Opens that low door that others I knew had found before me.

This book reminds me a lot of The Sound and the Fury; an omniscient narrator observes the decay of an established family name and property. The first half was very slow and meandering in a classical British style. This half focuses on Charles Ryder's decidedly homosexual-sounding relationship with Sebastien, with whom he seems obsessed. Religion is denounced and the characters revel in sinful frivolity. Then the book goes in a completely different direction, and Sebastien is reduced from a key player to a vague off-screen presence due to his alcoholism. The second half is faster paced and focuses on Mr. Ryder's marriage, career as an artist, and ultimate path back to Marchmain house (also called Brideshead, which I never completely understood, but which seems related to the parish name versus the Lordship name versus the family name. Apparently the family name is Marchmain even though the last name is Flyte. I'm still not clear on all of that.)What are we supposed to think of Sebastien? Ruined and rendered pathetic by alcoholism, are we to assume he is being punished because of his sexuality? Does he so badly want the church's approval because he can never get it, or because his family was nuts? Or does he simply illustrate how religion, once instilled, cannot be completely denounced? I don't know what Ryder's obsession is with the Flyte siblings--or what his inevitable arguments with them about Catholicism are supposed to mean. That he is aimless without a religion of his own? That even with their faults, the Flytes are somehow unified and strengthened for refusing to completely cut ties with their church? Or perhaps the book is about the human desire to denounce and later cling to religion when all else fails. I would classify this book as "pretty okay". Raises a few interesting issues, resolves none of them, and then harps on the Catholic one until you pretty much don't care about the whole mess anymore. Disappointing overall. ( )

It seems what this book is famous for is its bygone definition of Englishness, but to me the relationships were enchanting and vivid, and that's what held me. Their contrast with the ornate settings created such a rich whirlwind picture of visiting the world at the time. (The story is in many more places than just the titular estate; there's lots of travel). Some of the words from the book resonated as themes themselves, "thwarted", "the forerunner". They've kept me thinking. And it surprised me; I didn't expect it to end for the reasons it did. When war is coming at the end, you know that's bad enough.My favorite part, I suppose not surprisingly, was the chapter in the huge storm on the ocean liner. It is miraculous and perfectly dramatic. What it brings about is so touching and, I guess, I just seem to really, really like a machina of water in a novel. Sue me please. Thanks to Evan, for the birthday present.By the way, what a terrible movie-related book cover. It is really unsightly. (Though the Everyman edition within is of course lovely.) So unlikable that my friend brought over a new dustjacket from work, which is what's on the shelf now. ( )

5/10.Once again, nothing happens in this book that is meant to trace wide-ranging philosophical themes but is actually just inconsequential description of a rather pathetic group of people. ( )

Nearly thirty years have passed since my wife and I viewed the weekly televised series ‘Brideshead Revisited’ during the fall of 1981, even on one occasion around Christmas dressing up and sipping champagne while pretending we were chums with Charles Ryder (actor Jeremy Irons), his college companion Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews), and Sebastian’s sister Julia (Diana Quick). In company with these characters played by then relatively new actors were stage veterans Laurence Olivier (as Lord Marchmain, Sebastian’s father) and John Gielgud (as Edward Ryder). This romance of lost time and paradise regained was riveting then, and reading Evelyn Waugh’s novel is an even better, intricate experience of the relationships between family and friends of the noble Marchmain family, set between the two world wars at palatial Brideshead, the Marchmain estate.

Charles Ryder, student at Oxford University becomes friends with fellow student Sebastian Flyte who is more interested in dissipation and drink than studies. During term break, aristocratic Sebastian invites middle-class commoner Charles, to Brideshead Castle (Castle Howard near York, England, actual filming location for the series) where the two remain for the summer. Sebastian’s languor revolves around alcohol while Charles becomes infatuated with his host’s family: Sebastian’s mother, Lady Marchmain, older brother Lord Brideshead ‘Bridey’ and sisters Lady Julia and Lady Cordelia. Toward the end of summer, Sebastian decides he and Charles will visit Lord Marchmain and they travel by boat and train and carriage, “conifers changing to vine and olive” to Venice where his father, estranged from Lady Marchmain, resides with his mistress, Cara. After a fortnight on the Lido and in the Piazza San Marco at the Caffe Florian, Charles in conversation with Cara one evening learns of another side of the Marchmain family, one that, for both Lord Marchmain and Sebastian, has to do more with hate than love, “hating all the illusions of boyhood — innocence, God, hope.”

Back at Oxford for their second year, Charles begins study at the Ruskin School of Art while Sebastian, on notice for his poor performance, continues to withdraw from friends and studies into his own narcissistic world, and faces the possibility of being ‘sent down’, that is, dismissed from university. His mother pays a visit, ostensibly to work with colleagues on a memorial project, but actually to see to it that Sebastian mends his ways. One evening Sebastian in the company of friends visits Ma Mayfield’s, a private club with friendly women entertainers, becomes inebriated, and while driving erratically, is arrested and jailed. His sister Julia and her friend Rex Mottram provide bail, Sebastian appears before the Bow Street magistrate, and is released in the recognizance of family. Sebastian returns to Brideshead for awhile, then to Oxford, and after another bout of drunkenness finally is ‘sent down’ and Charles becomes the “loneliest man in Oxford.” (p. 131) Lady Marchmain confides in Charles that she had experienced such drunkenness before with his [Sebastian’s] father, and later in a letter to Charles says that Sebastian has left Brideshead to live with his father and then will tour the Levant [Middle East] with a family friend before returning to Oxford in the charge of one Monsignor Bell. Thus ends the first part of this novel, entitled ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’, which is an allusion to classical representations of idyllic youth carefree enjoying the pleasures of life yet always aware of the penumbra of death. One such representation is Nicolas Poussin’s painting, Les Bergers d’Arcadie, depicting youth before a tomb with the Latin inscription, Et in arcadia ego, translated as “and I too was once in Arcadia” which may be understood to mean ‘life is short; make the most of it.’

[to be continued] ( )