Average customer rating:
- A Great Novel And Not Conventional
- Brideshead in America
- Gone with the Wind
- Great Depiction of the Very Wealthy [74][80][T]
- "Of course, there were also the corpses, dahling..."
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Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
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Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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A Handful of Dust
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Decline and Fall
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Scoop
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Brideshead Revisited (25th Anniversary Collector's Edition)
ASIN: 0316926345 |
Amazon.com
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.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Novel And Not Conventional.......2007-09-27
This is written by Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (1903 to 1966) a British writer best known for this present work and the following novels: Decline and Fall, A Handful of Dust, and The Sword of Honour trilogy. I read A Handful of Dust a few months ago and thought that the present book had more in it, i.e.: longer and a more interesting read, and it had a more realistic plot. According to what we know, Waugh had a few second thoughts about the present book.
The story is really three stories that are separated in time which have been pieced together. It is set in post WWI England and it is about the protagonist and narrator Charles Ryder, a student at Oxford University college and his encounter with members of the Flyte family at Brideshead. The novel contains descriptions of his life as a student and then folllows through ten years or so into his adult life and his marriage.
I will try and not give away the plot but give a quick sketch. The three pieces or sub-plots are his relationship with Sebastian Flyte, then Julia Flyte his sister, and then finally Lord Marchmain, an Anglican, converted to his wife's religion which is Roman Catholicism.
Each of the three sub-plots has a different slant to the story. The relation with Sebastian is similar to an Oscar Wilde situation, and the reader is left in doubt to the extent of the relationship. Is it physical or platonic? Also, the author brings in the subject of alcoholism. Finally, that first section gives us a glimpse of life at Oxford post WWI.
The central to last part of the novel with Julia is a more conventional love story, and then at the end we have the theme of divine grace and reconciliation of the father.
Most people focus on the theme of Catholicism, and I thought that theme was rather weak until the last ten pages or so. One can suspect that the author has taken this approach so as not to isolate the audience early in the novel. We can assume the audience for the novel is not Catholic.
Does it work? As a simple novel or as an entertaining work of art it works and the novel is interesting; it is ingenious and is a compelling read after the first 40 pages or so.
As an advertisement for the Catholic faith I am less sure that the book works but the reader can judge.
Recommend: 5 stars.
Brideshead in America.......2007-09-09
Evelyn Waugh himself said that he there were only six people in America who would understand Brideshead Revisited and looking at these customer reviews I find myself forced to agree.
Gone with the Wind .......2007-07-21
"Brideshead Revisited" By Evelyn Waugh
I saw "Brideshead" on PBS years ago, and loved the way it captured the period between the wars when England was still England, gentlemen won its battles on the playing fields of Eton, and matched wits at Oxford. Evelyn Waugh is a treasure; he has the wit of Oscar Wilde and the satiric sense of a Jonathan Swift or an Alexander Pope. Reading "Brideshead" on a warm summer afternoon on the patio is like going back to a younger and more innocent time, like Charles and Sebastian had.
" I HAVE been here before," I said; I had been there before; first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were white with fool's-parsly and meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer; it was a day of peculiar splendour, such as our climate affords once or twice a year, when leaf and flower and bird and sun-lit stone and shadow seem all to proclaim the glory of God; and though I had been there so often, in so many moods, it was to that first visit that my heart returned on this, my latest."
Sebastian's family is utterly dysfunctional: an anachronism dating back to the landed gentry. His father, from whom he estranged but on whom he depends for money, is a bore. His brother is a poseur. The only normal member of the family is the young girl. Sebastian does what any rational young man might do under the circumstances: he drinks to excess.
Charles and Sebastian spend the summer vacations together at Brideshead and on the Continent; reading, painting, exploring the countryside enjoying the languorous enchantment of youth.
Much has been made of the novel's religious context: I prefer to think of it as spiritual...a journey from agnosticism to belief. It is also the story of a chaste and platonic love between two romantic young men. It is no more a gay novel than "Brokeback" was a gay movie: it's about love, in its various and inexplicable permutations... and loss of innocence.
"Brideshead" is a joy to return to year after year.
****
Great Depiction of the Very Wealthy [74][80][T].......2007-03-24
Charles Ryder is the protagonist who we follow from his first days of Oxford through his marriage, divorce and potential engagement. Intertwined with each adventure is the family that owns Brideshead. He is best friends with a son of the owner, a debater of religion with another, and very fond of a daughter.
Ultimately becoming a famous artist of architectural designs which are victims to age or developers' ruin, he becomes famous for his architectural portraits of grand manors and other buildings which are destined for doom. He "preserves" their images with portraits which become plates in books sold to the public.
Like Ryder's paintings, Waugh's writing preserves much of upper class British society. His detailed dialogue infused with their jargon and repertoire is very different from 21st century America, and that is what is so very indelible about this book. Each person speaks as one could only imagine people "like that" did in "those times."
This book has many similarities to "Handful of Dust" - another Waugh classic - as each imports similar characters: a owner of a mansion, an untrue spouse, a British politician who hob nobs with the rich, a playboy, and the others who like fox hunting. But, this novel is more mature, more deep-rooted, more . . . everything.
Unquestionably, a great novel. This book may be the best of the people of Britain in that social scale during the 1920's-40's.
"Of course, there were also the corpses, dahling...".......2007-02-20
Rather a lot of people died rather horribly in the two World Wars. But to read Waugh's novel, you'd think that the greatest single tragedy these conflicts brought about was that his posh friends were deprived of their expensive houses.
Advice for aspiring novelists: if you're A) a genuinely gifted prose stylist, and B) an utterly repulsive specimen of humanity, it's best to steer away from writing thinly veiled autobiography.
Also, if you decide to ignore the above advice, don't try to exculpate yourself by twittering on about how you've Found Jesus.
Amazon.com
A departure from Evelyn Waugh's normally comic theater,
Brideshead Revisited concerns the tale of Charles Ryder, a captain in the British Army in post-World War I England. Unlike Waugh's previous narrators, Ryder is an intelligent man, looking back on much of his life from his current post in Oxford. He strikes a special friendship with Lord Sebastian Flyte as the setting moves to the Brideshead estate and a baroque castle that recalls England's prior standing in the world. Ryder falls for Flyte's sister while families, politics and religions collide. What makes the book extraordinary is Waugh's sharp, vivid style and his use of dialect and minor characters. This is one of Waugh's finest accomplishments and a superb book.
Book Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
Evelyn Waugh’s most celebrated novel is a memory drama about the intense entanglement of the narrator, Charles Ryder, with a great Anglo-Catholic family. Written during World War II, the novel mourns the passing of the aristocratic world Waugh knew in his youth and vividly recalls the sensuous plea?sures denied him by wartime austerities; in so doing it also provides a profound study of the conflict between the demands of religion and the desires of the flesh. At once romantic, sensuous, comic, and somber, Brideshead Revisited transcends Waugh’s familiar satiric exploration of his cast of lords and ladies, Catholics and eccentrics, artists and misfits, revealing him to be an elegiac, lyrical novelist of the utmost feeling and lucidity.
The edition reprinted here contains Waugh’s revisions, made in 1959, and his preface to the revised edition.
Customer Reviews:
The dissonance between "divine grace" and authorial intentions.......2007-06-08
The first two-thirds of "Brideshead Revisited" is classic Evelyn Waugh, filled with wit and humor, fascinating characters and provocative scenes, and (above all) evocative description and meticulous prose. Waugh continues his tradition of skewering the pretensions and foibles of the aristocracy--although it's true the Oxford scenes are not as over-the-top as in "Decline and Fall" (Frank Kermode's introduction notes Waugh's acknowledgment of the 'mood of sentimental delusion' which pervades the work).
I have the same reservations, however, about the third part of the book as did many of Waugh's contemporaries, including Edmund Wilson and Conor Cruise O'Brien. While the prose never falters and the "plot" is fascinating to the end, the satire is set aside for a moral, and your appreciation of the book may very well depend on whether you agree with its underlying religious message. To be sure, I really admire this book and continue to recommend it to everyone, but a second reading showcased what for me are shortcomings--flaws that make the work seem slightly less aesthetically pleasing than Waugh's earlier comic novels (particularly "Decline and Fall" and "Handful of Dust").
Like, say, Flannery O'Connor or Graham Greene, who present their theology in the complexities of the characters' actions and motives, Waugh famously declared that he intended to show the "operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters." Yet, where O'Connor and Greene use their stories to illustrate the subtleties of grace, Waugh seems to be making a case for it--but there are many passages that more convincingly show the operation of authorial, rather than divine, grace. And when he details conversations and debates on secular values and Catholic faith, Waugh can be a little heavy-handed--bordering on didactic. Throughout the dialogue the deck is loaded to demonstrate, for example, that Charles's milquetoast agnosticism pales in comparison to the richness of Catholicism.
In fact, the problem with fiction as a vehicle for theological principles is that it can never truly show anything like "divine grace"; it's necessarily the author who determines what happens to the characters--and why it happens. While Lady Marchmain declares halfway through the book that "we must make a Catholic of Charles," and while Julia's near-apostasy and Sebastian's alcoholism interfere with their spiritual salvation, it is ultimately Waugh--not God--who decides their various outcomes. (This dilemma is clearest during a deathbed conversion scene, which tell us everything about the author's hopes and "proves" nothing about faith. And this episode is based on a real-life occurrence in which, aside from the presence of God, Waugh himself played a coercive role.)
This is not to say, however, that Waugh portrays his Catholic characters as saints or their actions as exemplary. Indeed, what saves the novel from becoming a catechism is that Charles, Julia, and Sebastian all are deeply flawed, at times disagreeable people. And, not ironically, the character who (in my mind) is the most lively and lifelike of the bunch is the irrepressible and unapologetic Anthony Blanche. In fact, one might even argue that Blanche's scene-stealing charm is "secular grace" working its inexorable way on Waugh himself.
My comments here focus on only one theme--albeit a central one--in the novel. Most of the book, fortunately, is a comic excursion through a lost age and an elegiac ode to lost youth, as well as a thesis on divine grace. In the final analysis, it's impossible to ignore the beauty of the writing or underestimate the ability of this novel to make one ponder one's own secular or religious beliefs.
Preserving the Past's Dialogue [74][80][T].......2007-03-25
Written in Boswellian memory (where tangible objects elicit greatly detailed memories of one's life)this book has a middle-aged soldier stomp upon a castle named Brideshead from which many memories are emerge.
Charles Ryder is the protagonist who we follow from his first days of Oxford through his marriage, divorce and potential engagement. Intertwined with each adventure is the family that owns Brideshead. He is best friends with a son of the owner, a debater of religion with another, and very fond of a daughter.
Ultimately becoming a famous artist of architectural designs which are victims to age or developers' ruin, he becomes famous for his architectural portraits of grand manors and other buildings which are destined for doom. He "preserves" their images with portraits which become plates in books sold to the public.
Like Ryder's paintings, Waugh's writing preserves much of upper class British society. His detailed dialogue infused with their jargon and repertoire is very different from 21st century America, and that is what is so very indelible about this book. Each person speaks as one could only imagine people "like that" did in "those times."
This book has many similarities to "Handful of Dust" - another Waugh classic - as each imports similar characters: a owner of a mansion, an untrue spouse, a British politician who hob nobs with the rich, a playboy, and the others who like fox hunting. But, this novel is more mature, more deep-rooted, more . . . everything.
Unquestionably, a great novel. This book may be the best of the people of Britain in that social scale during the 1920's-40's.
Superb reading by Jeremy Irons.......2007-01-15
Jeremy Irons does an excellent reading of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel. He very poignantly captures much of the depth and emotion of each of the characters. I highly recommend this audio version.
"We possess nothing certainly except the past. ".......2007-01-15
Published in 1945, this novel, which Waugh himself sometimes referred to as his "magnum opus," was originally entitled "Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder." The subtitle is important, as it casts light on the themes--the sacred grace and love from God, especially as interpreted by the Catholic church, vs. the secular or profane love as seen in sex and romantic relationships. The tension between these two views of love--and the concept of "sin"--underlie all the action which takes place during the twenty years of the novel and its flashbacks.
When the novel opens at the end of World War II, Capt. Charles Ryder and his troops, looking for a billet, have just arrived at Brideshead, the now-dilapidated family castle belonging to Lord Marchmain, a place where Charles Ryder stayed for an extended period just after World War I, the home of his best friend from Oxford, Lord Sebastian Flyte. The story of his relationship with Sebastian, a man who has rejected the Catholicism imposed on him by his devout mother, occupies the first part of the book. Sebastian, an odd person who carries his teddy bear Aloysius everywhere he goes, tries to escape his upbringing and religious obligations through alcohol. Charles feels responsible for Sebastian's welfare, and though there is no mention of any homosexual relationship, Charles does say that it is this relationship which first teaches him about the depths of love.
The second part begins when Charles separates from the Flytes and his own family and goes to Paris to study painting. An architectural painter, Charles marries and has a family over the next years. A chance meeting on shipboard with Julia, Sebastian's married sister, brings him back into the circle of the Flyte family with all their religious challenges. Three of the four Flyte children have tried to escape their religious backgrounds, and this part of the novel traces the extent to which they have or have not succeeded in finding peace in the secular world. "No one is ever holy without suffering," he believes.
Dealing with religious and secular love, Heaven and Hell, the concepts of sin and judgment, and the guilt and punishments one imposes on oneself, the novel also illustrates the changes in British society after World War II. The role of the aristocracy is less important, the middle class is rising, and in the aftermath of war, all are searching for values. A full novel with characters who actively search for philosophical or religious meaning while they also search for romantic love, Brideshead Revisited is complex and thoughtfully constructed, an intellectual novel filled with personal and family tragedies--and, some would say, their triumphs. Mary Whipple
Good, but not flawless.......2006-02-03
I happen to love English literature (serious and not-so) from the early part of the twentieth century. This book is both wonderful and horrible--it won't be for everyone, but those in sympathy with the period will not feel they have wasted their time reading it.
There is no question the first part of the book--the Oxford days--is its strongest, most cohesive part. The later sections lose that early, sharp focus.
The prose is truly a thing of beauty--as smooth and silky as foie gras or Belgian chocolate. It makes one long for the days when it wasn't necessary to explain that true martinis are made with gin. But as I turned over the last pages, I realized I despised almost every character in the book--especially those with whom I am sure I was supposed to feel sympathy. I found the narrator to be little more than a crashing snob, although that isn't always a hindrance toward my love for a character. Indeed, the only character I really liked was Anthony Blanche--who was disliked by most of the others, but who was the most insightful and least delusional. Some of the even-more-minor characters are unobjectionable, but that, after all, is damning with faint
praise. In spite of that, I am glad I read it and shall probably re-read it every few years.
A must-read for any true Anglophile, but not without its flaws.
Average customer rating:
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Brideshead Revisited/Pbn 20001/2 Cassettes
Evelyn Waugh
Manufacturer: Audio Partners
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
Waugh, Evelyn
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General
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ASIN: 088690966X |
Average customer rating:
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Brideshead Revisited (Radio Collection)
Evelyn Waugh
Manufacturer: BBC Audiobooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
Contemporary
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Waugh, Evelyn
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General
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ASIN: 0563529431 |
Average customer rating:
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Brideshead Revisited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0316926264 |
Book Description
James Patterson's #1 New York Times bestseller combines two unforgettable love stories in a novel that's impossible to put down. Jennifer returns to the resort village where she grew up to help her ailing, beloved grandmother-and ends up experiencing not one but two of the most amazing love stories she's ever known. The first is completely unexpected. In a series of letters that Jennifer finds, her grandmother reveals that she has concealed a huge secret for decades: Her great love is not the man she was married to for all those years. And then comes the biggest surprise of all: Just when she thought she could never love again, Jennifer finds herself caught up in the greatest flight of exhilaration she's ever known. But just as unexpectedly, she learns that this new love comes with an unbearable cost. Jennifer doesn't think she can survive the pain-but the letters she's been reading make her think that love may help her find a way.
Download Description
Laced with mystery, Sam's Letters To Jennifer combines two unforgettable love stories in a novel that's absolutely impossible to put down.
Customer Reviews:
Sappy story.......2007-09-28
I read Suzanne's Diary to Nicholas in one sitting and enjoyed it. I hadn't read any other book that used that sort of style (diary interspersed with present day happenings). It was a nice change from reading 'regular' stories or ones written solely as a diary or series of emails, letters, etc. It was a sad, bittersweet story. But I liked it.
In Sam's Letters to Jennifer (the gender-ambiguous name is intentional), I thought I would find a similar type story, which I did but I didn't really like it. It reminded me too much of Nicholas Sparks (who is a much better author than this) and at the same time the always-tragedy-stricken characters in the Lurlene McDaniel stories I read as a teen. It's still a sweet story. I did enjoy reading Sam's letters and wished there were more of those thrown in. But the book was very short and rushed feeling. Patterson could've bulked it up without too much effort and would've had a better book as a result. Instead we're left with the sappy story of Jennifer, who has lost her husband, baby, and now her beloved grandmother has suffered a stroke. There is way too much tragedy going on in her life;- it almost doesn't feel realistic- does anyone really have such bad luck?
Overall a fast-paced read good for a boring afternoon but I'd recommend checking it out from the library before paying anything for this mediocre story. After reading this book and a couple other pretty blah Patterson books, I'm not that interested anymore. Too bad- there were a lot of things I liked about his stories- the suspense, quick pace, intrigue, romance- but there's becoming too much that I can't stand (i.e. predictable, mediocre writing).
Fears for Patterson's Tears.......2007-07-30
I and a number of other authors have written tear-jerking-cry until-there-are-no-more-tears-left, types of novels just like this one and couldn't get it passed the editorial assistant's assistant, let alone an agent.
First let me say this, I thoroughly agree with reviewer (publishers weekly?) who said it did not translate well to audio.
Although Jane Alexander was exceptional, for the first time I found Anne Heche to be weepy and droll with a tear in every single word making it even more tedious.
As for the novel itself, could he get anymore death, dying and near death in one 272 page novel? And what's with eighty-three chapters in that length? That's like 3.2 pages per. Editors I know would look at me like I grew two heads. (but then I am NOT James Patterson).
In a nutshell its girl lost husband, girl losing/lost grandmother who wrote a series of letters to her telling her about a secret indiscretion
(I liked that part the best), girl finds new man, but the new man is dying. New man lives? Dies? I'll let you read it for yourself. Hate to give away a plot no matter how succinct it is.
The story is not bad if you want to spend your Sunday afternoon sucking up tissue fibers or re-applying your makeup for the forty-fifth time.
A few readers and writers I know agree that if this book had been written by a woman it would never have gotten the review and kudos it did. ALA Bridges of Madison county.
Maybe its because I can't get passed ALEX CROSS that I don't see this as a Patterson genre, but it seemed to work for most of his following, but I'm afraid, this time it wasn't for me and I like his novels.
Great story.......2007-07-16
I picked up a copy of Women's Day (or some magazine like that) a couple of years ago with an excerpt from this book. After I read it, I couldn't wait to get the book! I was not disapointed. I was surprised though, it's not every day that you pick up a great romance novel written by a man (and a man who is a very popular thriller author to boot)
Anyone who enjoys a great romance novel, will definately enjoy this one!
I truly enjoyable book!.......2007-07-12
I first read James Patterson with his book Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas and just LOVED that book (shedding tears and all)! I recently picked up Sam's Letters on a clearance table at a book store...don't know HOW I missed it when if first came out! Both of these books are written somewhat similarly (the letter, diary style) and are really enjoyable to read. I found myself not being able to wait until Jennifer read the next letter from Sam to see what it entailed! I've not read any other JP books; none of the titles, covers, etc. have caught my eye. I suppose I'll check the reviews and see if I can pick up another one that equals these two!
Enjoyable and addicting.......2007-07-05
Once I read more than the first three chapters I was hooked. I didn't pick up on the whole "Michigan U" thing, someone else wrote in a past review. I didn't know of all the different colleges of Michigan, partly because I'm a University of Virginia fan. Anyway, the CPR given to the cat was a bit far fetched to a point. Although, CPR can be preformed on animals it is highly unlikely that anybody could resuscitate a cat that has electrocuted itself. You would need to use an AED to restart it's heart, at least for a human. I am making an assumption here, I don't know that veterinarians even preform that procedure on animals. Anyway, this book was a fairly good read, I enjoyed it and I ordered another book by James Patterson. We'll see how that goes, it could be just a rarity that I picked up one of his better novels. Especially since most of them seem to be title with some sort of hokie nursery rhyme.
Product Description
This Novel provides drama, A woman is summoned back to the town where she grew up. and in the house where she spent her most magical years, she finds a series of letters addressed to her, each is a piece of a story that will completely upend the world she thought she knew.
Average customer rating:
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Sam's Letters For Jennifer
Manufacturer: Warner Books Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GRSAAO |
Product Description
Two novels in one!
Product Description
Jennifer returns to the resort village where she grew up to help a beloved relative--and ends up experiencing not one but two of the most amazing love stories she's ever known.
The first is completely unexpected. In a series of letters that Jennifer finds, her relative reveals that she has concealed a huge secret for decades: Her great love is not the man she was married to for all those years. As Jennifer reads about this passionate partnership, she learns more about love's imperatives and secrets than she ever dreamed possible.
And then comes the biggest surprise of all. At a time when she thought she could never love again, Jennifer lets her guard down for a moment--and is suddenly caught up in the greatest flight of exhilaration she's ever known. But, just as suddenly, she learns that this new love comes with an unbearable cost. Jennifer doesn't think she can survive the pain--but the letters she's been reading make her think that love may help her find a way.
Books:
- Buddha, Vol. 2: The Four Encounters
- Buddha, Volume 1: Kapilavastu (Buddha)
- Candide: Or Optimism (Penguin Classics)
- Cracks in My Foundation: Bags, Trips, Make-up Tips, Charity, Glory, and the Darker Side of the Story
- Dandelion Wine (Grand Master Editions)
- Dante's Inferno (The Divine Comedy, Volume 1, Hell) (The Divine Comedy)
- Darkness at Noon: A Novel
- Dead Souls: A Novel
- Death in Venice: And Seven Other Stories
- Desolation Angels
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