Julia should become lovers. The raging storm could be perceived to be a metaphor for the consummation of their relationship and that in itself to some degree, closure to Charles' lost love for Sebastian.

Presumably Evelyn Waugh sought to mourn the passing of an era and to celebrate his 1930 conversion to Roman Catholicism. In doing so he created an extraordinarily splendid tale. The novel may be excused for glorifying the aristocracy, because it transports the reader to 'that enchanted garden' which is full of life's glorious excesses. It is tragic to lose an enchanting, teddy toting, young man to the bottle and it is sad to see love lost on a technicality but it is comforting to watch Waugh's characters rediscover their faith despite sinking to desolation and despair before doing so. Brideshead Revisited is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read and I have no doubt I shall read it again.