BRIDESHEAD REVISTED by
Evelyn Waugh
Pages:
331
Date:
Feb 22, 2015
Grade:
4
Details:
Reading Group Read
Own
The
blurb:
The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn
Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the
Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the
Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit.
Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in
particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only
his spiritual and social distance from them.
My
thoughts:
Well,
I’m not quite sure what to say about this book. There were parts of it I adored
and parts I couldn’t care less about and wouldn’t have missed if they’d been
omitted. But, before I get into that allow me to go back a few decades.
I
was in my late teens when I saw the television series of Brideshead Revisited
and all I can say is that I was fascinated by the story, the characters, the
setting and the period it portrayed. I fell in love with Sebastian and Charles
and eagerly awaited each new episode. When I picked up this book I expected to
fall in love all over again.
I
guess sometimes it is wiser to leave old loves in the past and not try to
revive them. The vague images I had in my head and the – rather limited –
memory I had of the story would have been enough to keep me mesmerized for the
rest of my life. Reading the book now - 30 odd years after first seeing the
story – has removed a lot of the glamour from my memories. Which of course means
this is anything but a fair review of the book. This is an essay about how my
selective memory stands up to the reality of the written word. As it turns out,
the written word never stood a chance.
So,
back to the story as I found it in the book. I adored the first part of the
book. The developing relationship between Charles and Sebastian drew me in and
fascinated me. The twenty years between the two World Wars and the ways in
which the world changed make for intriguing reading. I watched the interactions
between the characters in this book with growing repulsion. Nobody seemed to
really connect with others or even want to make the effort to look below the
surface. The moment characters did allow themselves to discover the hidden
depths in others, almost invariably meant the end of the relationship. All of
this kept me turning the pages but in a similar way I would if I were reading a
science fiction story; it intrigued me but a lot of it was incomprehensible to
me.
To
me this read as an extensive story about destruction - the destruction of one
man’s dreams and illusions, the destruction of a family and the destruction of
a way of life. By the time the story ends, nothing remains of the certainties
the story starts with. It made the reading experience similar to watching a
train-wreck; horrifying to watch yet impossible to look away from.
I
think I would have liked the book more if the story had been just about
Sebastian and Charles. I just couldn’t get interested in the second part of the
story when it turns into a description of the ‘doomed to fail’ relationship
between Julia and Charles. And I guess that’s the root of the problem; in my
memory this was a story about those two men. I assume the rest of the story
featured in the TV-series as well, but it had faded from my memory, and even
now I’ve read the book, no images come to me.
I
can’t honestly say whether the way this story was written disappointed me or
whether I felt led down by the fact the book didn’t live up to my memories.
Either way I have to conclude this fascinating story was not quite what I hoped
it would be.
