Helping you get started with Brideshead Revisited

Dear Students: here is some help getting started with our next novel -- a guide to the first part of the reading, which includes the Prologue and the first 100 pages or so of Book One. (There are also other resources on our class Ctools site under the "Evelyn Waugh" folder).

Prologue

The story opens in Great Britain during World War II in 1943. Our main character, Charles Ryder, is a captain in the British Army; his company is leaving camp in Scotland to travel to new lodgings.

There are some obscure military references in the prologue (and it’s a bit boring, to be honest, but just keep reading). Here are the main points you need to get:

- Charles is deeply disillusioned and tired of his life in the army.

- He is so weary that he doesn’t even ask where they are going to camp next.

- He is also skeptical about the future of Britain -- one of his younger officers is a man named “Hooper,” who Ryder sees as near-incompetent, untidy, always late, etc.

During the war, it was common for the Army to take over some of the older mansions and castles in England as a place to house soldiers – and that’s what happens here. Charles and his regiment travel to a large, beautiful old mansion where they are going to be staying.

This magnificent mansion is called “Brideshead” (because it is at the head of a stream called the Bride). When he arrives, Charles says “I’ve been there before.” He then tells the story of how he came to know this place and the family who lived there.

So, this whole novel is actually a “flashback” – it’s Charles remembering his time at Brideshead Castle.

Book One: Et In Arcadia Ego

The flashback begins with Charles, 20 years younger, starting college at Oxford University in 1923. Charles is a lonely middle-class kid, and he meets the wealthier students who just party and get drunk. He becomes attached to a young man named Sebastian Flyte, who is funny, childish, and charming.

Eventually, Sebastian takes Charles to visit his home – Brideshead Castle – and his aristocratic, wealthy family, who split time living in the mansion in the country and in a home in London.

There’s one thing unique about the Flyte family: they are Roman Catholics. This gives them something of an “outsider” status in English society, even through they are wealthy landowners (Catholics have been frowned upon in England to varying degrees since the 1500s). Charles calls himself an agnostic and he wonders why they even bother with faith at all in the “post-religious” era of modern Britain.

This family is certainly far from perfect. And they’re not all the best Catholics, to be sure:

- Sebastian’s Dad, Lord Marchmain (that’s his official aristocratic title; his name is Alexander Flyte) has abandoned his wife and family and gone to live with his mistress in Venice, Italy!

- Lady Marchmain, Sebastian’s Mom (Teresa Flyte), is very devout but also quite manipulative.

- Sebastian’s older brother is also called Brideshead (as the heir to the estate he has the official title “Earl of Brideshead.” His siblings call him “Bridey” for short). Brideshead is a devout Catholic, and a very stiff and serious person.

- Sebastian’s sisters are Julia and Cordelia; Julia is close in age to Sebastian and also has mostly drifted away from the faith. Cordelia is much younger, a pre-teen girl, and a devout believer.

- Sebastian himself seems of two minds about his religion. Sometimes he says all he’s really interested in is “happiness,” but other times he says that he does find beauty in Catholicism.

For Charles, who grew up alone and without a mother (his Dad is kind of distant to him), life with Sebastian and his family is like opening up a whole new world to him – a world of riches, luxury, delicious food, great wine, servants, money, long summers, travel, art, beauty, etc.

But Charles’s time in this heavenly existence can’t last forever, and the story soon takes a sadder turn. His time with Sebastian’s family sets the stage for the twists and turns that will come his way later.