Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
Book Review: Buy the hard-bound edition!
Summary: 5 Stars
This brief review has two purposes. First, to encourage readers to buy the cloth-bound edition, which fits easily into the hand, has much cleaner printing than the paperback, and contains an excellent introduction by Sir Frank Kermode together with a helpful chronology, which puts Waugh into the context of contemporary writings and events. It is well worth the extra two dollars.
My second purpose is to alert readers coming to the book after seeing the recent Miramax movie, that the two are likely to be quite different experiences. The film is magnificently set, splendidly acted, and passionately dramatic; it has all the Hollywood virtues. But it almost misses the fact that Waugh's purpose was as much spiritual as secular: to demonstrate, as he put it, "the operation of divine grace upon a group of diverse but closely connected characters." You could come away from the movie thinking it was an anti-Catholic tract -- but Waugh's novel, despite its characteristic comedy, is also a profound religious statement. I develop this point in more detail in my review of the cloth-bound edition, but whichever one you buy, I highly recommend this book.
Book Review: Charming and delicious
Summary: 5 Stars
A novel of remarkable depth and wistfulness tied to sometimes outrageous humour and a whiff of satire -- truly a delicate balancing act, and here carried off with panache. 'Brideshead Revisited' is a riveting, immersive novel that will carry you to a nostalgic yesteryear of the British aristocracy, complete with all its hidden warts and lesions. A short but lovely read.Book Review: Epic tale which examines the ties of family and religion
Summary: 4 Stars
Often considered Waugh's 'magnum opus,' this novel of epic proportions follows the conflicted Charles Ryder through his involvement with the enchanting Flyte family. After befriending Sebastian Flyte at Oxford, Charles is gradually introduced to his sisters, Julia and Cordelia; his stolid brother, Brideshead; his estranged father, Lord Marchmain; his pious mother, Lady Marchmain; and, most importantly, Brideshead, their grand estate. Over the course of the story, Charles faces varying degrees of propinquity to each member of the family as he becomes a member of the family himself. Through these relationships, he is forced to make choices concerning love, his future, and religion.
Almost a character within itself, the topic of religion is constant throughout the novel. The Flyte family's Catholicism, we come to find, is of differing importance to each family member. Charles, however, never quite comes to terms with it, resulting in an inveterate rift between the family and him.
I only assign four stars to the novel due to its prolonged nature, even at points of the story that have no consequence to Charles' self-discovery, most particularly the scene in which Charles and Sebastian are thrown in jail.
Book Review: Family Collapse
Summary: 4 Stars
Charles Ryder, an English soldier, arrives in the middle of the night at the new home of his troops. They are to be stationed at an old country estate. When Charles awakens the next morning, he is surprised to find that he recognizes the place--it is Brideshead, a place with which he was very familiar during his college days. His best friend's family lived there, and Charles descends into memories of the friendship and the collapse of his friend's family.
Sebastian Flyte is unlike anyone Charles has known. He is glamorous and cultured, moody and outrageous. He meets Charles accidentally in their first year at Oxford, and the two become nearly inseparable. Charles is dazzled by his friend and, despite Sebastian's irritation, he ends up becoming close to the rest of the family, too. Sebastian's father is living abroad in scandal with his mistress. Sebastian's mother is at home, clinging to her Roman Catholic faith and worrying about her children. Sebastian's older brother is proper and largely disapproving of Sebastian, but his two sisters love him a great deal.
Every member of the family is affected by their Catholic upbringing, and they are fascinated by Charles, who is an atheist.
As Sebastian begins to feel smothered by his family, he starts drinking heavily. The more he drinks, the more his family tries to keep him under control, to pull him back to the family fold, and this ends up pushing him even more quickly into alcoholism.
In the second part of the book, Charles examines his relationship with Sebastian's sister, Julia, and the two of them observe as the family completely disintegrates.
I really liked the intricate examination of the family, and the ways they interacted with each other, and also the ways that they presented themselves in society. I liked Charles and Sebastian's relationship in the first part of the book, and the ways they balanced each other. I also really liked Charles' father and the quiet war they fought when Charles came home from college penniless for his vacation.
In the second part of the book, it was much more difficult for me to relate to or to like Charles very much. He'd descended into someone so shallow, who was only interested in his own pleasures and ambitions, and who abandoned his family for little reason. Julia, also, became annoying, especially toward the end when she was rediscovering her faith. The characters, so bright and lively at the beginning of the story, became duller toward the end.
Book Review: Irresistable Tides of Change....
Summary: 5 Stars
Evelyn Waugh's complex 1944 novel "Brideshead Revisited" defies easy description. On one level, it is the recollections of middle-aged British Army Captain Charles Ryder, whose unit is to be garrisoned at the vacant English estate of Brideshead during the Second World War. This present tense Ryder frames the beginning and ending of the novel. The bulk of the story is inbetween, as a younger Ryder narrates his life before the war, in which he becomes involved with the wealthy Catholic family that owns Brideshead.
At university, the young Ryder is befriended by his fascinating fellow student Sebastian, flamboyant, hard-drinking, and probably infatuated with Ryder in a way that Ryder does not quite recognize. They embark on a series of adventures that include an introduction to Sebastian's disfunctional family, the Marchmains. Ryder's relationship with Sebastian, and a later and very different relationship with Sebastian's sister Julia, make him both observer and participant in the family's trials.
The plot is a slow-roller, and early on, the reader is apt to be carried along by Waugh's wonderfully delicious prose, alternately funny and sad, describing Britain between the two World Wars. Halfway through, the plot makes a dramatic jump in time and exposition, as Ryder suddenly is married, with children, and a successful but unhappy artist returning from a stint in South America. The novel's themes come together in painful juxposition. Britain is drawn into a second world war that will end the days of empire, while the Marchmain family's Catholic faith seems to both undercut their possibilities of happiness while sustaining them through tragedy. The major players, well-drawn by Waugh, are alike in their imperfect but very real humanity.
"Brideshead Revisited" is very highly recommended as a classic novel of an England now gone but once as vivid and fascinating as Evelyn Waugh's undoubted writing gifts can make it.