Brideshead Revisited Essay, Research Paper

Brideshead Revisited

Evelyn Waugh’s novel, Brideshead Revisited is a mysterious book, in the fact that the prologue gives insight into what is seemingly the thoughts of a man without a wanted purpose, living only for his work. The first chapter then begins with our main character’s entry into his college years, and the unusual experiences that occur. The book reads at a somewhat constant pace, but tends to jump around a bit, as it is narrated in the first person. I have found it difficult to grasp what personally will make this book interesting as of yet, and hope that Waugh’s supposedly excellent novel will become more enjoyable for me.

Waugh’s writing style varies throughout the novel thus far. Using the prologue as a set example, Waugh keeps focused on Charles Ryder’s loss of purpose and love, and the death of something within him that was once held irreplaceably special. His immensely emotional depth of description of this loss is quite effective, and without a doubt the reader plainly can see how and why our character feels the way he does. The bitter and thin dialogue that follows brings you into Ryder’s perspective, completing the process of understanding.

Unfortunately after the prologue, my attention span was baffled by Waugh’s change of style. Although the novel continues with the same style of thorough description of scene and emotion, the dialogue begins to become more developed amongst our characters. Although this may give insight into our character’s personalities and traits, difficulty arises with the dialect used and the somewhat odd statements, namely Anthony. Charles describes him as “?as foreign as a Martian.” His description couldn’t be more precise.

Although I have a few pet peeves about Waugh’s writing style in Brideshead Revisited, he has certainly proven himself to be capable in the field of allowing his readers to be able to enter his characters emotionally. I only hope that this trait again becomes prevalent as the novel continues.