Brideshead Revisited

[Emil Miller]

Pleased be advised that the below review contains spoilers.

I cannot say that Brideshead Revisited is Waugh's best novel as I haven't read all of them but of the four that I have read, it is definitely the best.
Unlike his other work, Brideshead has very little comedy and is concerned with with the problems of faith: in this case catholicism. The story concerns Charles Ryder an Englishman and his friend Sebastian Flyte who meet as students at Oxford university and strike up a homoerotic relationship. Flyte is the scion of an ancient aristocratic family who have a magnificent country seat in Wiltshire:the Brideshead of the title.
After an idyllic end of term holiday at the house which the two young men have to themselves, for the family are abroad for the summer, their return to Oxford presages the tragedy with which the novel unfolds. Flyte's mother, the Marchioness, is a fervent catholic whose husband, Lord Marchmain, has been driven by her religiosity to leave her to live in Venice. Sebastian's older brother 'Bridie' and sister Julia have been brought up as devout catholics along with a younger sister, Cordelia. Sebastian, however, like his father, feels that his independance is threatened by his mother's insistence but is unable to escape what he sees as a family conspiracy to force him into compliance with her wishes. He takes to drink and the story reveals the impact of his decline on the narrator and the family when he goes abroad and wanders through various countries sinking into the obscurity he longs for as his ultimate refuge.
Waugh handle's his tale with great sensitivity and introduces a number of susidiary characters who add colour to the story and extend the interest beyond its central theme. The prose writing is exquisite without being precious although his description of various settings is sometimes overlong.
Another problem is that the dialogue sometimes seems contrived but is otherwise quite natural. The story is set over a period of some twenty years against a background of rising political tension in Europe and eloquently depicts a social class in decay following on from the first World War.
Weighing in at 331 pp., Brideshead is considerably longer than Waugh's other novels and might have benefitted from a slimming down, especially towards the end. Despite this it remains essential reading for those who appreciate fine writing.

[Virgil]

I haven't read any other of Waugh's works, but I thought Brideshead was brilliant! I thought it was a wonderful novel and over time have come to revere it as one of the great novels of the last century. Definitely 10/10 for me. And don't miss the great BBC production.

http://fastforwardrevue.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/brideshead_revisited_.jpg

[MANICHAEAN]

Brian. Very well balanced review. Thank you. One of my favourite books, which I must have read about five times over the years. In a completely different vein from his "Sword of Honour Trilogy" which also undertakes an enveloping analysis of persons (this time from different parts of society, in a Second World War military scenario). Humour is also more apparent, especially in the senior British officer class. "Biffing" takes on a whole new meaning. You will enjoy it.
Waugh's Catholicism in "Brideshead Revisited" comes across as less tortured than in Graham Greene's novels. The characters either are: staunch Catholics, or trying to escape from what they percieve as a dogma forced on them & which they question & find irksome.
Ryder was a touch of genius as the almost imperceptable insider who linked together all the vividness of characters in the Flyte family, providing that narrated youthful bond of friendship which finalised in the self destruction of Sebastian in dissipation & drugs in North Africa if I recollect.
After reading Brideshead it always evokes a feeling of sadness for youth & lost illusions. That was the intention of the author no doubt.
Please review some more books from time to time. Most enjoyable.

[mal4mac]

I re-read this recently, thanks for reviewing it so well, now I don't need to :D I agree with the "over long" comment, but the early chapters are so good that it's not to be missed. His picture of University life, in all its glory and alienation, has surely never been surpassed. Light years ahead of Faulks' attempt in Engleby, for instance. Also, the main characters are so memorable - Sebastian (and his bear!), Charles Ryder and his cool intellectualism (though the superb TV series perhaps helped make them iconic.)

[WICKES]

I have to admit I actually enjoyed the BBC TV series more than the book (what a philistine). It has to be one of the greatest TV adaptations of a book ever made. Jeremy Irons reads around 1/4 of it as background narrator, which really brings Waugh's prose alive. John Gielgud is superb as his father as well (it's worth watching just for that)

Personally I preferred The Sword Of Honour Trilogy: it is funny, more entertaining but also has more to say imo. I would say they are my favourites of his works.

Waugh's prose is exquisite. It is no wonder that Clive James called him the supreme prose stylist of the 20th century (maybe an exaggeration, but still). I have tried to like Joyce or Nabokov or Fitzgerald more but I am always drawn back to Waugh. Decline And Fall is also brilliant and one of the funniest novels in English. I keep meaning to read A Handful Of Dust as well. The critics seem to think this was his best novel.

Waugh was a raging snob and there is a distasteful snobbery running throughout the book. There is real hatred in his depiction of Hooper, who seems to symbolise 20th century Britain for Waugh: the unrefined, vulgar, meritocratic, Americanised world.

[wessexgirl]

Surely the adaptation was ITV. I know it's usually the Beeb who do these things so well, but wasn't it one of ITVs jewels in the crown, so to speak, (along with Jewel in the Crown, the series?) Credit where it's due.

[kelby_lake]

Yep, it was ITV :)

[Emil Miller]

Having been pretty much inured to TV for some years, I did not see Brideshead Revisited when it was first screened. Always suspicious of anything excessively praised, I avoided it as a matter of course, but having read the book, I shall watch the TV adaption with interest now that it is on DVD.

[Virgil]

Having been pretty much inured to TV for some years, I did not see Brideshead Revisited when it was first screened. Always suspicious of anything excessively praised, I avoided it as a matter of course, but having read the book, I shall watch the TV adaption with interest now that it is on DVD.

Oh you must Brian. The TV adaptation was brilliant, possibly the best adaptation of a novel ever.

[Janine]

I haven't read any other of Waugh's works, but I thought Brideshead was brilliant! I thought it was a wonderful novel and over time have come to revere it as one of the great novels of the last century. Definitely 10/10 for me. And don't miss the great BBC production.

Thanks, Virgil, for finding this neat poster; I copied it for my own files. How can one go wrong with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews? It was a great miniseries. Everyone should see it. I loved him in Ivanhoe, too.

And why didn't you vote in the pole?

[kelby_lake]

Oh you must Brian. The TV adaptation was brilliant, possibly the best adaptation of a novel ever.

Deffo :)

[Emil Miller]

I have to admit I actually enjoyed the BBC TV series more than the book (what a philistine). It has to be one of the greatest TV adaptations of a book ever made. Jeremy Irons reads around 1/4 of it as background narrator, which really brings Waugh's prose alive. John Gielgud is superb as his father as well (it's worth watching just for that)

Personally I preferred The Sword Of Honour Trilogy: it is funny, more entertaining but also has more to say imo. I would say they are my favourites of his works.

Waugh's prose is exquisite. It is no wonder that Clive James called him the supreme prose stylist of the 20th century (maybe an exaggeration, but still). I have tried to like Joyce or Nabokov or Fitzgerald more but I am always drawn back to Waugh. Decline And Fall is also brilliant and one of the funniest novels in English. I keep meaning to read A Handful Of Dust as well. The critics seem to think this was his best novel.

Waugh was a raging snob and there is a distasteful snobbery running throughout the book. There is real hatred in his depiction of Hooper, who seems to symbolise 20th century Britain for Waugh: the unrefined, vulgar, meritocratic, Americanised world.

Wickes, please do read A Handful of Dust, it was my first introduction to Waugh via the film adaptation which I saw on televsion some years ago. It essentially falls into two parts, the one set in London and a country estate, and that set in the amazonian jungle. The first part is an hilarious send up of upper-class mores, while the second part is a more serious but fascinatingly presented view of British doggedness in the face of its own eccentricity.

[WICKES]

Wickes, please do read A Handful of Dust, it was my first introduction to Waugh via the film adaptation which I saw on televsion some years ago. .

I have it on audiobook at the moment (about 2/3 of the way through). His prose is just wonderful- wonderful. Take this example- his description of the leader of the fox hunt, an incompetant, weak man:

"He himself was seldom in sight of hounds and could often be
found in another part of the country morosely nibbling ginger nut
biscuits in a lane or towards the end of the day cantering heavily
across country, quite lost, a lonely scarlet figure against the ploughed
land, staring about him in the deepening twilight and shouting at
yokels for information"

Anyone who knows Britain and especially the south east of England at this time of year may find that description evocative "a lonely scarlet figure against the ploughed land" , "the deepening twilight". It's funny, I was walking home through some woods near me (Essex) yesterday evening as it grew dark and looking out at the ploughed fields when this passage came to mind.

Waugh was such a vile man, truly awful, and I almost resent him for being so damn good. I want to like Orwell or Huxley more! I also love that little phrase "morosely nibbling ginger-nut biscuits"- morosely nibbling...brilliant. Not only was the son of a ***** a superb prose stylist he was also, for my money, easily the funniest writer I have ever read (and I include P G Wodehouse). As if that wasn't enough talent, he was also able to create great comic characters seemingly at will. Clive James commented that Waugh deserves to be compared to Dickens and Shakespeare in his ability to fashion comic characters who live in the memory- he even compares Apthorpe from Men At Arms to Falstaff.

[Emil Miller]

Waugh was such a vile man, truly awful, and I almost resent him for being so damn good. I want to like Orwell or Huxley more! I also love that little phrase "morosely nibbling ginger-nut biscuits"- morosely nibbling...brilliant. Not only was the son of a ***** a superb prose stylist he was also, for my money, easily the funniest writer I have ever read (and I include P G Wodehouse). As if that wasn't enough talent, he was also able to create great comic characters seemingly at will. Clive James commented that Waugh deserves to be compared to Dickens and Shakespeare in his ability to fashion comic characters who live in the memory- he even compares Apthorpe from Men At Arms to Falstaff.

I'm glad to see that your dislike of Waugh doesn't extend to your appreciation of his work, an author's writing is more important than his/her personality. My own favourite writer, Somerset Maugham, was a bon viveur whose appetites included opium and peadophilia, yet I have derived more pleasure from reading him than any other novelist of my acqaintance.
That is not to say that a writer's life need be ignored, one of my favourite types of book are auto/biographies. If somebody profoundly affects one's thinking, there is a natural desire to know why and how they have done so.

[WICKES]

I'm glad to see that your dislike of Waugh doesn't extend to your appreciation of his work, an author's writing is more important than his/her personality. My own favourite writer, Somerset Maugham, was a bon viveur whose appetites included opium and peadophilia, yet I have derived more pleasure from reading him than any other novelist of my acqaintance.
That is not to say that a writer's life need be ignored, one of my favourite types of book are auto/biographies. If somebody profoundly affects one's thinking, there is a natural desire to know why and how they have done so.

Waugh really was a monster. During the Blitz on London in 1940 he sent his son to live in London and packed his books off to a safe place in the country. He wrote in his diary "children can be replaced but my books are priceless to me":eek2:. He was sadistic too (and this comes through in his novels: kind, gentle old Mr Prendergast is decapitated in Decline and Fall and the sweet, dippy English girl in Black Mischief is killed by African natives and eaten at a big feast while he describes her parents anxiously waiting for news). Perhaps the only redeeming quality in Waugh was that he was well aware of his vileness and he was at least very brave as a soldier and entirely without self-pity.

People often call Philip Larkin (whose poetry I love) a horrible man too. Unlike Waugh though I think this was a bit of an act and was fairly superficial. Underneath the misogyny, racism and right wing snobbery he was clearly quite kind and soft hearted- the tenderness of the poems feel authentic. When Waugh writes about love or kindness it feels hollow. In that respect his personality does influence his art. Still, I am in awe of his talents and abilities and adore pretty much everything he wrote. John Mortimer was right when he said Waugh achieved virtually perfect prose.

[ohureo]

Glad to read others' thoughts on a novel (and tv production) that I have read and watched many times and thoroughly enjoy. The only other book of Waugh's I have read was a collection of short stories beginning with Charles Ryder's Schooldays. There was in the collection a very memorable story of dark humor about a particular character in a prison for the criminally insane. It certainly rounded out Waugh's range for me. I apologize for not remembering the name.

After several readings and viewings I have come to think about the role of Anthony Blanche, the flamboyant, stuttering gay character who is part of Sebastian's Oxford set. We see Ryder's world 'expand' upon first meeting him. I've come to think of him as a kind of classical Greek "chorus" come to inform Ryder as well as the reader of insights and motivations into the characters. He does this in the most hilarious and absurdist manner yet not missing a beat into Sebastian's relationship with his mother, Julia's predicament, Lord and Lady Marchmain's relationship, and all these for the edification of Ryder.

In my first reading I only found him amusing but now I see him as a humorously carved device to deliver what Ryder is early on eager to know of Sebastian's family and then later aghast and even offended by his astute insights. These are all done up as if nothing more than catty gossip and dished out in stuttered syllables and decadent stylings but they cleverly move Ryder's insights into the family along.

Anyone else have thoughts on this character and his role?

[Emil Miller]

Waugh really was a monster. During the Blitz on London in 1940 he sent his son to live in London and packed his books off to a safe place in the country. He wrote in his diary "children can be replaced but my books are priceless to me":eek2:. He was sadistic too (and this comes through in his novels: kind, gentle old Mr Prendergast is decapitated in Decline and Fall and the sweet, dippy English girl in Black Mischief is killed by African natives and eaten at a big feast while he describes her parents anxiously waiting for news). Perhaps the only redeeming quality in Waugh was that he was well aware of his vileness and he was at least very brave as a soldier and entirely without self-pity.

People often call Philip Larkin (whose poetry I love) a horrible man too. Unlike Waugh though I think this was a bit of an act and was fairly superficial. Underneath the misogyny, racism and right wing snobbery he was clearly quite kind and soft hearted- the tenderness of the poems feel authentic. When Waugh writes about love or kindness it feels hollow. In that respect his personality does influence his art. Still, I am in awe of his talents and abilities and adore pretty much everything he wrote. John Mortimer was right when he said Waugh achieved virtually perfect prose.

You obviously know more about Waugh than I do as I have yet to read any biographies of him. Nonetheless I think you may be slightly misrepresenting his intentions when it comes to his writing; black humour is, after all, one of the staples of his art. Moreover, it is important to set most of his writing within the context of the inter-war years when left-wing politics were the latest fad of the upper-classes. In the case of the decapitation of Mr Prendergast at the hands of an obvious lunatic who is allowed to share a cell with his victim, Waugh was making a comment on liberal/left theories of how to deal with the criminally insane.
Similarly, the eating of the white girl by natives in Black Mischief was aimed at the liberal/left's playing down of cannibalism as part of its attempt to denigrate imperial rule in Africa.
Waugh may have been a snob, but nobody, not even Wodehouse, has sent the upper classes up so brilliantly and with such uproarious writing. I have just this morning finished reading Scoop and, even while writing this, I am still laughing at the eccentric behaviour that is so characteristic among the English. Only in England could a newspaper magnate sack his chief reporter in a dispute over the date of the Battle of Hastings for example.

[WICKES]

You obviously know more about Waugh than I do as I have yet to read any biographies of him. Nonetheless I think you may be slightly misrepresenting his intentions when it comes to his writing; black humour is, after all, one of the staples of his art. Moreover, it is important to set most of his writing within the context of the inter-war years when left-wing politics were the latest fad of the upper-classes. In the case of the decapitation of Mr Prendergast at the hands of an obvious lunatic who is allowed to share a cell with his victim, Waugh was making a comment on liberal/left theories of how to deal with the criminally insane.
Similarly, the eating of the white girl by natives in Black Mischief was aimed at the liberal/left's playing down of cannibalism as part of its attempt to denigrate imperial rule in Africa.
Waugh may have been a snob, but nobody, not even Wodehouse, has sent the upper classes up so brilliantly and with such uproarious writing. I have just this morning finished reading Scoop and, even while writing this, I am still laughing at the eccentric behaviour that is so characteristic among the English. Only in England could a newspaper magnate sack his chief reporter in a dispute over the date of the Battle of Hastings for example.

I have just found the quote I was looking for by Clive James. He referred to Waugh as "the supreme writer of English prose in the 20th century" which is astonishingly high praise from an extremely well-read and intelligent man. Maybe it is a bit of an exaggeration, but even those who despised him were in awe of his fine prose style. Many people disliked him and others have accused him of having nothing to say but no-one ever questioned his writing ability.

I do think the so-called black comedy was not so much intentional as inevitable, given his personality. I really do think it is the sadistic element in his personality coming through rather than him setting out to write black comedy.

I'm not really sure that he was so very critical of the British (or English) upper classes. He had a sort of love-hate relationship with them, but he was certainly on their side against the working class and the new, Americanised world he saw replacing them (a world he thought vulgar and dull). He was a bit like Charles Ryder really. Sort of observing the aristocratic/ upper class English with a mixture of disapproval and admiration. This is why many have questioned his status as a satirist. A satirist seeks to change behaviour for the better, but Waugh hated change. He may send up the upper class but then he doesn't really have a good word for anyone else- Africans are ridiculous savages aspiring to be civilised, the British lower classes are violent and untrustworthy etc...humanity is rotten and so are the English/ European upper class, but they are at least fundamentally civilised and the best of a bad species (that is how I take him anyway).

[Emil Miller]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread and recommended the DVD.
I have just been sampling some excerpts on You tube. It looks marvellous and I shall buy the DVD on Monday and settle down to watch it with a decent bottle of Burgundy some sandwiches and a supply of snacks.

I attach a little reminder of what I know for all of you was a great TV adaptation.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYsMO3rBtYY

[WICKES]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread and recommended the DVD.
I have just been sampling some excerpts on You tube. It looks marvellous and I shall buy the DVD on Monday and settle down to watch it with a decent bottle of Burgundy some sandwiches and a supply of snacks.

I attach a little reminder of what I know for all of you was a great TV adaptation.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYsMO3rBtYY

If you liked the book you are in for a real treat. Just make sure you buy the TV series with Jeremy Irons and John Gielgud and not the wretched recent film with Emma Thompson! It is one of the truly great TV series of all time- up there with Sagan's Cosmos and Clark's Civilisation.

[Virgil]

Thanks, Virgil, for finding this neat poster; I copied it for my own files. How can one go wrong with Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews? It was a great miniseries. Everyone should see it. I loved him in Ivanhoe, too.

And why didn't you vote in the pole?

I was about to climb the pole but then I decided I should vote in the poll. :p

Skipped my mind actually. Thanks. :)

[WICKES]

I haven't read any other of Waugh's works, but I thought Brideshead was brilliant!

It would be interesting to gather togethar some Waugh lovers and get them each to vote on his best work.

The critics seem to think A Handful Of Dust is his best. Many would say Vile Bodies or Scoop. Personally I would go for Men At Arms, the first of the 'Sword of Honour' trilogy or Decline And Fall .

[Emil Miller]

It would be interesting to gather togethar some Waugh lovers and get them each to vote on his best work.

The critics seem to think A Handful Of Dust is his best. Many would say Vile Bodies or Scoop. Personally I would go for Men At Arms, the first of the 'Sword of Honour' trilogy or Decline And Fall .

The problem is that they would need to read all of Waugh's fiction if they were to make a valid choice. I have today purchased a copy of Paula Byrne's recently published biography entitled 'Mad World...Evelyn Waugh and the secrets of Brideshead' together with the set of DVDs of same. The bibliography lists 13 novels for his major fictional output. It is unlikely that many members will have read them all.

[Madame X]

I’ve only read The Loved One. I think that’s his best. :cool:

[Emil Miller]

I’ve only read The Loved One. I think that’s his best. :cool:

I have yet to read it although I've heard it's very funny, but how do you know it's his best if it's the only one you have read?

[WICKES]

I’ve only read The Loved One. I think that’s his best. :cool:

I haven't read that one yet. Is it worth it? I'm reading Scoop atm. I really just cannot praise Evelyn Waugh highly enough. If I could write like anyone I'd want to be able to write like Waugh. He is also so damn funny- and it's very hard to write comedy and pull it off.

[Madame X]

I have yet to read it although I've heard it's very funny, but how do you know it's his best if it's the only one you have read?

Intuition? But more likely, I’m just full of it. ;) I’ve actually been meaning to read more Waugh, I certainly like his style, but I also have to confess to a certain predetermination of mine not to like Brideshead Revisited. I’ll save that one for last, at any rate.


I haven't read that one yet. Is it worth it?

Truly a gruesome good time. :nod: Quite short though; I bought mine used for less than €1 which I won’t say in no way contributed to my satisfaction of the experience as a whole.

[WICKES]

, but I also have to confess to a certain predetermination of mine not to like Brideshead Revisited. .

Why do you feel that way?

[Madame X]

Why do you feel that way?

My natural penchant for expecting the worst in just about everything notwithstanding (:D), from what I understand there is a certain theological undercurrent to the text (i.e., sans irony) that I could more than happily tolerate from almost any writer except Waugh. Sadly, there’s not a more profound bent to my aversion than that.

[kelby_lake]

It's not preachy (there's funny scenes where they're trying to convert a Canadian businessman to Catholicism). It's great :D

'The Loved One' is good. It's about a pet cemetery.

[WICKES]

My natural penchant for expecting the worst in just about everything notwithstanding (:D), from what I understand there is a certain theological undercurrent to the text (i.e., sans irony) that I could more than happily tolerate from almost any writer except Waugh. Sadly, there’s not a more profound bent to my aversion than that.

If you dislike the theological stuff (and I know exactly what you mean about not being able to tolerate this from Waugh) then try his early, pre-conversion novels. Decline and Fall is the best imo. but Vile Bodies, A Handful Of Dust and Scoop are great too- perfect, shimmering, elegant prose, great characters and v. v. funny.

[Emil Miller]

I second Decline and Fall for great characters, Soloman Philbrick and Captain Grimes are not only grotesque but eye wateringly funny. I have just been reading how Waugh read passages from the manuscript to some of his friends with great difficulty because even he couldn't stop laughing. John Betjeman said he felt that he would never find anything funny again. As social satire it is in a class of its own.

[WICKES]

I have just been reading how Waugh read passages from the manuscript to some of his friends with great difficulty because even he couldn't stop laughing. .

Decline and Fall is one of those novels that is even better on audiobook. I think this is because it is made up of a great deal of dialogue. There is a recording by Michael Maloney (an ex RSC actor) which is just brilliant. If you can get hold of a copy I promise you you'll love it. He really brings the characters to life.

[wessexgirl]

Decline and Fall is one of those novels that is even better on audiobook. I think this is because it is made up of a great deal of dialogue. There is a recording by Michael Maloney (an ex RSC actor) which is just brilliant. If you can get hold of a copy I promise you you'll love it. He really brings the characters to life.

I love Michael Maloney, I've seen him at Stratford as Prince Hal, and I really like him, so I'll have to look out for that. I'm just finishing BR on audio, read by Nigel Havers. I have to say that I didn't realise it was him, I'm usually quite good at getting the narrator, but I've just had to check who it was, as it wasn't so recognizable. He's done a fine job, as I suppose he was chosen for being a toff, but he doesn't sound too posh, but then again, he's narrating as Charles isn't he? I was prompted to listen after this thread, and I have the book on my desk. I have read Waugh previously, but it's been some time. I need to see the series again now, so another purchase coming up soon, when I promised myself I wouldn't buy anything until I've gone through all my other purchases. :rolleyes:

[WICKES]

I love Michael Maloney, I've seen him at Stratford as Prince Hal, and I really like him, so I'll have to look out for that. :

Honestly, get hold of a copy of him reading Decline and Fall even if you have to commit murder or swim oceans to do so. You haven't known happiness until you have laid back in a hot bath listening to Maloney bring the funniest book in the English language alive. He uses his RSC training to great effect and each of the characters has his or her own distinct voice. I'm going to get it out of the library again and record it onto cassette.

[mal4mac]

I'm going to get it out of the library again and record it onto cassette.

Careful, with linguistic skills like that you could be in big trouble when he takes you to court :D

Case for the defence: "The guy's my hero so ..er.. I thought I would steal from him..."

If you can't afford to buy the audio why not just take it out of the library again? Save money on cassettes, force your Neanderthal neigbours to pay for art through council tax, and salve your guilty conscience!

Authors get a small amount of money every time you borrow their items, and get to see the borrowing figures going up. Librarians might buy more of similar items if they see something being borrowed so often. Councils will be scared to cut libraries if they are well used.

[Night_Lamp]

Another plus for the IVT production: Simon Jones, who plays Arthur Dent in the
BBC radio 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' series is Brideshead. He plays the character in much the same vain. Great dry humour.

I'm totally in love with the 1981 Phoebe Nicholls- she's so great as Cordelia.

"Are there really sacred monkeys in the Vatican?"

[WICKES]

.

I'm totally in love with the 1981 Phoebe Nicholls- she's so great as Cordelia.

"Are there really sacred monkeys in the Vatican?"

I agree. That was great casting. It was a very difficult role to fill and could have almost ruined an otherwise near- perfect TV production.

[Night_Lamp]

Brideshead is my favorite 20th C. novel; I own the dvd set and watch it or read the book every year.

Glad to meet other fans. Waugh was such a great writer, I love most of his novels.

[WICKES]

Brideshead is my favorite 20th C. novel; I own the dvd set and watch it or read the book every year..

Do you think it is better than Decline and Fall and The Sword of Honour novels?

[Night_Lamp]

I think that A Handful Of Dust is great too; the same subtle understated humour that Waugh is best known for. In The Sword Of Honour series
I think Waugh overdoes the wit, lessening its value as icing rather than cake.

[Emil Miller]

Another plus for the IVT production: Simon Jones, who plays Arthur Dent in the
BBC radio 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' series is Brideshead. He plays the character in much the same vain. Great dry humour.

I'm totally in love with the 1981 Phoebe Nicholls- she's so great as Cordelia.

"Are there really sacred monkeys in the Vatican?"

I thought Simon Jones was brilliant as Bridie, all the nuances pitched perfectly, and I fell for Phoebe Nicholls also. If only all women were like that.

[Cagliostro]

I have recently watched Brideshead Revisited, and I must agree. The part played by Phoebe Nicholls is good, and the apparently dull Bridey is also wonderfully played by Simon Jones.

I have also purchased the novel, and it is the first book I have ever read written by Evelyn Waugh.

The impressions I have formed after reading the book are very diverse, and somehow confusing, even utterly contradictory. At first I thought it was just a book which sort of glorified and detracted at the same time the aristocratic and upper classes, just the typical “glorious exhibition of the good old times”.

Afterwards, I came to think that the book was monstrously anti-catholic, but later, I realised that the book is madly and deliciously sadistic and praise Catholicism as it were a sort of mysterious source of enlightenment that possesses an undoubtedly superior moral over everybody else. The world is dived into two classes: one, the Catholics, which are depicted as a very elite sect, and two, the others, which are a rabble of non enlightened nobodies. The amazing point of the book is that the Catholic faith is presented as irrational, contradictory, worthless, ridiculous, full of trickery and superstition, and yet, it is absolutely glorified as something that despite its evident faults can only be accepted and understood by a few elite chosen ones that stand clearly above everybody else from a moral, cultural, spiritual and even historical point of view.

I love it, because it is so weird¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

I do think the book is some kind of sadistic and masochistic revenge of Mr. Waugh against British Society, because he was catholic and wanted to show that the Catholic faith is older, has more history and stature, and possesses the aesthetic beauty of a monument, a palace, a painting or even a cathedral, where beauty alone is important and destroys logic and any other consideration.

Quite a Jewel, as it describes the voluptuous life of the upper class “catholic sinners”. What would be of pleasure without the added morbidity of sin, contrition, and repentance?

Any insights on the characters would be very welcome.

My favourite characters are, particularly in this order:

1. Lady Cordelia, absolutely delightful woman.

2. Mr. Samgrass: oh, what a funny crook and crappy social climber, one of the best
3. Mr. Anthony Blanche: very well played in the serial by this actor who also played the sheriff of Nottingham in the Robin Hood serial.

4. Cara, the lover of Lord Marchmain, fantastic and wise woman, and example of feminine intelligence and presence of mind

5. The old Marchioness, with her fanaticism

6. Bridey is also marvellous¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

Charles Ryder and Julia Flyte are good, but they are what one expects. In the series is amazing the resemblance of Jeremy Irons with that actor that played the role of Captain James Bellamy in Upstairs-downstairs. The same style, one would say they are brothers.



What are your favourite characters in the novel?

Fernando

[Night_Lamp]

I agree with your list, maybe coming more from the angle of the mini series I would also ad:

'Boy' Mulcaster: the adventures at the old 100th are really funny. "Do you think it would be witty if I pulled the fire call?"

And I think Jane Asher (Who by the way was Paul McCartney's girlfriend all through the sixties, and was sister of Peter of the Peter and Gordon pop duo)
was very good too as Mulcaster's sister and Charles' wife in the later half of the book.

From the standpoint of the novel: Cordelia, Brideshead- as the perfect counter-point to the wild Sabastian-, Lady Marchmain- for her stoicism- and who doesn't love Antony Blanchce.