Monday 5 September 2016

Book Group Notes: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Literary Lady’s Book Group Guides are designed to generate discussion at your book group or as a way of enhancing your own reading experience. The discussion points offer a ‘route’ through the book but don’t feel you need to stick too rigidly to it if an interesting topic comes up that needs further discussion!

About the Book:

Charles Ryder, an impressionable young Oxford student, meets the enigmatic Sebastian Flyte and falls in love with his family and a world of privilege that is slowly decaying. This novel spans the years leading up to the First World War in a poignant exploration of faith, love and family. Your book group will love the decadent and desperate world Waugh will take them to.

Discussion Points:
  •  If Brideshead Revisited is a love story, who are the lovers? Sebastian/Charles? Julia/Charles? Waugh/Church?
  • What did you think of Charles Ryder as a narrator?
  • Though often melancholy in tone, Waugh also employs comedy throughout. Did you find the book funny in any way
  • “Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there's no room for the present at all.” What is the relationship between time, memory and self in the novel?
  • The book is divided into distinctive acts, often punctuated by location – Oxford, Italy, Tunisia etc. Which part of the book did you find most compelling?
  • What is unique about the Mortmain family? What is their particular dynamic?
  • Discuss the religious conversions that take place in the story.
  • How far does the Waugh interrogate the idea of a nostalgic England?
  • Brideshead Revisited has been adapted twice - once for a major television series and again for a film – what do you think makes the novel so appealing to audiences?
  • The book is often ranked highly in greatest books ever written lists. Do you think it deserves such praise? Why does it have this enduring appeal?

Have you read Brideshead Revisited? What were your thoughts on it? 

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