** spoiler alert ** When I picked this up from the library, I was delighted to find that it was narrated by Jeremy Irons. He is an incredible actor and I think that his contribution to this book made me like it even more.
I watched the movie adaptation of this a couple months ago, just on a whim. The movie pretty much bored me to tears, so I was not sure how the book would be. I enjoyed the novel so much more, there was so much more to the story that was not adapted in the movie.

Anyway, on to th...more When I picked this up from the library, I was delighted to find that it was narrated by Jeremy Irons. He is an incredible actor and I think that his contribution to this book made me like it even more.
I watched the movie adaptation of this a couple months ago, just on a whim. The movie pretty much bored me to tears, so I was not sure how the book would be. I enjoyed the novel so much more, there was so much more to the story that was not adapted in the movie.

Anyway, on to the book. I truly enjoyed the story of Sebastian, sad as it may be. Sebastian was such an interesting character, and I actually found that after he dropped out of the story, I was not quite as interested in the rest of the Flyte family's affairs. I felt Charles was so self absorbed and I could not believe his attitude towards his children - what a pompous ass! The affair between Julia and Charles was so brief and uninteresting to me. I did enjoy the religious themes throughout the book and had to give Julia kudos in the end for sticking to her morals and not marrying Charles. I also enjoyed the peripheral characters of Cordelia and Nanny Hawkins. So much to enjoy in this book, I'm glad I listened to the audio version so that I could enjoy each nuance. ( )

The William & Mary Boston Alumni Chapter selected the Evelyn Waugh classic Brideshead Revisited (1945) for our May meeting. The novel is the reflections of Charles Ryder upon his relationship with the aristocratic Marchmain family after coming upon their crumbling homestead Brideshead while serving in the military in wartime England.

In the first section Ryder flashes back to forming a friendship with the younger son Sebastian Flyte while they both studied at Oxford (I use "studied" loosely here as they spend much of their time partying). Sebastian has two characteristics that stand out: one he is Catholic, and two he is barking mad (or batshit insane as we'd say here in the States). A third characteristic emerges over the course of the novel. Sebastian is a depressive alcoholic and Charles is his codependent enabler.

The second part of the novel is much less interesting as Sebastian, the novel's most interesting character, is only discussed second hand. Here Charles returns from traveling abroad for his art, indifferent to his wife and children and instead strikes up an affair with Sebastian's sister Julia. This leads to the climax of the novel in which deus ex machina leads Julia to remember she's a practicing Catholic and calls off the affair and plans for divorce.

From what I understand about Waugh, he was a convert to Catholicism and wrote this as a Catholic allegory. Yet the Catholics in this novel are portrayed as lazy, selfish, drunken, and foolish. That the novel is told from the point of view of the unsympathetic agnostic doesn't bode well for a positive image of Catholicism either. One of my book club friends felt the Catholic message of this novel is that "God will get you in the end." That may be. As a critique of England's crumbling aristocracy, the novel's other theme, this book works much better. But overall I'm none too impressed. ( )

I know, I really know that I am very much in the minority when I say that I did not enjoy this book. I enjoyed moments of the book, but all in all I found the characters to be flat and worldly and boring people. There seemed to be no plot. The people all seemed so self centered and decadent.
I forced myself to do this in one sitting (excepting for meal and potty breaks) because I knew that if I put it down I would not pick it up again. The 2 1/2 star rating I did give it were for the writing only.
I wanted to like/love it so very much because all of my LT heros/heroines love it and I do feel totally inept to have to say that I cannot measure up. But, oh well, *hit happens and it usually rolls downhill and I am usually at the bottom. I will simply find something different to read that I can and will love.
Sorry, guys. I am sure that if I were British I would have enjoyed this one. ( )

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh is an English novel written at the end of WWII. It tells the story of Captain Charles Ryder who, after stumbling upon the old mansion called Brideshead with his army brigade, remembers how he became acquainted with the house and its family twenty years prior.

Charles is student at Oxford shortly after WWI, at a time when the lifestyle of English aristocracy is fading from society. He befriends Sebastian Flyte, the youngest son of an aristocratic family, and they quickly form a strong attachment to each other. Sebastian is charming and attractive but deeply troubled, and his excessive escapism drinking eventually leads Charles to the rest of the Flyte family--Lady Marchain and Sebastian's three siblings, Bridey, Julia, and Cordelia.

This is one of those novels that contains more theme than plot, more to be analyzed than absorbed at first reading. Waugh takes on the big three--love, family, and religion--in this, his most famous novel. The relationship between Sebastian and Charles is deeply embedded with homosexual undertones, and the Marchmains' strong Catholic beliefs influence their decisions and define their relationships, both in and outside of the family. Simply put, Brideshead Revisited illustrates the conflicting war between religious morals and human desires. By telling the story in perspective, Waugh demonstrates that we can only hope to understand our actions and experiences by looking back on them. ( )

i love Evelyn Waugh. and i loved Brideshead Revisited. it was so much bleaker than Vile Bodies, but it was beautiful even then. ( )