Brideshead Revisited

[Gwaimir Windgem]

All right, I have no idea why there hasn't been a thread yet, but there is now.

1) Have you read it?

2) What do you think of it?

(NOTE: If the answer to #1 is "No", then do so post-haste! )

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

All right, I have no idea why there hasn't been a thread yet, but there is now.

1) Have you read it?

2) What do you think of it?

(NOTE: If the answer to #1 is "No", then do so post-haste! )

Yes, and loved it, but it must be approached with the right attitude i.e. think of it as a double-fudge hot fudge sundae, with extra whipped cream and maraschino cherries, topped with chocolate sprinkles. And another topping of fudge.

I like this quote:

"Waugh wrote Brideshead with great speed, unfamiliar excitement, and a deep conviction of its excellence," Martin Amis once remarked. "Lasting schlock, the really good bad book, cannot be written otherwise."

http://www.slate.com/id/2195923
How to watch Evelyn Waugh.

Though this doesn't sound promising:

...Brideshead Revisited, a misfit of a book, much loved, and often loved in the wrong way, as the vomitous stupidity of Miramax's new film adaptation attests.....

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Are you going to see the movie?

[GrayMouser]

Not sure- the TV adaptation was so good that I'd hate to spoil the memory.
Sorry, it's been so long since I read it that I don't think I could even discuss it now- plus I'd get the book and the series mixed up.

But if you want to start, it might prod something loose..

I do remember Waugh saying later that if he'd written it again, he wouldn't have put the death-bed acceptance of the Last Rites in, though I don't see why not- I'm sure a lot of people who have doubts might change their mind at the last minute.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Don't. It's crap. So wrong on so many levels.

The miniseries, on the other hand, is superb. And not in the standard "true to the book but poor production and sub-par acting" way of BBC miniseries, but just all around spectacular. I loaned mine to my brother, and I was annoyed that I had done so; I needed something to purge my system after watching the movie. It really is the book on screen, effectively. They often bring the subtexts more to the forefront, but they are never making it up; everything in there has basis in the novel. It's really quite astounding that someone made such a great adaptation of a novel. Will it ever happen again, I wonder?

I'm rather surprised you and I are the only one's who've read it. This being a fairly literary crowd with a certain level of anglophilia floating around, and Brideshead being a well-known English novel, I'd have thought the two would have connected.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

How exactly would you characterise the homoerotic element to the relationship between Charles and Sebastian? Subconscious? Conscious, but chaste? Chaste and homosexual? Unrequited?