Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, Post 1

We read Brideshead Revisited  by Evelyn Waugh at Catholic Thought Book Club.  I’m going to have a series of posts on my thoughts and comments.  I will also provide chapter summaries. 

I should say that my earlier ideas may not have been revised as we read along and got a fuller understanding of the novel.  I will place a [this thought has been revised] in red font where I find these thoughts.  Why not just delete the thought that has been revised?  There may be value in the logic of the first thought, and perhaps the first thought is correct while the revision is off.  I’ll leave it for the reader.

The full title of the work is actually, Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder, and it tells the story from Charles Ryder’s first person point of view, covering his college years at Oxford, where he makes a friend, Sebastian Brideshead, a British Lord and Catholic, covering the interwar years where he is welcomed as a family friend in the Brideshead household, and ending with his service in the Second World War. 

Evelyn Waugh came from a family with an aristocratic past, was a convert to Catholicism, and was a prolific writer.  Waugh too went to Oxford which had a profound impact to his life.  Much of the novel is autobiographical. 

Summary

Prologue

It is in the midst of World War II, and Charles Ryder is a Captain in charge of C Company of a Battalion.  They are stationed in Scotland outside of Glasgow on a farm where they have been in training, and the Battalion has been directed to travel south to England by train.  They arrive at their destination in the dark of the night and, after spending the night, they travel to their final station in trucks (lorries).  Settling into camp Ryder finally understands that he has arrived in Brideshead, a place he knew quite well and had been the formation of his adult life.

Book 1, Chapter 1

Ryder through a flashback goes on to describe his first visit to Brideshead, but he takes a circuitous and digressive route to that visit.  We learn of Ryder’s attendance at Oxford, his living quarters there, and his poor grades.  We see Sebastian luring Ryder into a motor car ride to the country for a picnic of strawberries and wine.  Then there is a flashback inside the flashback where Ryder’s cousin Jasper provides advice on finances and proper living at Oxford.  This leads to a memory of meeting the type of students who Jasper warned about, and in that crowd was Sebastian.  Ryder describes that first meeting with Sebastian and of their subsequent friendship.  Finally the Ryder’s narrative returns to that picnic where Sebastian makes an impulsive decision to drive Ryder to see the house ”where [his] family lives,” and especially to meet Sebastian’s nanny.  Finally the chapter concludes with a short tour of Brideshead.

Book 1 Chapter 2

Jasper meets up with Ryder and rebukes him (the “Grand Remonstrance”) over his lifestyle, profligate spending, and friends he has made at Oxford.  Later, on an Easter vacation Ryder reflects and approves of his lifestyle.  Ryder then describes Anthony Blanche and their dinner together, where the conversation turns to Blanche offering his observations of Sebastian and Sebastian’s individual family members.  His portrayal of the family is ghastly at best, and Ryder doesn’t know what to believe.  The next day, Sunday, Ryder walks about Oxford as everyone else seems to be going to some church service.  He meets Sebastian coming from Mass and he tells him of his conversation with Blanche the evening before.

Book 1 Chapter 3

Everyone at Oxford has dispersed for what I take is the summer vacation, and Ryder not having any money returns to his father’s home.  He hints at squeezing money from his father but his father plays dumb and offers none.  His relationship with his father degenerates into a sort of passive-aggressive battle where his father seeks seclusion free from social and even family connection while Ryder just wants some money.  Finally he receives a letter from Sebastian that he has been injured and to come to his place quickly.  He does so, happy to break away from his father, and finds Sebastian has only broken a small bone in his foot.  He is coaxed to keep Sebastian company while he cannot walk, which is for the rest of the summer.  By doing so, he relieves Julia so that she can go off for her summer vacation.

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Before I get into themes and understanding of the characters, there are two things I’d like to say about the writing.  My goodness, this is some of the best prose writing in English of the 20^th century.  He’s as good as Nabakov, Fitzgerald, D.H. Lawrence, Cormac McCarthy.  He may have equals, but I don’t think anyone surpasses him.  And it’s not just a lyrical passage here and there.  It’s constant, throughout.

Second, I’m amazed at his narrative control as he weaves back and forth through flashbacks and digressions.  It’s effortless.  Chapter one is a masterpiece of narrative.  His movement of through time is stunning.  I don’t know if I’ve come across a chapter like that before.  One has to look to William Faulkner that kind of depth of narrative.  I’ve never read anything else by Evelyn Waugh except a few short stories, but his artistry and his skill is of the highest order.

I have read this novel before, but it’s been a while.  I remember the writing being good, but I don’t remember it being this good.  It’s breathtaking.

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I know when you look at some of the commentary for this novel, you find people speak about the unmerited grace that befalls the characters, and that Waugh himself says the novel “deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace.'”  Yes, there is grace in many places in the novel but ultimately the novel has to be about more than that.  You can’t just have a four hundred page novel where a whole bunch of action occurs and then at the end things are resolved by grace.  There has to be an ordering principle to those four hundred pages of narrative. 

I see at least two large themes in the novel.  There are more perhaps, but this is what I’ve zeroed in on.  First I think there is the theme of what I shall call that of arrested development.  In everyone’s life there eras that are so formative that we return to them in some way.  We become rooted to a time and place in our lives.  But most of us grow out of that formative period and develop further.  Those that don’t grow remain in psychological arrestment, a damaged psyche.  Think of Hemingway with World War I and its aftermath.  Even when Hemingway wasn’t writing about WWI, it always seemed to be there in the background, and his failed marriages and ultimate suicide speak of a damaged individual.  [Edit: In retrospect, I have re-assessed this theme.  While I still think there is a psychological desire to return to a time and place, the implication of a modern psychology of “a damaged psyche” is not what Waugh wants to say.  I develop this further in a subsequent post where instead of modern psychological terms I address this as a Catholic psychological model.]

In this novel, Sebastian’s childhood seems to have caused an arrestment of psychological development.  The energy of his life seems to be of desiring that innocence of childhood.  He has this silly Teddy Bear he keeps around to pull him back into that comfort.  Whatever the formative events of his childhood, pleasure or trauma, it has locked him into that mental state.  He does not deal well with the adult world, and the alcohol, the flightiness, and the homosexuality (consummated or not, we don’t know) are his means of building a wall against that adult world. 

Charles Ryder too seems to be arrested in some way, but his arrestment is not from childhood I think but from those university years in Book 1.  Certainly his childhood has not been a good one.  From what I gather his childhood was deprived of affection: his mother died while he was young and his father was emotionally distant.  It seems like his childhood was one deprived of innocence, which in some ways is the opposite of Sebastian.  He is like many young people once they go off to college and experience the freedom of young adulthood, finding it exhilarating, and to some that exhilaration is formative.  I didn’t go away for college but even with me living in New York City during my college years I experienced the freedom of cheap restaurants, college bars, and hip clubs with a new set of college friends.  I grew out of that eventually but even with me it took a while and it too was formative for me in some way that I don’t know if I’ve ever completely outgrown it.  Charles Ryder is being formed in these early years of Oxford that will stunt his development later on.

Another character too that is being formed to some level of arrested development I think is Julia.  Here she is in the early chapters, about eighteen-ish; she is now out in the world as a lovely “debutant,’ rich, beautiful, perhaps blossoming into her sexuality, and the center of attention.  She’s like a southern belle, the queen of the parade, the prima donna of the ball.  It is an exhilaration from which her persona will have difficulties in outgrowing.  Perhaps now is the moment the dysfunctions of her future life are formed.

The second big theme I see is that of Catholicism.  But what about Catholicism?  Catholicism is just a subject, and a properly articulated theme requires a subject and a predicate.  Could one say possibly say that Catholicism is the source of the Flyte family dysfunction?  After all, Mrs. Marchmain, devout Catholic and mother, is the shaping persona of the children.  But Catholicism seems to be a positive entity in the novel, at least so far, so that doesn’t seem right.  I’m not ready to dismiss it, but I think we better look for more possibilities.  Could it be that Catholicism in contact with a modern world leads to some sort of disorientation, or worse, dislocation?  Could it be that the values of the modern world make Catholicism impossible to adhere to and drown even those who sense its truth?  It’s too early in the novel to reach any conclusion.  Let’s see how this pans out.  Let’s return periodically and see if we can discern and articulate how Catholicism is at the core of the novel.

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My Reply to Madeleine:

Madeleine wrote: "Just throwing this out there: I'm wondering about the names in the story, as many authors employ connotative suggestions or meanings to fit their characters. Ryder, Flyte, Marchmain maybe?"

Yes in general they seem to have some sort of echo of significance, but I can say there is some correspondence to some idea. Flyte is perhaps the one than one best can wrap one's arms around but only if you limit yourself to Sebastian. I don't know if the other family members are flight-y. I guess the father maybe.

And what about Charles as Ryder? Ryder of what?

The only name I can really pin down to have meaning is "Brideshead." Brideshead for bride, marriage, the Church as the bride of Christ. I'm pretty confident that's what Waugh wants to suggest.

Marchmain sounds aristocratic, but I can't pin any meaning to it.

As to first names, Sebastian was a famous martyr and saint. I think that more or less fits. Julia was also a saint but more obscure. Cordelia from King Lear perhaps but so what? The good daughter?

As I said above, the names seem to echo some significance but rather not directly. Which I think is very skillful.

My Reply to Blake:

Blake wrote: "One of the things I most appreciate from the Prologue is Charles's association with the popular zeitgeist and trends of the day with Hooper. I can find myself doing the same with the young adults I..."

Yes, and from some note I saw somewhere, Hooper is of the lower classes rising up after the war.

My Reply to JT:

Jt wrote: "One theme which emerges in the book is the problem of modernity and tradition: how is our world changing and what are the implications of these changes?."

I agree. I was being coy in my comment above. The central theme seems to be the conflict and tension of traditional Catholicism in contact with modernity.

My Reply to Frances:

Frances wrote: "I think another theme is nostalgia, the yearning for the past. In this regard, it’s interesting to study how Waugh employs the sense of hearing to access the past:
“‘What’s this place called

?’
“He ..."

Don't you think, Frances, that "nostalgia" is not a strong enough word to describe what is going on? Sebastian doesn't carry a Teddy Bear around because he is nostalgic for his childhood. There is some psychological trauma that has happened. Above I called it "arrested development." Later when Ryder's marriage fails, is it because of nostalgia or because there is some formative experience that has led him to be dysfunctional?  [Edit: I re=assessed this also.  Nostalgia does have a purpose in this novel.]

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Christine brings up a good point.  Why is this a Catholic novel?  First for those that don’t know, Evelyn Waugh was a convert to Catholicism, and that conversion was the fundamental to life.  From his Wikipedia entry:

On 29 September 1930, Waugh was received into the Catholic Church. This shocked his family and surprised some of his friends, but he had contemplated the step for some time. He had lost his Anglicanism at Lancing and had led an irreligious life at Oxford, but there are references in his diaries from the mid-1920s to religious discussion and regular churchgoing. … In 1949, Waugh explained that his conversion followed his realisation that life was "unintelligible and unendurable without God"

Second, the Flyte family are Catholic in a way that is central to their lives.  Each of the four Marchmain children are shaped by the mother’s very strong Catholicism.  In fact, one might wonder if her Catholicism hasn’t brought about the dysfunctions of the family.  But I don’t think so.  Third, both Ryder and Lord Marchmain, the family’s estranged father, are converts to Catholicism with the span of the novel’s narrative.  Fourth I would put that Catholicism is hovering in the background of every scene.  In that dinner between Anthony Blanche and Ryder, where Anthony describes the Marchmain family, this is what he recalls of his early days with Sebastian:

He and I were both Catholics, so we used to go to mass together. He used to spend such a time in the confessional, I used to wonder what he had to say, because he never did anything wrong; never quite; at least, he never got punished. Perhaps he was just being charming through the grille.  (p. 55). Little, Brown and Company. Kindle Edition.

Everything seems to either deal with Catholic values, Catholic rituals, or Catholic theology.  Catholicism is everywhere, mentioned or not mentioned.  Certainly Catholicism is central to the novel.

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Also, if people didn't know, the BBC created a for TV dramatization of the novel. It's fantastic. It's been called by some the finest for TV dramatization ever. I think it was produced in the 1980s. I highly recommend it. It's has its own Wikipedia entry.

It's also on Amazon Prime. If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, it's free. It's eleven hours long and I've been watching. It's remarkably faithful to the novel, scene by scene.  Here is a trailer.