Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder sits on The Top 100 Novels List https://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ compiled by The Modern Library

10 out of 10

Evelyn Waugh is one of the five favorite authors for the under signed -under the signature, there may be a list of about seven masterpieces by the Magician, six splendid books are placed on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read selection https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction - and the luminary has had the incredible talent to conceive glorious comedies and landmark dramas.

Brideshead Revisited falls into the latter category and this reader will place it among the crème de la crème, on a level with War and Peace, The Karamazov Brothers or Of Human Bondage, for the landscape of human virtue and failure - indeed, Decline and Fall comes to mind http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/10/please-bear-in-mind-throughout-that-it.html - is more than impressive, overwhelming, we have the chance to see human nature form a variety of viewpoints, thought on religious matters is invited, especially when the issue of the last rites for Lord Marchmain is discussed.

‘I hope the last conversation with Cordelia gives the theological clue…The whole thing is steeped in theology, but I begin to agree that the theologians won't recognize it…’ this what Evelyn Waugh has written and he explains more in hic correspondence on the subject…yours truly would like to go through the experience of Lord Marchmain, including the luxurious mansion (almost a palace), the fortune, the good life in Rome (or elsewhere), but excepting the suffering and turmoil, the disappointing heirs (problem solved), namely Sebastian and especially Bridey, after he selects for his future bride, the rather vulgar, common Beryl Muspratt, the widow of an admiral who had collected match boxes, just like Bridey did.

Though religion is at the center of this Magnum opus (Evelyn Waugh referred to it as his magnum opus, only to change his mind later and write to Graham Greene that he was appalled when he read it again) the relationship between Charles Ryder, the main character and narrator, and Lord Sebastian Flyte has been discussed, there seems to be no doubt that the two are very close – at least for a good few chapters – but the physical nature of the bond is disputed, with some thinking they have sex and others disputing that.

The narrative starts with Captain Charles Ryder arriving at Brideshead (thus it is Revisited) and recollecting his encounter with the people who had lived there, their bonds, the tales associated with the place, in the first place, how he had med Sebastian at Oxford, where the latter would vomit in the vegetation outside the room rented by Charles (his cousin had advised against keeping that bad location, where visitors would keep coming, to the point where one would need to have an open bar, what with all putting their things there and waiting to be offered alcohol…the cousin is extremely amusing and the author has outstanding passages of sublime wit and humor, one example would be when the Earl of Brideshead is discussed, with his eccentricities – Charles talks of a girl strangled with wire and they say it must be Bridey – the collection of match boxes and the marriage to an older widow, with three children, excessive weight, and ultimately the most unexpected personality for a would be heiress of Brideshead…

Sebastian Flyte has an admirable fondness for Charles, at least up to the point where the family interferes and Lady Marchmain expects the latter to more or less spy on her son, who is a drunk, his addiction to alcohol is bringing him down, he is faced with a choice at Oxford, either he accepts to move in with Monsignor Bell, or he will face expulsion…Charles is not willing to play the game for the family, but he is also torn, because he can see that his dear friend is ultimately destroying himself with his almost permanent, excessive intoxication.

Lady Marchmain uses an impostor (evidently, she is not aware of that when she finds this ‘solution’) Sammy Samgrass to keep an eye on Sebastian, when Charles fails in the role the family assumed for him, but Samgrass proves incompetent at the task, when he takes young Lord Flyte to the Middle East (with the expected exotique details we are told, eyes of sheep and goat cooked for the visitors) and Sebastian does not stop his addiction, on the contrary, he has some wild breakdowns, on one occasion, Charles gives him a few pounds, attracting the wrath of the mother, who says she is at a loss to imagine how someone can be so callous…

Eventually, Sebastian flees even the protection and supervision of Rex Mottram, the man who would marry his sister, Lady Julia Flyte, and quite a character himself, coming with ‘new money’, a very materialistic, limited view of the world (Julia would describe him later as being a ‘small man’, he has some strong sides, but many aspects of his character make him ‘nothing’)…he would become a minister nevertheless, and he plays an important role in the fresco, first by making such a strong impression on Julia, but ending up by letting her down dramatically, after the marriage with pomp is reduced to a small affair, given that he had been married and divorced and that was not kosher for the Catholics.

Sebastian Flyte would find a German friend (very likely a lover, in total contradiction with the precepts of the Catholic Church, albeit he would later repent and try to join some missions, where he offers his help and would live for a good deal of time in their proximity, if not immersed completely within their ranks) who had been in the Foreign Legion, shot himself to get out and now he lives on the money of Lord Flyte, moaning and whining about the wound he has and had not cured in a year and offering the Englishman the chance to take care of someone…he would tell Charles that this is the first time when somebody needs his protection…

Charles Ryder marries an attractive woman, who comes across as a humorous character, when she is not annoying, but even that is in the pen of the Divine Waugh a chance to make us laugh, up to the point where the two have a divorce, because by now, Charles and Julia are living together…whether that will end up as in the Romantic fairy tales, we have doubts, for the beginning of the novel does not give any sign of that…

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