Evelyn Waugh

the sacred and profane memories of Captain Charles Ryder

Brideshead revisited

Evelyn EVELYN WAUGH

Brideshead Revisited (The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder) was authored by Evelyn Waugh. It was first published during 1945 and was published again during 1982 by Back Bay Books. This novel delves into the life of Charles Ryder during the era before World War II.Charles comes to terms with the true state of himself and his loved ones through a series of tense events involving his sexuality and spirituality. The core of this story is the development of some sort of affair between him and another young man, Sebastian Flyte, in Oxford.

(Annotated Edition)

Brideshead Revisited

Lukas

I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all. 

These memories, which are my life - for we posses nothing certainly except the past - were always with me. 

Essence

…to know and love one other human being is the root of all wisdom.

Helen 

Perhans, I thought, while her words still hung in the air between us like a wisp of tobacco smokea thought to fade and vanish like smoke without a trace-perhaps all our loves are merely hints and symbols; a hill of many invisible crests; doors that open as in a dream to reveal only a further stretch of carpet and another door; perhaps you and I are types and this sadness which sometimes falls between us springs from disappointment in our search, cach straining through and beyond the other, Snatching a glimpse now and then of the shadow which turns the corner always a pace or two ahead of us. 

"Sometimes." said Julia, "I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all.”

"I never see you now," she said. "I never seem to see anyone I like. I don't know why."

 But she spoke as though it were a matter of weeks rather than of years; as though, too, before our parting we had been irm friends. It was dead contrary to the common experience of such encounters, when timne is found to have built its own defensive lines, camouflaged vulnerable points, and laid a field of mines across all but a few well-trodden paths, so that, more often than not, we can only signal to one another from either side of the tangle of wire. Here she and I who were never friends betore, met on terms of long and unbroken intimacy. 

Here I am, I thought, back from the jungle, back from the ruins. Here, where wealth is no longer gorgeous and power power has no dignity. 

He was magically beautiful, with that epicene quality which in extreme youth sings aloud for love and withers at the first cold wind.

Draculelle

enjoyed the beginning but then the rest felt like a chore to get through :/

Sarah Sammis

I started reading Evelyn Waugh quite by accident. I was lured in by the Edward Gorey cover art for The Loved One. From there I went on to A Handful of Dust. Whenever I mention Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited is always recommended. So I figured it was time to read the novel that everyone thinks of first.

The full title is Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder. The plot meanders through Charle Ryder's life from his university days, his friendship with Sebastian, marriage and divorce and how Brideshead has changed him and changed with him.

Evelyn Waugh's books always seem to start in one direction only to go off on one or possibly two tangents. Of the three I've now read, The Loved One was the easiest and straight forward. A Handful of Dust went too far a field for me. Brideshead Revisited is somewhere in the middle. I had a few places where I had to go back and re-read to make sure I was still following along.

Ann Gabrielle

this is really more of a 2/5 but god I am crying and will write a more coherent review some time soon. I can’t in good grace give it a 4/5 while having the values that I have but I can give it a very solid 3.5/5 for personal biases.

Edit: fuck it 4 stars lol

Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder, most especially his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle. Ryder has relationships with two of the Flytes: Sebastian and Julia. The novel explores themes including nostalgia for the age of English aristocracy, Catholicism, and the nearly overt homosexuality of Sebastian Flyte and 's coterie at Oxford University. A faithful and well-received television adaptation of the novel was produced in an 11-part miniseries by Granada Television in 1981.

Laura Mauler

Well, nothing much at all happens. Just a life being lived and connecting and disconnecting with other lives.

Fabulous. Beautifully tragic but still somehow ends on a positive, hope-filled note. Could not put down. Absolutely absurd at some points but still human through and through. 

Jacque

Janna Romano

Profound language. Beautiful words. I just couldn't hook myself up. But I sure gonna have to rediscover this some time few years after. Perhaps, I'm not yet ready to read this.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated novel is a memory drama about the intense entanglement of the narrator, Charles Ryder, with a great Anglo-Catholic family. Written during World War II, the novel mourns the passing of the aristocratic world Waugh knew in his youth and vividly recalls the sensuous plea?sures denied him by wartime austerities; in so doing it also provides a profound study of the conflict between the demands of religion and the desires of the flesh. At once romantic, sensuous, comic, and somber, "Brideshead Revisited" transcends Waugh's familiar satiric exploration of his cast of lords and ladies, Catholics and eccentrics, artists and misfits, revealing him to be an elegiac, lyrical novelist of the utmost feeling and lucidity. The edition reprinted here contains Waugh's revisions, made in 1959, and his preface to the revised edition.

The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

Jamieson

you guys . . . the upcoming mini series. andrew garfield is gonna act SO in love with joe alwyn's Sebastian flyte I cannot wait

Ofelia

If you asked me now who I am, the only answer I could give with any certainty would be my name: Charles Ryder. For the rest: my loves, my hates, down even to my deepest desires, I can no longer say whether these emotions are my own or stolen from those I once so desperately wished to be. On second thought, one emotion remains my own; Alone among the borrowed and the second-hand, as pure as that faith from which I am still in flight: Guilt.

Ashlyn

Lots of parallels to A Little Life (minus "trauma porn"), at least to me. I'll break down my scoring rubric later.

... LATER

Okay, here's my rating rubric I stole from someone cooler than me. (I changed the "I" from "intrigue" to "investment / emotional resonance" because it's more in line with the types of books I read.)

C- characters: 7
A - atmosphere: 8
W - writing style: 7
P - plot: 6
I - investment / emotional resonance: 10
L - logic: 5
E - enjoyment: 7


(0-3 = very poor
4-6 = mediocre
7-9 = really good
10 = outstanding)

Add 'em up, divide by 7, then convert -
1.1-2.2 = ⭐
2.3-4.5 = ⭐⭐
4.6-6.9 = ⭐⭐⭐
7-8.9 = ⭐⭐⭐⭐
9-10 = ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and decadent Sebastian Flyte. Invited to Brideshead, Sebastian's magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric, aristocratic inhabitants, gradually becoming infatuated with them and the life of privilege they inhabit - in particular, with Sebastian's remote sister, Julia. But he gradually comes to recognize his spiritual and social distance from them, eventually discovering a world where duty and desire, faith and happiness are in conflict.

Eloise

Brideshead Revisited is super dense and intriguing. It’s a story about crises of faith amidst the breakdown of sacred institutions. In this light, it can veer pretty bleak but is also surprisingly hopeful. Evelyn Waugh was a Catholic and a conservative and you definitely get a sense of grief for a lost world. I expected this to grate but ultimately, I found it a humanizing glimpse into an unfamiliar mindset - important, these days, when it can be hard to empathize with those who cling to fantasies of the “good old days.” Overall, it’s shockingly relevant and a great jumping off point into literature of the modern era - lots of modernist themes but the style is still accessible.

Trever

The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the years 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.The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

sorry to pretentious people but i have read the secret history and also am listening to the once upon a time... podcast and my reading of this book cannot be divorced from this concept.

i did enjoy this well enough. aside from its standalone literary value, i think it is fascinating how much it has influenced tartt's writing and how hers, in turn, is now influencing a new cohort of college kids.

Sarah Escorsa

I recently discovered Waugh’s work and have quickly become addicted to his prose. Since last year, I have been reading as many of his novels as I can and I realise now that they were some of his funnier, satirical novels. This might be why I had trouble getting into Brideshead Revisited and didn’t enjoy reading it as much as I did other Waugh novels. 

Waugh’s writing is as wonderful as usual and his characters are very well-crafted but what bothered me most here is the lack of emotion I felt throughout the book. I also found the novel to be too nostalgic for my taste. Still, I decided to give this book three stars because I so love Waugh’ style. I might even give Brideshead Revesited another try in the near future, just in case! I'd also love to watch the Granada series which is supposed to be very good :)

Donald

Bob Simone

I liked this. But I am not sure I understand where Charles is coming from. I am waiting for Anthony to explain it to me.

Jade Flynn

A strong English modern classic novel. Not my favourite, not my least favourite. Floats around somewhere in the middle. Particularly enjoyed the discussions surrounding Catholicism.

Laura

I'm not really sure what I expected when I first began Brideshead Revisited back in 2017. In fact, I've completely forgotten how I even found the novel in the first place, especially given the fact that Waugh never really broke into the American audience, even now when Anglophilia seems to be the new trend. In fact, the book had a bit of an uphill battle- I've never been much of an Anglophile myself and I've also never been a Catholic nor do I have any real desire to be one. 

I'm also not going to say I was hooked right from the start. I've never been one for war novels, and while I thought Charles' commentary on the "Age of Hooper" was funny, I was still apprehensive about where the story was going. I wasn't sure if I would like it. And then Charles heard the name "Brideshead" and the novel began to work its magic.

I've always thought it funny when people describe Brideshead Revisited as a work of escapism or (particularly in the case of the 1981 miniseries) a costume drama. Because, once you venture out of the first quarter, when Sebastian begins his decline into alcoholism, the book stops being whimsical and starts being, well, depressing as hell. Suddenly, the magic of his second childhood is gone, and, for the rest of the book, all he can do is chase the happiness that he felt during that one summer he had with Sebastian. 

One of the great stumbling blocks a lot of people have with Brideshead is that it's a deeply religious, deeply Catholic novel. But for me, it worked in the same way The End of the Affair worked, maybe because I've never bought the idea that Christianity is supposed to be easy, certainly not in the way that many modern Christian novels make it out to be. Both Waugh and Greene explore the messiness of faith, the pain that it can bring and the doubt that is central to it in a way I relate to heavily. The religiousity of Brideshead Revisited could be summed up as the opening to Ash-Wednesday by TS Eliot- "Because I do not hope to turn again".

This is not a book I think is for everyone, and this is not a book I force on everyone. Sebastian is a very divisive character. Some people, I'm sure, take offense to Blanche's stuttering flamboyancy (oddly, he's one of the the few characters with a probable happy ending, given that the last time we see him he's holding court in a gay bar and not, you know, drunk at a monastery). Charles can be (all right, is) kind of an asshole. Again, the religiousness. It's also not very gay despite being billed as a great gay novel (may I suggest Maurice, if you're in the market for an explicitly gay novel with a similar vibe? I've also heard good things about The Line of Beauty...), though I'm sure the upcoming TV adaptation, by the Call Me By Your Name director, will rectify both that and the religiousness. But if you like beautiful writing and have strong aesthetic principles and don't mind musings on faith and are as allergic to happy endings as I am, at least try Brideshead Revisited. 

If nothing else, at least you'll have something to recommend your The Secret History obsessed friends when they ask for a similar book.

'I knew Sebastian by sight long before I met him. That was unavoidable for, from his first week, he was the most conspicuous man of his year by reason of his beauty, which was arresting, and his eccentricities of behaviour, which seemed to know no bounds.' Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and exquisitely beautiful Sebastian Flyte. Invited to Brideshead, Sebastian's magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric, aristocratic inhabitants. But he also discovers a world where duty and desire, faith and earthly happiness are in conflict; a world which threatens to destroy his beloved Sebastian. A scintillating depiction of the decadent, privileged aristocracy prior to the Second World War, Brideshead Revisited is widely regarded as Evelyn Waugh's finest work.

Monica

This is considered a beautifully written great Catholic novel. And I agree. Waugh presents religion in a way that is not plain and one-sided, but through the acceptance and rejection of grace of the different characters: from the agnostic Charles to the devout Lady Marchmain, each one with a different attitude towards faith, with their own flaws and struggles. There is no perfect and ideal character, but with their own personality and views all will receive grace in a particular way. It is a story about sin and grace; about how giving way to our appetites and whims can cause a lot of pain in the long run.

"Brideshead" can be seen as a metaphor of the Church, which is the 'bride' of the 'head' (Christ). In the novel, this mansion brings people to itself: even when they think they will not go back, they will eventually return. This is the central point of the whole novel, which gives light to the story. To be in the Church requires sacrifice, something which not all are willing to accept at first; but it is also very attractive and difficult to resist.

I heard that this novel was beautifully put on screen in the TV series of 1981, and was completely spoilt in the 2008 movie (they missed the central point of the novel). A beautiful and quite strange story of conversion which I might 'revisit' at some point in the future.

Kristina

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.

Brideshead revisited the sacred and profane memories of Captain Charles Ryder

Reviews

Highlights