Revisiting Brideshead (Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh)

Member Name: Smidge

Product:	Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Date:	18/08/00 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gloriously self indulgent in parts

Disadvantages: A million miles from the twenty-first century

The story unfolds as Charles Ryder finds himself stationed, with his army unit, in the grounds of stately home - then he realises that he has been there before...

Casting his mind back to his days at Oxford, Charles recalls his relationship with Sebastian Flyte, his teddy bear and Sebastian's struggle with life, love and alcohol. And then there is Sebastian's strange and sometimes troubled family: their self-torturing beliefs, and their enveloping attractiveness, which Charles soon finds himself unable to resist.

If you have seen the television adaptation of this classic English novel and then decide to read the book you will not be disappointed. The velvety richness of Waugh's language evokes a very special atmosphere throughout the novel as a whole. I know I find it hard to imagine the characters as anyone other than Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons. If you are not familiar with the TV series: choose a sunny day, drive to the countryside just outside Oxford, spread a blanket out on a grassy knoll, pour yourself a large glass of wine and set yourself up for a few hours of reading that you will always remember.

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