Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

This is the discussion thread for the Spring 2013 Group Read Brideshead Revisited. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

This is DEFINITELY the one I'm going to read for the challenge. I've had this on my TBR for ages, and this is a great excuse to get to it.

Well i've now read the book, seen the movie, watched the TV series and now listened to the audiobook and they all add something unique to the story. When opting for the audio book, i was swayed a little bit by the fact that Jeremy Irons narrated it and over the years both he, and the story have lost none of their charm.

My favorite aspect of the book are the detailed characters, with the house itself being focused on as a central character and I love that everyone is so flawed and the families so dysfunctional. Waugh also does an excellent job of describing the architecture and the locations. He allows you to visualise each scene without being flowery and boring.

Overall i liked it, i enjoyed the structure and the ending is appropriate.

Did no-one else read this book ?. Cmon it wasn't bad!. Surely the person who suggested it will be reading it ?.

I finished it yesterday after 2 weeks of reading. For me it was ok.I didn't know there was a TV series but maybe this would make me more for in love with this book. I loved some parts of this book but not all. From characters I loved Sebastian and Charles' dad. I think both of them had a such great sense of British humour.
(Nikki I wasnt person who suggested this book ;) and I need to find Tv series)

Whoo hoo another person. The TV series is pretty good, Jeremy Irons.... :)

I also agree with you about the Dad, he has a bit of a "stuff them" mentality and is living his own life.

I read it Nikki! I did not like it as much as the movie and the tv show. I thought the characters were better developed in the book (I especially liked Sebastian more in the book) but I thought the book was sometimes painfully slow.

Aleksandra - the tv show is on Netflix if you have it.

This was the first book I've ever read that was great in the middle and slow at the beginning and end. The friendship between Charles, Sebastian and Sebastian's family was fascinating. The love affair between Charles and Julia almost seemed tacked on.

I would like to see the Jeremy Irons TV miniseries.

Nikki wrote: "Well i've now read the book, seen the movie, watched the TV series and now listened to the audiobook and they all add something unique to the story. When opting for the audio book, i was swayed a l..."

I've read the book (years agao) and seen the TV mini-series. Really liked both of them. The book was surprisingly funnier than the show, I thought. The cartoonishness of the different members of the Flyte family and the collegiates really stood out. Cordelia, for instance, in the book says "Can I have one more of those scrumptious scones?" and it comes off as funny as she bops and bounces her way around. Charles Ryder's father is a hoot (and I suppose John Gielgud gets that across in the TV show).

I disliked the recent movie. The filmmakers changed too much from the book, trying to explain the Julia-Charles relationship as intensely passionate from their first meeting. It's not. The romance that surprises them both on the ocean liner is supposed to be just that, a surprise. And, if you watch the "deleted scenes" on a DVD, you realize they filmed, then cut a VERY important scene near the end between Julia and Charles, suppposedly so it would not run long....but it's sorta the whole point of the story, so I'm thinking it's no wonder I left the movie on first viewing scratching my head.

I came to this thread needing some inspiration to keep going with the book. I want to abandon it. I recall it was on my list of books that I nominated for the group reads, so I may be "the one" who picked it. Maria Helena, I agree that it is painfully slow so far. I am listening to the audio (excellent narration) but I just can't keep my attention on it. I just started in to part 3 of 10. So I'll keep going because of Marty's comment that it's slow at the beginning, but better in the middle. I did just enjoy the father's antics after Charles comes home asking for money.

ok, finally finished - two stars. Really had to push myself to finish it; I kept thinking there were about 200 other books I'd rather listen to.

I read this book today and found it completely charming. I enjoyed the characters and found the story appropriate. I liked the first half of the book much more than the second half, but found myself unable to put it down regardless. The relationship between Charles and Julia reminded me of The Age of Innocence at several points. Overall, I enjoyed this experience.

Hi, I just joined this group - I belong to a few others on GR, but am always looking for new people to talk with!

I recently finished this book and thought I would post a link to my thoughts: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/.... Happy to discuss if anyone is interested.

ETA: Oops - sorry I didn't see the naming conventions for the group. I don't think that's really for me, so I'll probably just drop the group. Feel free to delete this post if you want.

I had never heard of this book before this challenge. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Jeremy Irons. I didn't love it but I liked it, as a portrait of another era. It was rather sad to read about these people. I liked the characters, especially Anthony Blanche. It had some humorous moments, especially Charles' father was very funny.

***SPOILER ALERT

I agree that the middle was the best part of this book, as it took me awhile to "get into" it. And I didn't particularly like the end, with Julia breaking up with Charles to punish herself for not being a good enough Catholic. I do appreciate Waugh's writing, so a solid 3* for me.

I'm glad to see that there were some others who liked the book. I thought it was wonderful. First of all, I listened to the Jeremy Irons audiobook, and the narration was superb (and I say that after just finishing Colin Firth's narration of The End of the Affair, which I thought would be hard to top).I thought he read the book with certain inflections (or lack thereof) that I'm not sure I would have heard in head if I were reading it. That might be a bad thing in some stories, but I'm willing to trust that Irons got it right.

As for the story, I found it captivating. The only thing I really knew about the story was that it was about a young man who apparently has a homosexual relationship with another young man from a very wealthy family. But there was so much more than that. I did find it interesting that gay love affairs at school seemed to be fairly well accepted. The Flyte family is another of those families that is unhappy in its own unique way. The family's Catholicism oversahdows their lives in a variety of ways. I loved the character of Julia. I wish there was a better explanation for why Sebastian was the way he was. It is Charles Ryder who is the enigma. There are times when I liked him and times when I hated him. He doesn't seem to have any motivation and yet it makes no sense that all that happened _just_ happened.

In the end, I find it interesting that this is the second book in a row that I've read (see previous mention of End of the Affair) in which it comes down to deciding between an adulterous love and God.

I remember when the TV series was a big hit, but I never saw it. Now I'm going to go back and watch it.

What an interesting book this was! I quite enjoyed it - however, I'm feeling as if I've maybe missed part of it, and need to read it again at some point. I'm going to watch the mini-series. I wanted to read the book first.

I found the beginning of the book very enjoyable, and loved the students, particularly Antony. The progression of Sebastian's drinking was disturbing, and I particularly liked how Waugh linked his family to his problems. The whole relationship between Charles and the Flyte family is very interesting to me. In a sense, I felt as if his relationship with Julia was more of an attempt to make his place in the family more concrete.

I do wish Sebastian would have had a more happy ending. And the epilogue of the book brought me to tears. The house and grounds play such a central role to the story.

Good book! I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys English history and well-written, literary works.

Well I loved this book but I do think it helped that I am in watching Downton Abbey (I have Season 3 downloaded). It really helped me with understanding the house and its affect on the characters.

I was expecting the relationship the Julia as soon as the narrator mentioned the resemblance between Julia and Sebastian. Wasn't expecting the Catholic thing to keep them form marring, guess I should have though.

I've wanted to watch the miniseries for a few years now, but I won't allow myself to watch a show or movie based on a book until I read the book. That sometimes leaves me not wanting to actually view the film...the book tends to be better most of the time. However, this book has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while, so this was an excellent opportunity to make myself pull the book off the shelf.

It was an enjoyable read, although not one of my favorites. The fall of Sebastian was rather depressing, and I could not get over how those around him tried but did not really try to protect him from himself. Actually, the whole novel seemed rather depressing. There were small moments of happiness, but overall the characters all tended to be rather melancholy. Maybe some of them found peace in the end, but, I guess, I was hoping for a little happiness.

starting the book this afternoon. it's been a tbr of mine for awhile now. I am one of the folks who voted for it as a group read. :)

*5/12: finished the book today. I did love the period feel of this piece. Overall I thought that this read was charming & quirky; however, I also felt that there was a gabsmacked bunch of wretchdness and melancholy. I thought the characters had little hesitation to harm each other emotionally/physically and did so without a conscious thought [i.e. committing adultry, slurs against sexual perferences...], but they were so abhorred to go against the Catholic faith and their belief of boundaries of "duty". Where I did enjoy the experience of having read the book; I can not say that it is one of my favorites. And did I miss an explanation as to why Sebastin carried Aloysius?

This was one of the most boring books I have ever read. I had to force myself to finish it.

Lindy-Lane wrote: "explanation as to why Sebastin carried Aloysius?

I didn't read a reason either. Just a quirk I guess. To be different, or to be a crazy aristrocratic second son.

I just finished this book and thought it was interesting. It reflects the time periods (the 20s, 30s and 40s) well - the extravgence of the 20s, the downturn in the economy and rise of Nazism and the war years.

I did enjoy the book. The characters were quirky in an interesting way. I've read many books about the time period (by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Georgette Heyer, Sara Woods to name a few authors) and this one fit in well.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this book or not after reading through some of the posts. I didn't have any exposure to the TV show, so I only had the posts here to judge by.

Enough readers liked the book to convince me to give it a try.

I found it interesting and more palatable than I expected. I do not subscribe to some of the attitudes of the characters and think that Mr. Waugh inserted his own thoughts/confusions about the Catholic Church into the words of his characters as it seemed a bit strange at times...particularly when Mr. Marchmain lay dying.

Otherwise a nice read.