“[Brideshead Revisited] deals with what is theologically termed ‘the operation of Grace’, that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by which God continually calls souls to Himself”.

-Evelyn Waugh

During the holiday break I began reading Humphrey Carter’s book, The Brideshead Generation: Evelyn Waugh and His Friends. The book examines the experiences and influences of some of England’s most important writers of the interwar period, with a special focus on the novelist Evelyn Waugh. Waugh was primarily known for his satirical works, such as Vile Bodies and Decline and Fall, but in 1945 he published Brideshead Revisited a semi-autobiographical novel that is marked departure from his earlier works. The novel is in many ways a description of the lives of the “smart set” that Waugh knew. The New York Times review in 1945 stated

“…the brightly devastating satirist of England’s Twenties and Thirties moves from one world to another and a larger one: from the lunacy of a burlesqued Mayfair, very glib and funny and masking the serious point in farce, to a world in which people credibly think and feel. Whether ‘Brideshead Revisited’ is technically as expert, of its kind, as ‘Decline and Fall’, ‘Vile Bodies’ or ‘A Handful of Dust’ may be debatable. The important point just now that it is bigger and richer, and that–to those of Mr. Waugh’s admirers who might recently have suspected he was exhausting a rather limited field–it will almost certainly be his most interesting book in ten years: more interesting in story and in style, and not least in what it implies about its author and his growth as an analyst and an artist.”

As the novel opens, the narrator and protagonist, Charles Ryder, tells us that his theme is “memory, that winged host.” He is camped with his army unit in the English countryside, as the country mobilizes against the threat of Nazi invasion. Charles finds himself on the grounds of large estate, Brideshead, where he had spent sometime in his college days. The estate triggers many memories, both sacred and profane.

Charles’s association with Brideshead begins during his days at Oxford, where he meets the eccentric Sebastian Flyte, the son of Lord Marchmain, patriarch of the Brideshead estate. Sebastian is the center of a group of artistic and literary students who throw lavish lunches and drink vast quantities of cointreau, port, and claret. On a break Sebastian brings Charles to Brideshead, and Charles eventually meets the entire family. Lady Marchmain, Sebastian’s mother, is a subtley overbearing woman whose well intentioned protection of Sebastian has only made him distance himself from her. Lord Bridehead, the eldest son, is a very responsible and morally upright gentleman. Cordelia, the youngest sister, attends a boarding school where she is usually at odds with the nuns over rather innocent pranks and misbehavior. Julia Flyte, the older sister, is a beautiful woman about to officially enter the social life of London society.

The Marchmain family is Catholic and Charles, an agnostic who says he always considered the Christian religion to be “without substance or merit”, witnesses the ways in which each member of the family responds to the faith. Lord Marchmain, who converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in order to marry, has now left his marriage and lives in Venice. He has on the surface rejected the Catholic faith partially because it reminds him of his ex wife. Lady Marchmain is extremely pious, retreating to the family chapel several times a day for prayer. She seems to need but little effort to meet the moral demands of the Church, as does her son, Lord Bridehead. Cordelia is young and believes strongly in the faith and her sins are relatively mild. Sebastian and Julia appear to have little belief in their faith. Sebastian’s life of pleasure, including his homosexual tendencies, generates a great deal of anxiety as he is unable to reconcile his stubborn belief in the Catholic faith with his impulses. This anxiety is compounded by the actions and advice of his saintly mother who constantly frets about the state of Sebastian’s soul. As the novel progresses Sebastian becomes and alcoholic and distances himself from his family and from Charles. Julia also has a wild streak, but her primary obstacle with the Church is that being a Catholic puts her on the fringes of English high society. Her Catholicism limits her options for marriage as most of her peers are Anglican.

Before Sebastian distances himself, he and Charles develop a deep and most likely romantic relationship, a relatively common thing for certain circles of men at English private schools and Oxford at the time. Sebastian’s retreat from his family distances Charles from the Marchmains as well. Charles eventually moves on and begins a career as a painter. He has a loveless marriage and fathers two children. Sebastian moves to Morrocco and the two friends lose touch.

On an ocean voyage between New York and London Charles finds himself on the same ship with Julia Flyte, Sebastian’s sister. He falls in love with her and begins an affair that eventually leads both Charles and Julia to leave their respective spouses and live together in part of the house at Brideshead. Lady Marchmain has died and Lord Marchmain returns from Venice to die in his family’s home. In the last moments of his life he is reconciled to the Catholic Church. Charles is there when he indicates his desire to be reconciled. The moment has a significant impact on both Charles and Julia. Julia realizes that she has to give Charles up because of her faith. In a dramatic scene they part ways and Charles leaves Brideshead.

We come back to the present, and Charles is wandering through the familiar house and finds himself at the chapel. Here he prays, realizing that after all his experiences with the Flyte family he was left with only one thing -the Catholic faith that made them and broke them all. Charles is now a Catholic himself. As he leaves the chapel he says:

“Something quite remote from anything the builders intended has come out of their work, and out of the fierce little human tragedy in which I played; something none of us thought about at the time: a small red flame – a beaten copper lamp of deplorable design, relit before the beaten copper doors of a tabernacle; the flame which the old knights saw from their tombs, which they saw put out; that flame burns again for other soldiers, far from home, farther, in heart, than Acre or Jerusalem. It could not have been lit but for the builders and the tragedians, and there I found it again this morning, burning anew among the old stones.”

Here is that last scene from the superb BBC adaptation of the novel:

There will be more posts about Brideshead Revisited in the coming weeks.

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