Hardcover, 416 pages
Published Dec. 11, 2012 by Little, Brown and Company.
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.
Oh dear. I really wanted to like this. It has all the ingredients of a book that I'd love, but I just found it so dull. I didn't feel that I really got to know any of the characters, and they are what the story is all about. Some of the writing is very beautiful - especially the descriptions of Charles' early life in Italy - but mostly I found it lacklustre.
I liked this one! A glimpse into a way of life that soon ended. Or how to make an act of contrition that really means something.
