A lovely, lovely and heartbreaking book. The shallowness of the characters is, shall I say, only skin deep. Well worth a reread. ( )

This book is a really well written tome about pretty unlikeable people. There's a whiny rich boy with a teddy bear who doesn't like his mother and decides that's a good reason to be an alcoholic...and his slutty father, and soul less sister, and Charles. Who returns from two years abroad and can't be bothered to visit his own children. It's hard for me to like a book where literally none of the characters are sympathetic because I just...don't care what happens to them. ( )

One of the best books in the English language. Luminous!

http://driftlessareareview.wordpress.... ( )

The peripheral characters in this novel are, to me, very sad. There is a fervent search for grace on the part of Julia's and Sebastian's mother that eventually cripples both of them. Charles is the catalyst for a deeper understanding, which comes and goes in often confusing interactions. I think the novel is reflective of Waugh's own conflict about religion. ( )

It's hard to write a review of Brideshead Revisited and treat it like an "Early Review" book. Sure, it was a new edition, released as a movie tie-in, but the content of the book, save for an extended introduction, is unchanged. As it stands, the book IS new-to-me, and while it is an interesting and increasingly engaging read, I found it to be a bit plodding and a little pedantic for my liking.

As is well known, the plot concerns Charles Ryder, our narrator, who enters Oxford University as a young man and eventually meets and associates with Sebastian Flyte, an unusual and shady character with a bevy of quirks (not the least of which is anthropomorphizing his stuffed bear) and an odd opinion of his family. Charles eventually finds himself embroiled in the affairs of the family, spending a great deal of time at the Flytes' home, Brideshead, and finding himself forced to align himself with different members of a family that seem at odds with each other--and, in their staunch Catholicism, at odds with Charles as well.

Sebastian is perhaps the novel's greatest strength. As a character, he is lively and realistic, even though prone to histrionics, and his misadventures, drunkenness, and rebellious nature give the early part of the book a proto-Catcher in the Rye kind of feel. While I would not say that other characters are less interesting (Julia, for instance, is an engaging if somewhat maddening figure), they don't stand up to Sebastian, so as he becomes a more marginal figure later in the text, the novel loses a bit of its edge.

The novel as a whole, in fact, feels like it loses steam the farther it goes along. The first part, in which we are introduced to the Flytes and get detailed passages of Charles and Sebastian's exploits at school, read quickly and with great interest. As Charles grows older, and Waugh finds himself wanting, or needing, to advance his theme (that of the operation of Grace), the pacing slows considerably and the moments of misery tend to lean more towards the pedantic. It's unfortunate, but by the time the novel has ended, the big thematic turn doesn't feel as natural as it ought to be.

Frank Kermode's introduction and chronology, which make up the substantial front matter of the edition, add some interesting perspectives to the work. In fairness, the intro is less a critical reading of the text than an exploration of Waugh's mindset as he wrote it, but the insight allows the unfamiliar reader--such as myself, who has only ever read Decline and Fall--to expect something from the novel that one may not have anticipated if they were only familiar with Waugh's satirical work. As such, it's worth a read, but perhaps only after reading the text itself, as it does reveal certain plot points.

All told, there really is nothing about this particular edition of Brideshead Revisited that is noteworthy or added from recent editions (the intro and chronology, for instance, are fifteen years old). It is, however, packaged to coincide with the recent film adaptation, which I am positive could be a passable rendition at best. If nothing else, the new look of Brideshead Revisited will introduce a new generation of readers to what many consider Waugh's masterpiece, though it is an exceptional and not representative piece of the author's oeuvre.