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reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Classism
Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War
Minor: Vomit
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, War, Classism
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Parts of this book were very difficult to follow. Long sentences just keep extending and sometimes lost my focus. The content and ideas were interesting, but the second half was much less engaging.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia
Moderate: Miscarriage, War
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War, Classism
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can see why this book is held as a classic, but for me it had just about everything I hate in a novel. I finished it but I greatly considered not doing so.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Classism
Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, War
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I felt that this was a perfectly entertaining book, well-written too, but just cannot understand why it’s labelled by critics as ‘the Oxford novel’; I fortunately did not read it expecting a campus novel, but if you are I would put it aside unless you also enjoy the novel’s other, more prevalent, themes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol
Moderate: War
Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racial slurs
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: War
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent
Moderate: Miscarriage, Racism, Terminal illness
Minor: War
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism
Minor: War
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Like Moab is My Washpot, Brideshead Revisited seemed wonderfully romantic to me when I read it at 23, having bought it because a boy I liked was reading it. Over ten years later, I remembered the relationship between Charles and Julia, but had forgotten that they were both married to other people, and that they don’t even get a happy ending. While I’d like to think this second reading was more objective, the truth is that it’s probably just as subjective, but in a different way.
While I found all the characters in Brideshead Revisited interesting, none of them struck me as particularly true to life. The whole book has the dreamy, unreal tone of a Neverland — where the characters never grow up, or at least where Charles’ perspective of them and his worldview never really changes. He’s always looking back on history through a particular lens, and the story ends where it began, so that each scene has the same kind of feeling.
Even with very little understanding of Catholicism, I found the theological discussions interesting. Like everything else, there’s a lot that goes unspoken, and I probably missed a great deal of context which would’ve helped me understand what the characters were struggling with. On the other hand, Charles is also an outsider to the Marchmains’ religion, and to some extent their social class, so maybe feeling a distance from it all is the intended effect.
Although I didn’t love the romance, or the characters, this time around, I still appreciated the prose, and found plot interesting, if rather sad.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, War