One of Waugh's most famous books, Brideshead Revisited tells the story of the difficult loves of insular Englishman Charles Ryder, and his peculiarly intense relationship with the wealthy but dysfunctional family that inhabited Brideshead. Taking place in the years after World War II, Brideshead Revisited shows us a part of upper-class English culture that has been disappearing steadily.


The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh, published in 1945. According to Waugh, a convert to Roman Catholicism, the novel was intended to show "the operation of divine grace" in the affairs of a particular group of people. This is revealed through the story of the wealthy Roman Catholic Marchmain family as told by Charles Ryder, a friend of the family. Despite the seeming indifference to, or outright repudiation of, the church by various members of the family, particularly Lord Marchmain, his daughter Julia, and his son Sebastian, by the end of the novel each has shown some sign of acceptance of the faith.

ANNOTATION

Evelyn Waugh's best-loved novel and the basis for the PBS television production, Brideshead Revisited, the epic story of a great Catholic family in a doomed aristocratic age.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

About the Author

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was born into a publishing family in Hampstead, England, and educated at Oxford. After a brief stint as a schoolmaster, he turned to writing. His biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti appeared in 1928, but it was his sensational first novel, Decline and Fall, published the same year, that set the course for his career. Waugh wrote sixteen novels, including The Loved One, Scoop, and Brideshead Revisited.

SYNOPSIS

The basis for the famous PBS television series starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, Evelyn Waugh's bestselling classic is now available as an eBook. Spanning the 1920's through the 1940's, narrator Charles Ryder becomes entranced with the noble Marchmain family, first through the charming and provocative Sebastian Marchmain, and then his sophisticated sister, Julia. The rise and fall of Charles's infatuations reflects Waugh's genius in capturing the decline of a decadent era in England between the wars.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this classic tale of British life between the World Wars, Waugh parts company with the satire of his earlier works to examine affairs of the heart. Charles Ryder finds himself stationed at Brideshead, the family seat of Lord and Lady Marchmain. Exhausted by the war, he takes refuge in recalling his time spent with the heirs to the estate before the war--years spent enthralled by the beautiful but dissolute Sebastian and later in a more conventional relationship with Sebastian's sister Julia. Ryder portrays a family divided by an uncertain investment in Roman Catholicism and by their confusion over where the elite fit in the modern world. Although Waugh was considered by many to be more successful as a comic than as a wistful commentator on human relationships and faith, this novel was made famous by a 1981 BBC TV dramatization. Irons's portrayal of Ryder catapulted Irons to stardom, and in this superb reading his subtle, complete characterizations highlight Waugh's ear for the aristocratic mores of the time. Fervent Anglophiles will be thrilled by this excellent rendition of a favorite; Irons's reading saves this dinosaur from being suffocated by its own weight. (Dec. 2000) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

John K. Hutchens