Brideshead Revisited (Waugh)

Book Reviews
Mr. Waugh is very definitely an artist, with something like a genius for precision and clarity not surpassed by any novelist writing in English in his time. [Brideshead Revisited] has an almost romantic sense of wonder, together with the provocative, personal point of view of a writer who sees life realistically.... The emotional tone and content of Brideshead Revisited are accordingly heightened beyond any Mr. Waugh has acheived before.... Brideshead Revisited is Mr. Waugh's finest achievement.
John K. Hutchens - New York Times (12/30/1945)

A many-faceted book.... Beautifully [written] by one of the most exhilarating stylists of our time.
Newsweek

First and last an enchanting story...Brideshead Revisited has a magic that is rare in current literature. It is a world in itself, and the reader lives in it and is loath to leave it when the last page is turned.
Saturday Review


(Audio version.) In this classic tale of British life between the World Wars, Waugh parts company with the satire of his earlier works to examine affairs of the heart. Charles Ryder finds himself stationed at Brideshead, the family seat of Lord and Lady Marchmain. Exhausted by the war, he takes refuge in recalling his time spent with the heirs to the estate before the war—years spent enthralled by the beautiful but dissolute Sebastian and later in a more conventional relationship with Sebastian's sister Julia. Ryder portrays a family divided by an uncertain investment in Roman Catholicism and by their confusion over where the elite fit in the modern world. Although Waugh was considered by many to be more successful as a comic than as a wistful commentator on human relationships and faith, this novel was made famous by a 1981 BBC TV dramatization. Jeremey Irons's portrayal of Ryder catapulted Irons to stardom, and in this superb reading his subtle, complete characterizations highlight Waugh's ear for the aristocratic mores of the time. Fervent Anglophiles will be thrilled by this excellent rendition of a favorite; Irons's reading saves this dinosaur from being suffocated by its own weight.
Publishers Weekly