Encyclopedia > Brideshead Revisited

  Article Content

Brideshead Revisited

Brideshead Revisited is a novel by Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It has become well-known to modern audiences as a result of the ITV drama serialisation of 1981, produced by Granada Television.

Warning: wikipedia contains spoilers

The plot concerns Charles Ryder, who, as a student at Oxford, becomes acquainted with Sebastian Flyte, younger son of an aristocratic family. Sebastian takes him to his home, Brideshead, where he meets the rest of the family, including Sebastian's sister, Julia.

Sebastian's family are Catholic, but his father, Lord Marchmain, has left his mother and gone to live in Italy with a mistress. Religion is a mainstay of the family, and becomes the ruling factor in Ryder's relationship with them. Having lost touch with Sebastian, who descends into alcoholism, the divorced Ryder eventually forms a relationship with Julia, who has separated from her husband. They plan to marry until Julia, motivated by her father's dying return to the Catholic faith, decides that she can no longer live in sin.

During the Second World War, Ryder, now an army officer, is billeted at Brideshead, where he sees how the house, like the family who own it, has been affected by time and by the change in society.

The book was adapted for television by John Mortimer. Jeremy Irons played Charles Ryder and Anthony Andrews[?] played Sebastian Flyte. Laurence Olivier played Lord Marchmain.

The location for Brideshead was actually Castle Howard in Yorkshire.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
French resistance

... et d'Action (BCRA). There was also Direction Général des Services Spéciaux (DGSS or Special Services Executive), headed by Jacques Soustelle[?]. Mai ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 23.2 ms