A Visit Down to Brideshead

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh.

Initially after reading Brideshead it took a while to really understand what the book was about. Without a second thought you might assume that it is entirely about a quirky family with lots of problems and has no real point to the disjointed plot. This was very similar to our discussion on it at book club. It was only when we were wrapping up the night that we got into a real discussion of the books subtle main theme.

Maybe this is why the book is so highly regarded, you can revisit the book and get more out of it each time (not that i'll read it again). Mid way through the book I was ready to conclude that this was a fantastic read. I was thoroughly enjoying the story about two young men getting into trouble whilst drinking tremendous amounts of alcohol. It rung true with my own life. But this story died off with Sebastian becoming an alcoholic and eventually running away from not only Brideshead but also the book. This left me feeling lost, not knowing what the rest of the book was really about. Charles steps up the story about his own life, finds some romances and sees all the older Marchmains die.

But this is not what Brideshead is about at all. The house and the characters and the little stories about each one are just a instrument for Waugh to make his point about the Catholicism song. Subtly interwoven throughout the book are discussions and actions discribing Waughs own religion. These tidbits were all a little too weak for me to actually believe that Waugh is a man of strong faith. He consistently mocks Catholic logic, like where he questions how Alexander Flyte crossing himself on his death bed is going to make up for the years of anti-Catholic behaviour, and then gives a small argument for divine grace in Charles's moment where he feels some spirituality after seeing Alexander die. Not nearly dramatic enough to convince me it was really life changing.

A theme should be somewhat of a statement, some kind of goal that the book is trying portray and hopefully persuade the reader into questioning their own ideologies or whatever. But here I am more fascinated by Charles youthful agnostic beliefs than his later conversion. The reader should also be clearly able to understand the conversion if all the Marchmains talk and actions that helped to lead to Charles's conversion have been told. Clearly Waugh would want his audience to be somewhat more understanding of the Catholic teachings and himself being a Catholic would probably want the book to help grow the church. But as I reached the end of the book I'd have to agree with Henry Green who says "The end was not for me. As you can imagine my heart was in my mouth all through the deathbed scene, hoping against hope that the old man would not give way, that is, take the course he eventually did."