Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh, is one of those books I thought I had read in my late teen years but having just finished it now I'm not sure whether I ever did read it or just thought I did.
At any rate, it was an excellent foray into the dark side of the Downtown Abbey world. Taking place in the years between WWI and WWII, the story recounts the cracking and fragmentation of a gentry family, which parallels the cracking and fragmentation of the British Empire and the established order. The narrator, Charles Ryder, encounters the family home of the Flyte family, Brideshead, in 1945 when the army has requisitioned the home for its own use and the novel is his reminiscences about his involvement with the family and his many visits to Brideshead when he was young.
Charles met Sebastian, a younger son and charming madcap, at Oxford, where they quickly became devoted friends. The novel was published in 1945, and so their sexual relationship is not spelled out but is strongly implied. Sebastian drinks to excess to escape the straitjacket of family life and the Catholicism that permeates the family, and over the course of the book retreats from family, friends, England, and the world into a permanent state of self-loathing and abnegation.
Later Charles has a relationship with Sebastian's sister Julia with whom he tries to fill the void that Sebastian has left in his life.
The whole novel is quite depressing, delving into a few of my least favorite subjects to read about: self-loathing, self-destruction, and adultery. That said, it is beautifully written, poignant, and a testament to the fact that the world I live in is more open and accepting of those who do not fit into the established grooves. Much as I love the clothes, I would never want to return to the world of Brideshead.
This has been on my radar for years. I tend to be OK with stories that touch on the dark side of human thoughts and human nature. I was a young teenager when the television miniseries came out. I have not seen it but I have heard that it was very good.
ReplyDeleteI watched the miniseries of Brideshead Revisited starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews many years ago. It was very well done and so sad. You really saw from when the story started just after World War 1 to when it ended just after World 11 how both Britain and the Flyte family changed and what the passage of time does to families, they splinter and sometimes go their separate ways.
ReplyDeleteI thought this story was pretty depressing, too.
ReplyDeleteI felt that way about the second half of Wuthering Heights. I thought I had read it but had no memory of it which made me doubt my younger self. LOL
ReplyDeleteI read Brideshead in my twenties fueled by a love of the miniseries (and unrequited crushes on Anthony Edwards and Jeremy Irons!). It is a sad an melancholy book. I read Waugh’s The Loved One for the classic novella category (haven’t posted on it yet) and it was so funny. Totally different in tone.
So glad to hear Waugh could be funny--Brideshead is all I've read by him, and it was just sad.
DeleteFor some reason I didn't realize this was a sad book...But it's been on my reading list for awhile now. I should read it for the classics club soon.
ReplyDeleteI think the surface image is of madcap, carefree Sebastian with his teddy bear, Aloysius, and that gives the impression that it is light-hearted, but that's really only the very first part of the story.
DeleteI remember my parents watching the TV miniseries and talking about some of the more controversial plot points, and since then I'd always been interested in finding out more, but never following up. I'll have to think carefully after your review, as I'm not a big fan of melancholic, lingering plots either :(
ReplyDeleteI remember reading this 10, maybe 15, years ago and thinking it was well done, but terribly depressing. I've never read anything else by Waugh, nor have I watched the miniseries.
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