Brideshead Revisited begins with the arrival of a British battalion onto a once grand, but now crumbling, country estate. The second World War is in its waning years. And these particular soldiers are displaying signs of both weariness and ineptitude.
The battalion is led by Captain Charles Ryder, a man of 39, who patiently accepts the weaknesses of the younger enlistees, revealing only mild frustration at their derelictions.
But upon his arrival at this country estate, formally known as Brideshead Castle, the
follies of military life melt away, and memories long buried resurface.
The bulk of Brideshead Revisited focuses on Ryder’s recollection of his younger adult life when at college in Oxford, he is introduced to the Flyte family. The Flytes are aristocratic Catholics with hidden financial and not so hidden interpersonal discord.
Ryder is particularly drawn to Sebastian Flyte, who is an unabashed eccentric as well as a burgeoning alcoholic. In the beginning, Sebastian appears carefree, walking about campus with a stuffed teddy bear called Aloysius. In time, we discover Sebastian’s darker side.
Fast forwarding 10 years, Julia Flyte, Sebastian’s headstrong sister, becomes an object of Ryder’s obsession. Part of the draw, is her striking resemblance to her brother. The other draw, I would guess, is Ryder’s desperate need to be part of a family, even if it’s one as dysfunctional as the Flyte’s.
The prevailing themes of this novel are love and loss. Catholicism has a significant presence as well (Evelyn Waugh was a Catholic convert.)
But the word that immediately comes to mind for me when I think of this novel is impermanence.
Images of a decaying aristocratic class. Beauty destroyed by drink and guilt. The battle to stay alive when death is inevitable. A passionate love that withers after a season.
It’s cliché.
Nothing lasts forever.
Things fall apart.
To fight it, is a fool’s errand.
This story maintains that sentiment throughout.
So what is left to hold on to, if everything else is so fleeting?
For the Flytes, it’s their religion. Even if they don’t understand why they believe what they believe, it’s embedded in all of them. Ryder often derides them for this. He questions the Flyte’s adherence to “superstitions.”
Yet Ryder goes about his life with a somewhat questionable moral compass. He’s not a bad guy, but he’s definitely lost. Wayward. Perhaps, for a time, the Flyte family was his religion. And Brideshead Castle was his place of worship.
Those memories he’ll hold on to with a vise grip.
~G
An insightful synopsis