As someone who is profoundly bored by religion in books, this is yet another reason I was bored by this novel. Why do we still read Brideshead Revisited An account of aimless, upper-class, young men wasting their time at Oxford University in hedonistic pursuits. I struggled to gain some kind of theme from the book and settled on that it urges the reader towards religion, specially Catholicism. I find the life of aristocrats in Britain quite interesting most of the time, but Waugh’s constant whining about them was infuriating.īrideshead Revisited is a complicated novel. Most of it revolves around Charles’ obsession with the Marchmain’s and a desire for the life they lead, but I was just rolling my eyes - I couldn’t care less about how sad it is that rich people lose their wealth and status with the upcoming war. It has all the elements I love in a book: queer characters, evocative writing, depressed settings … and yet I found the plot quite slow and uninteresting. However, I was still incredibly bored by this novel.

Waugh’s writing is quite sensors and lyrical - he’s able to vividly depict what aristocratic life was like before the war, even in a satirical way, and before that life was destroyed. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. As the story progresses and eventually leads to World War II, Charles and Sebastian form an intense relationship which is complicated by Sebastian’s family. 106,213 ratings5,991 reviews The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. The book follows a young man named Charles as he falls in with the aristocratic Marchmain family, particularly with the eldest son, Sebastian. Bridehead Revisited seems to be one of those books were you either love it or dislike it, and unfortunately I fall into the later category.

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