Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

With a strong undercurrent of Catholicism, the book in no way tries to convert the non-believer, but it does help understand what religion gives its followers. Lady Julia seems to be an It Girl, yet she’s the book’s strongest character in the end. Charles Ryder takes the long journey from being nobody’s child to finding his place in life and history.
I recommend this book to people who have some knowledge of the period between the Wars and want to follow the progress of society as well as history.
My five star rating means: read it, liked it, read it again every few years, and come away liking it even more.

I haven’t read many works of fiction, but Brrideshead Revisited, by Evelyb Waugh was recommended on a Catholic website as a novel Catholics should read. It wasn’t said why, nor
was there a review of any kind. I knew it was an important work, so I read it. It was riveting in every way. A terrific book. But when I finished,, I couldn’t at first quite get the point of it all. It almost seemed to be a longish read with widespread futility being its sole contribution. Its hold on me commanded further reflection long after its last page.
The book is about love, faith, hope, and redemption. That sounds perhaps bleak, and may not communicate the joy and high entertainment I found in reading it. The book is crammed with delights: vignettes galore of the foibles, pleasures, travels and travails of the very rich, in the 1920s, and short but vivid glimpses of an officer’s life during WWII.
Love, I have found over the course of my life, is the most important ingredient in anyone’s life, irrespective of time, place,wealth-or lack of- or position in society. With it, one is happy, well-adjusted, and free to pursue his/her calling or purpose. Without it, one’s default disposition is misery, in one cloak or another. Pessimism, hatred, doubt, and anger are some of the garments worn under that cloak. Just as rain and dark clouds are privations of the sun, misery is a privation of the radiance and redemption of love. Without love, faith in God and in His love for us that culminated in the Sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ for our redemption is just not possible. If one has been denied the warmth and protection of love in one’s childhood, he feels himself unworthy of any love, and if offered it, he (she) is not really up to accepting it in any true, faithful, lasting and abiding way. He doubts his worthiness. He wasn’t loved as a child, so why would or should he be loved by a stranger?, goes a line of reasoning. He is always at the window, outside, peering in.
It can take a person so deprived, a lifetime of thought, reading and rigorous research to understand the nature and arcane and labyrinthine mechanics of love. The pursuit is very much the effort! It is the only path to true happiness. The message in John 3:16 is compelling, powerful, and unmistakable. It’s all encompassing and embracing. A billboard for all who are weary.
Charles Ryder and (Lord) Sebastien Flyte were supplied every material advantage in their young lives. The only thing not supplied, it seems to me, was the love and presence of a father. But the fact of that missing link is never stated per se in the book. On reading the text, one may disagree with my assay. But I’m pretty sure I’m correct. Read it and let me know what YOU think!

Waugh writes a magnificent novel littered with imagery of the 1920s British aristocracy. We are welcomed by a bright and rugged, yet older Charles Ryder, who during World War II, reminiscences about his life upon returning to and setting up War efforts at the old Brideshead estate. The reader is introduced to the Flyte family through Sebastian who at first feels slightly out of touch with reality, yet hopelessly longing to belong in a world. We get a glimpse of the socialite class who is just as fragile and broken we are. Upon reading this in a matter of two weeks, it left me feeling somewhat sad with pondering thoughts. Waugh says this is a book about religion, but it’s way more than that. It’s about how much any man or woman can feel wanted and loved by anyone and still feel inadequate by the decisions we make in other’s perceptions. The book asks of us could we be faithful and forgiving in our devotion to ourselves and each other. Could we love someone as much as we love ourselves and as much as God loves us? Can we handle the decisions we make knowing we can be judged or perceived by those decisions in the future? Can we seek forgiveness for decisions we made as we carve paths that will direct and determine our future? I think we see this play out through Charles’s recollections of his time with the Flyte family. Especially, with siblings Sebastian and Julia. We are at a tug-of-war between Charles’s intimate feelings towards them as we read on about what their lives become later in life. I wonder if we all are seeking forgiveness and atonement for loving and devoting ourselves to the essence of the human condition. Or do we make peace with how things are and move on? While I haven’t ever thought this book would make me question my own existentialism, it is a wonderfully written yet beautiful sad story about one’s own existence in a world where we are all looking to be loved and at peace with our life decisions.

Um clássico! Waugh escreve em um Inglês maravilhosa e observa cirurgicamente a decadência moral e financeira da british upper class. Leitura obrigatória, no original.