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Brideshead Revisited
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Brideshead Revisited
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Brideshead Revisited
Audiobook11 hours

Brideshead Revisited

Written by Evelyn Waugh

Narrated by Jeremy Irons

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

The wellsprings of desire and the impediments to love come brilliantly into focus in Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece-a novel that immerses us in the glittering and seductive world of English aristocracy in the waning days of the empire. Through the story of Charles Ryder's entanglement with the Flytes, a great Catholic family, Evelyn Waugh charts the passing of the privileged world he knew in his own youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities. At once romantic, sensuous, comic, and somber, Brideshead Revisited transcends Waugh's early satiric explorations and reveals him to be an elegiac, lyrical novelist of the utmost feeling and lucidity.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 11, 2012
ISBN9781619693975
Author

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer of books. His most famous works include the early satires Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934), the novel Brideshead Revisited (1945), and the Second World War trilogy, Sword of Honour (1952–61).

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Rating: 4.062929135011442 out of 5 stars
4/5

2,622 ratings129 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Op en top een Britse roman: de colleges van Oxford, adembenemende landhuizen, extravagante adellijke figuren, spitse conversaties, sprankelende natuurobservaties. Daarbovenop nog prachtige, gedragen romances (in meerdere betekenissen van het woord), de intrigerende aantrekkingskracht en beknelling van het katholicisme binnen de Bridesheadfamilie, en dat alles overgoten met een melancholische saus (op zoek naar de verloren tijd). Alleen het slot is er wat over.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The wonderful and quite inexplicable thing about Evelyn Waugh, is the brilliant surface of his prose. His achievement is all the more remarkable because so much that this brilliant surface encloses - his characters, their lives and his indulgences of their faults - is soft, rotten and overripe. Brideshead is remarkable because the inward corruption of the novel is so precariously contained by its surface tension. It is worth recalling that Waugh revised the book, to curb some of its more indulgent excesses. after WW2 . By the time of the trilogy, Men At Arms, et al, the prose surface can no longer contain the rot within. The novels of the trilogy suppurate. The late novel, Gilbert Pinfold's Ordeal, is the nearest Waugh came to redemption.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Elegaic, moving and utterly beautiful: a poetic vision of decline, a paean to the English country house, and the story of one man's fall from innocence. Waugh's prose is measured and exquisite, with frequent sparks of wry humour. A self-indulgent joy to read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Op en top een Britse roman: de colleges van Oxford, adembenemende landhuizen, extravagante adellijke figuren, spitse conversaties, sprankelende natuurobservaties. Daarbovenop nog prachtige, gedragen romances (in meerdere betekenissen van het woord), de intrigerende aantrekkingskracht en beknelling van het katholicisme binnen de Bridesheadfamilie, en dat alles overgoten met een melancholische saus (op zoek naar de verloren tijd). Alleen het slot is er wat over.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the tragedy of the Marchmain family, descendants of English recusant nobility, caught in the modern world. Whether it is the story of the friendship of the youngest Marchmain, Lord Sebastian, with the mysterious Charles Ryder, or the desires of Charles for the oldest daughter, Lady Julia, this story transcends what is acceptable and provides a glimpse into the world of the English Catholic elite.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An absorbing and sumptuous eulogy for the end of the golden age of the British aristocracy. Beautifully written and with so much to enjoy: faith and - in particular - Catholicism, duty, love, desire, grandeur, decay, memory, and tragedy. At its heart there is a beautiful and enchanting story. The various characters, right down to the most minor ones, are stunningly and credibly drawn - having just finished the book I feel that I have been amongst them and known them. I have read most of Evelyn Waugh's novels and this is his finest. If you haven't read it yet I envy you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A bit of a slow story, yet very enjoyable. I really like Waugh's writing style. He paints a very real picture of life in Oxford before the second world war, and of the decline of an old noble family.The story seems more of a momentary glimpse into the lives of its characters, rather than a complete story with a beginning and an ending. The end doesn't give any answers as to what will happen to the main characters, and leaves the reader wondering how they will end up.I've been thinking about how to describe this, but I'm finding it difficult, so I'll make a comparison: it's more of a landscape painting, a broad overview without anything standing out in particular, rather than a comic book in which we follow a story through individual, 'special' events.Personally I liked it very much, but I can imagine it's not to everybody's taste.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was such a pleasure to read! I am becoming a huge fan of anything set in 1920s-30s Britain.

    The premise of the book was fascinating but maybe a little too elliptical for contemporary readers. By the end we are to believe that, as much as the "charming" traditions of the aristocracy and religion ruined Charles' life, they have some alchemical value that endures into the present, but what precise value is not explored or justified.

    I double-checked and Waugh was indeed a Catholic - it seems that unpreachy writing penned by Christians is something of a lost art that was in full flourish in the first half of the last century, at least in Britain. Not every character needs to be "saved," not every piece of doctrine needs to be defended, and the reader is left to make up their own mind.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The story is set in the 1920's when two boys, Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte, become friends at University in Oxford. When Charles is invited to stay with Sebastain's family for the holidays he finds himself embroiled in that families tribulations not just in the present but the future also with profound ramifications for both. Now I initially believed that it was going to be one about homosexual desires and perhaps unrequitted love, and there are certainly some subtle unsaid elements of this, it soon became clear that there was more to it than that. I mean Sebastian becomes a lush and virtually disappears out of the story altogether. Then Charles has an affair with Sebastain's sister Julia culminating with both of them getting divorced from their respective spouses and all the time Charles is being drawn ever deeper into the family's religious strife, for Sebastian's family are staunchly Catholic whilst Charles in agnostic. The story becomes about how he will never be truly accepted into Sebastian's and Julia's family circle because of these religious differances.Unfortunately this is where the book rather lost me. I enjoyed the early part of the book about the drunken antics of young University students and in particularily loved the highly amusing oneupmanship between Charles and his own father but then the final third chiefly centres on the values of marriage, morals and sins within Catholic families, Lord Marchmain's long illness and eventual death feels more of a Catholic wishlist rather than anything else. Whilst I could see how the author had no doubt struggled with his own spirituality I came to not really care about anything that happened to any of the Flytes, probably because I share Charles's view of religion. That said I enjoyed Waugh's writing style, in particular the comedic elements, and found it interesting that just as Charles star seemed to shine brightly as a painter the Flytes' own seemed to be on the wane with mirroring how 'new' money was replacing 'old' in Britain during the in-between Wars years.Overall, a good read but one that failed to really grip me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    It's not a love story, it's not a story about war, it's not really a story about the decline of the old world order and aristocracy (although that one does come out strongly); it's a story about Catholicism. Having grown up in a mainly Buddhist country, where Christians are all lumped together, I don't have a good grasp of Catholicism and the implications of being Catholic, as opposed to being any other type of Christian. So the book was disappointing, because I didn't understand why the ending happened--it doesn't make sense unless you pay attention to the role of religion...and by that, I mean Catholics vs other Christians, which is a distinction that is hard for me to make :p I liked the writing, loved the setting (declining British aristocracy of early 20th century), and was intrigued by the idea. But disappointed nonetheless.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Should be an unsympathatic book. Decadent Twenties and Thirties among the British upper classes. However it moves you despite yourself. It's engrossing and very readable. The ending is built up to a powerful emotional peak and then swiftly brought down to earth.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I wish I could give this ten stars. It was so fantastic. It's profound, but you have to get there; it won't jump out in the first part of the book. Luckily some of the best and wittiest prose writing in the English language will tide you over till you get there. Wow.

    One of those books I always meant to read. Now I wish I had read ten years ago.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm trying, and failing, to imagine whatever might have compelled anyone to try to teach this book in a high school English class. I still have the copy of Brideshead Revisited that I was using in my 1993 English class, and while I have vague memories of not liking the book, my handwritten notes make it perfectly plain that I wasn't even remotely ready to read the book.

    To be totally truthful, there are still parts of the novel I don't totally understand. For whatever reason, the social mores of a hundred years ago are far more incomprehensible than those of four hundred or a thousand years ago. But to expect a high schooler to think critically about lost innocence and the betrayal of one's youthful ideals seems more than a little ridiculous.

    Reading it now, I appreciated Waugh's work a lot more. Humorous and melancholy, his writing reminds me of both what it was like to be young, imagining a sort of everlasting omnipotence, and what it's like to be older, regretting not only that loss, but having been foolish enough to believe in it in the first place.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The wonderful and quite inexplicable thing about Evelyn Waugh, is the brilliant surface of his prose. His achievement is all the more remarkable because so much that this brilliant surface encloses - his characters, their lives and his indulgences of their faults - is soft, rotten and overripe. Brideshead is remarkable because the inward corruption of the novel is so precariously contained by its surface tension. It is worth recalling that Waugh revised the book, to curb some of its more indulgent excesses. after WW2 . By the time of the trilogy, Men At Arms, et al, the prose surface can no longer contain the rot within. The novels of the trilogy suppurate. The late novel, Gilbert Pinfold's Ordeal, is the nearest Waugh came to redemption.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a book I wanted to love, but ended up only liking. In fact, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to others. I didn't prefer the separation of stories between "Charles and Sebastien" then "Charles and Julia". In addition, I felt Julia's transformation of conflict with her religious/catholic beliefs was rather abrupt and underdeveloped.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A good book, but I think I liked the movie better. Still love the character of Sebastian, but I hate what became of him, it was sad. But there were a few dull parts and I'm still surprised Evelyn Waugh is a man!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I started on this book because I'd read too many times that this was an influence on another book that I'd read and enjoyed. A month or two back, I read an interview with Lev Grossman where he claimed that a lot of the Magicians and its follow-up are taken pretty heavily off of Brideshead Revisited, and that he and other authors could get away with this because the audience by and large hadn't read the original work.Well. As if I was going to stand for any more of that.So this book is a classic, and I often have reservations about those, but perhaps what I'm finding as I grow a bit older is that a lot of these are good, particularly if you come to them yourself. Definitely something to keep in mind for the future. This one, plot-wise, is about the reminiscences of one Charles Ryder, student turned painter turned army officer, as he returns to the Brideshead manor during World War II, and looks back on the time he spent there, and the various members of the resident Flyte family he interacted with, chiefly Sebastian, a close friend from his time at Oxford, and his older sister Julia, along with various connected people and hangers-on.Before getting to any of the themes, here's what really has to be said: this is a masterpiece of writing, just a superbly crafted work, and in many ways, the sort of writing I like best. I recall reading somewhere that Waugh had been asked why he doesn't go into character's thoughts much in writing, and he said something to the effect of, because I know what they say and do, but I don't know what they're thinking. That's the approach to writing I like best, and beyond Charles's thoughts and narration - after all, it's his memories we're reading, of course we know what he thought - everyone else you just get from the outside.That's really not a big deal, though, when you can write character action and speech as well as Waugh can. A character discoursing can go on for pages and pages; outrageous aesthete Anthony Blanche gets one, ambitious, hard-driving politician Rex Mottram gets another. Just in reading them, even without the carefully observed actions the characters show, you get a sense of who they are, deeply and vividly. There are so many good characters, I don't even want to go into them all, but the whole Marchmain family, and in fact basically all the characters Charles deals with for more than a few lines, really come across as real. And for the ones you spend more time with, like Sebastian or Julia, these are great portraits, of people that you really feel you could know, or have met. This is perhaps the most so for Sebastian; I feel like I have met people like him before, lost and wanting control and full of excess and quirky almost for the sake of it. I don't know you can spend too much time in ex-pat circles without meeting people like him.But the feel and the change of the relationships are just amazing, and naturally, then, the scope of the story and the life described are pretty big. These are privileged folks, and they're getting out there; Charles gets into painting because, well, there are a lot of rooms in the Flyte home, and why not put some paintings on them? He travels because he can, and because his widower father certainly doesn't want him around, even if he'd never say it quite that way. Pretty much all the characters travel around, really.And here's where I have to address the themes of this book. For something that's so well-crafted and well-realized, and just flat-out enjoyable to read, even when matters turn dire and melancholic... my, but do I not agree with the underlying nature of the book. These people are privileged in that sense of the word, too, and there's a longing to be on the rich side of the struggle, that some people really do get more chances than others, that there's a merit to this aristrocratic life, and that merrily beating down the working man is fine in here, even if it's not always in so many words. And that's without getting into religion; divinity, grace and Catholicism are huge themes here, with each of the characters in the Flyte family coming to different accommodations with it, and largely none of them being happy. Even the ones that try to reject the religion can't escape it, really; it's always there, in their makeup, and they don't always come to good ends for it, either singly or in their relationships with others. Waugh realizes all this, and I suppose his point is that life is probably miserable on some level either way, so why not have something of the divine in their to help... which, okay, but it doesn't make me happy with that side of the lesson, either. I also suppose I don't really like the "if you're not Catholic, you just don't Get It" side of the argument, because I'd like to think I get it enough... but maybe I don't.That's perhaps the thing about great works; I don't want to reject the points because I think they're wrong from my experience, even if I don't want to really internalize the lessons, either. Some of that, I think would make me a worse person. But this is a tremendously well done work, and I won't be fooled again, that's for sure. Even if you're not generally into Great Works of Fiction, as the category may be described, this one really is worth a try. It's not flawless, but the flaws are there for a reason, and that's good enough for me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A novel about Charles Ryder and his interaction with the family of Brideshead. It was published in 1945 and it addressed the sacred and profane. Grace is examined through the Roman Catholic family, Marchmain. It was revised by the author in 1959. I believe I read the revised version. I listened to an audio version read by Jeremy Irons who did a splendid job with the various voices. Charles befriends Sebastian. This friendship is one of love. Later Charles attraction to Julia is because she reminds him so much of Sebastian. It is never fully disclosed to be a sexual relationship but it could have been. Charles marries and later divorces. He married for what his wife could do socially for him and not for love. He divorced and was to marry Julia but that never works out and the story ends with Charles alone and childless. The setting is during WWII. The title comes from Charles coming to Brideshead as the military takes it over for a camp and then he recalls his interactions with the family and this home and it ends with Charles in the military trying to get the camp set up.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I remember seeing (and liking) a tv adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, so when I had the chance to read the novel itself, I did. Unfortunately, I didn't like the book so much. I could not feel sympathy for the main characters, which I usually find important. Moreover, I couldn't understand the actions of the characters, which is even more essential. I didn't hate the book so much that I abandoned it, but I found it a chore to finish, especially since it only gets worse in the end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I watched the original tv series before I read the book, so for me it was predictable but well written and an interesting story. Probably best to read the book before watching the tv series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A wonderful tale of the loss of innocence and youth, told on the micro level through the Marchmain family of Brideshead and on the macro level through the theme of coming war (WW2). The tale is beguiling, although I did--for reasons I can't quite pinpoint--absolutely adore the first part of the book (which I would give 5 stars) and then cool slightly towards the rest of the novel. Overall, I found the story captivating, delicate, and multi-layered. Waugh is a craftsman of beautiful, lyrical prose. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I gave half stars.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Incredible. Definitely one of the best novels of the 20th century, it is full of questions and themes which really make you think, without overwhelming you or being preachy. Beautifully crafted and written- everyone must read this book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The novel sweeps from pastoral to rather grim, though Waugh intended it to be a defence of Catholic spiritualism. Using the atheist Charles Ryder to observe and be charmed by the Flyte family, we see the religion's visceral hold upon its members, leading the reader to be conflicted on whether this is a positive or negative thing. Charles comes to an understanding about the importance of spirituality -- for the Flytes, not himself -- but his mourning is more for the loss of his youth and the carefree days when he frolicked with Sebastian on the luxurious grounds of Brideshead. Though warned by a contemporary at University against falling for the Flytes, he easily falls in with them as one of their own. First, by establishing an intimacy with the eccentric yet fragile Sebastian. Then, gaining the confidence of his mother, Lady Marchmain. Finally, falling in love with Julia, described as a female version of Sebastian. The other characters -- devout siblings Bridey and cordelia, and their adulterous father Lord Marchmain -- all accept him despite differences in class and religion. Much about the writing is like the Flyte family: reserved with guilty bursts of passion. The dialogue has the clipped, succinct expression particular to English aristoracy. Charles himself is rather cruel in his character and expression, especially towards things he does not understand or respect. He is a most unsympathetic narrator (especially in his adult years when he leaves his family for two years to paint abroad and isn't interested in seeing his children, including one who was born while he was away.) His cruelty only serves to highlight the delicate charm of the Flytes, who even when they defend Catholicism do it in a soft, yet matter-of-fact way that speaks of it as a natural part of their lives, as if its loss from their lives would be akin to the loss of the blood that flows through their veins. In the end, all the errant Flytes come back to religion, in their own way, in order to make things right or establish balance. Charles, however, is left with only nostalgia and perhaps a bit of bitter regret. We are left in teh throws of World War II, in the dilapidated shadow of Brideshead's former glory, to determine for ourselves who is better off in the end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It sucks you in. Very delicate and complete, I think is the best way to put it. I can see why such a fuss has been made over it. It's really...lovely and beautiful in the telling. It feels like I lived an entire life with Charles, Sebastian, Julia, and the rest of the brood.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Brideshead Revisited, I imagine, is one of those books you would read very differently depending on how you feel about the Catholic church. To me, an atheist to my core, it is a book about nostalgia and a desperate, futile attempt to grasp what is gone. This reading makes sense to me, but I know those who take the author's Catholicism into account read parts of it (especially the ending, I suppose) in a more positive, although I hesitate to say "upbeat", way. Waugh claims it is about ``the operations of divine grace on a group of closely connected characters''. I find it is a book about having experienced happiness and a futile attempt to later grasp at any reminder of that happiness available. The fact that this book accommodates two diametrically opposed impressions is part of the reason why it is so good. It never attempts to hammer home a point; it lays itself open to the reader in a way too few books do. I would not want you to get the wrong impression from what I have just said. The book is delightful. Especially the description of the early days at Oxford and Brideshead. I suppose it goes somewhat with the territory. A novel about nostalgia could do worse than make its reader nostalgic for the happy past dominating the life of its central character. It is the story of Charles Ryder. The subtitle of ``The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is not appended to my edition. It may be one of those things that Waugh excised in his revision. Charles Ryder goes to Oxford, meets Sebastian and his dandified set of young men (and Aloysius, his teddy bear), drinks wine, is happy; and is then slowly drawn into the family circle and the unpleasant manipulative currents within it. And then he grows up. And life becomes a little more grey, a little more mundane. Gay abandon becomes dipsomania, and it is all framed by the position of the England of the Second World War. My edition is Waugh's revised 1959 version of the book. In a preface he explains the changes made, saying that It was a bleak period of present privation and threatening disaster -- the period of soy beans and Basic English -- and in consequence the book is infused with a kind of gluttony, for food and wine, for the splendours of the recent past, and for rhetorical and ornamental language, which now with a full stomach I find distasteful.I can only conclude that I had better get my hands on the original 1945 version of the book. As a student, living on no money, and surrounded by the current use of language, I cannot help but feel something approaching that desire for fantasies of wonderful food and wine and delicious ornamental language which I imagine Waugh felt towards the end of the war. The dandified attention to beauty and the rejection of the values dictated by the world of Serious people appeals to me. And my feelings as it disappears into a steadily more dejected, flat and unappealing present can be imagined. But it is that depressing second half which makes this something more than delightful period candy. It turns it into a book about something real, about loss of something lovely and bright, and the attempt to hang onto it -- rather prefigured by Sebastian and Aloysius, I think.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Strange how I never picked up on the fact the brilliant BBC series was based on a book.Now I did, I'm not quite sure what to think. Knowing the series influenced me in a positive way. The characters are almost 100% identical to the book.I just think there's too much Charles and not enough Sebastian. :-)For some reason I find myself wondering what it's all about, but maybe that is the writer's intention...It's sad. A very sad story, but so very well written.Oh, for the record, don't even think about watching the film. It's dreadful and doesn't even resemble the book in anyway.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The book tells the story of Charles Ryder and his infatuation with the doomed Flyte family, especially the colourful Sebastian. I have read Brideshead several times and love it. It's beautifully written with long sentences, full of breath-takingly rich descriptions. The first half of this book is total perfection.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Upon finding himself stationed at Brideshead during the second world ward, Charles Rider begins to remember how his life has weaved in and out of the Marchmain family who once lived there. Charles was best friends with Sebastian Marchmain in university and visited with this wealthy and dysfunctional Marchmain family at Brideshead.This book is rather tragic as it mainly deals with the fall of the old aristocracy with the Marchmains as the representative family. Sorrow upon sorrow seems to be heaped upon them, and Charles shares in it due to his close connection with the family.It's a wee slow in some areas, but it's also rather beautiful in the way of nostalgia. The book in a way serves the same function as Charles' paintings of old houses, manners, and castles, as a kind of relic to a way of life that doesn't quite exist in the same way any more, while also creating deep characters that for one reason or another will not allow themselves to be happy.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of the top ten books on my reading list and I have read many books. The poetic use of language, psychological insight into the religious mind, and the upper class concerns of "between the wars" English aristocrats result in a superior novel.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    There is no doubt that Waugh can write, and write spectacularly well. The first few pages confirmed that - I loved the image of the truffling pig. The difficulty was that the story failed to grab me, and once I got about two thirds of the way through I realised I didn't care about any of the upper class twits who populate this novel. I did finish it, but only because I refuse to leave a book half-read.