This is one of my favorite books. I was captivated by the tremendous quality of the writing from the third page of the prologue on. Waugh, speaking as Charles Ryder, nostalgically remembers the best parts of his life when he stumbles upon Brideshead during military maneuvers in World War II.
Here my last love dies. There was nothing remarkable in the manner of its death. One day, not long before this last day in camp, as I lay awake before reveille, in the Nissen hut, gazing into the complete blackness, amid the deep breathing and muttering of the four other occupants, turning over in my mind what I had to do that day--had I put in the names of two corporals for the weapon-training course? Should I again have the largest number of men overstaying their leave in the batch due back that day? Could I trust Hooper to take the candidates class out map-reading?--as I lay in that dark hour, I was aghast to realize that something within me, long sickening, had quietly died, and felt as a husband might feel, who, in the fourth year of his marriage, suddenly knew that he had no longer any desire or tenderness, or esteem, for a once-beloved wife; no pleasure in her company, no wish to please, no curiosity about anything she might ever do or say or think; no hope of setting things right, no self-reproach for the disaster. . .
The narrative is fundamentally about Ryder's two lost loves--both of whom moved away from him more than he from them--that are so catastrophically contrasted with this third one. The first is non-romantic, a love of a friend and the superlative life of college, and the second is more conventionally of a woman. Waugh exposes his reader to a tumult of emotion and imagery in such a compelling and magnificent way.
There is also a mixture of interesting plot elements: Catholicism, philosophy, class. Ryder's father eats three course meals everyday because his sister-in-law insisted after his wife's death and before hers to keep the servants from getting lazy. Everyone dresses for dinner every day, even alone at home. Ryder's cousin warns him that he will be looked down upon if he only wears a sport coat and slacks at college. His father gives him an allowance of 550 pounds after being advised that 300 is sufficient because he was planning upon 600 but feels that would be insulting to the adviser.
If you like terrific writing, sarcasm, England, or traditional manners you will love this book.
Rating:
Not the best