A couple of weeks back, we had our first meeting of the Carrots Classic Book Club and discussed the beginning of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited (you can see the whole discussion in the FB event). It’s a familiar read for me, my very favorite novel, but I still learned so much from you all. What jumped out at me the most is how masterful Waugh’s characters are. I feel like I know them because they are as complicated as the people we know in real life. And the discussion helped me better understand what I think are the two most confusing characters: Lady Marchmain and Sebastian.
Here’s some of the insights from our discussion:
Lady Marchmain:
Is she truly devout? Does she live out Christian virtue? Why do Sebastian and Lord Marchmain seem to hate her and want to run away from her? What exactly are her flaws? Are we supposed to like her?
In the discussion it was pointed out that in addition to being the matriarch of the family, she’s also a symbol of the Church. Sebastian and Lord Marchmain despise her and run away from her just as they despise and abandon the Church. They see her faith as an indictment of their own failure to live up to their faith. So, in a way, it’s not her that they hate, but they hate themselves and they hate that they can never escape the demands of their faith. You can move across the world like Lord M or drink yourself almost to death like Sebastian, but the “unseen hook and the invisible line” will one day start twitching. As a suffering mother (if you’ve read further and read Julia’s monologue at the fountain….rip my heart out!), we feel for Lady Marchmain. But she’s not a perfect mother.
She has an obsession with control. We see how she tries to control Sebastian and how she coerces and manipulates people. She decorates her special room just so the same way she uses people like pawns to get what she wants. She’s calculating. It seems to me that she steps in to constantly interfere in Sebastian’s life because she cannot let go and trust God. It doesn’t turn out well. Her manipulative nature is so different from Sebastian’s simple childlikeness.
Sebastian:
Why the obsession with his childhood? His teddy bear, his nanny, his youthful innocence? What is motivating him to escape his family and his faith? How do we reconcile his holiness with his sin?
I learned so much about Sebastian during the discussion. The main point that really blew me away was that Sebastian is called to holiness, and he is trying to escape the weight of faith by escaping to childhood when he had no responsibilities including spiritual responsibility. He pursues a life of pleasure, because he thinks the spiritual life he is called to is too heavy for him to bear. He chooses lesser, fleeting goods instead of God, although he never seems to stop believing. He knows the good, but is to weak to follow it and that’s what torments him. He is called to be saint (we all are) but he runs away from his calling for as long as he can, just like Lord Marchmain. As Lady M says, “it’s all happened before.” I really liked what my friend Christy said, “ it’s so hard to understand how your inner life can be so contrary to the holiness to which you’re called, and hence why people who don’t understand just say that faith must be bad for that person because it’s causing such struggle or “hypocrisy”. There is so much about the inner life in these characters, and their struggles, and the twitch upon the thread with grace never leaving you.”
And then there’s Charles, from a home with a detached father and no mother, finding a family that fascinates him because despite their dysfunctionality, they see the world as touched by heaven. For a materialist like Charles, it’s confusing. When talking to Bridey, he says, “now you’re back on religion again!” to which Bridey responds, “I never left it.”
And then one of my favorite interactions between Bridey and Charles:
“Why bring God into everything?”
“I’m sorry. I forgot. But you know that’s an extremely funny question.”
“Is it?”
“To me. Not to you.”
The Flyte’s can’t escape their faith. But Julia, Sebastian, and Lord Marchmain all try. And Charles observes (for now).
I can’t wait to discuss the second half of the book with you all! There is so much in there. And really, the last 30ish pages is where it all comes together. Let’s shoot for Tuesday, July 8th at 9:30pm EST (to give our West coast friends a chance to join in!).
So just finish up the book and I’ll see you on July 8th in the new FB event page for Meeting #2!
Feel free to leave some discussion questions in the comments and I’ll try to include them in the FB event for the discussion! If you missed the last meeting, what jumped out at you as you read Brideshead?
Thanks for the great recap Haley. I love that explanation of Sebastian’s embrace of his youth and childhood as his inability to live up to the holiness to which he is called.
My weekly women’s Bible study group takes a bit of a break during the summer and meets only monthly for a book club. Brideshead will be our August read. I fully intend to use many of your thoughts here for our discussion… giving you full credit, of course.
Oh how cool that y’all are reading Brideshead! I wanna come! 🙂
I’m so excited about the second meeting. It’ll be the motivation I need to finally finish. (Summer always makes me want to read light and fluffy stuff.)
I’ve been mostly reading light and fluffy this summer, too, Elizabeth!
Thanks for the push to finally read this book, Haley! Although I didn’t join in the discussion, you are the reason I picked it up and finished it. Honestly, for most of the book I thought it really weird and that it somehow didn’t live up to my expectations (although I couldn’t put a finger on what exactly I expected). However, the last 30 pages or so completely turned me around. As you implied, you really have to read the ending to appreciate the whole! Thanks for this little summary of your discussion too.
Rebecca, I know exactly what you mean. I’ve had so many people tell me part way through that they don’t get it. It all comes together at the very end. I’m so glad you pushed through!
I didn’t read the first half in time to participate in the discussion, just “listened” to what everyone else had to say. But now I’m nearing the end and can’t wait to discuss it! Thank you for the recap!
The end is the best part 🙂
It’s fun to read these thoughts on the novel. One fascinating strand for me is art and architecture, and how Brideshead feeds that part of Charles’ soul. I can relate to that as a gateway to faith. When I lived in Paris in the mid-nineties, it was the architecture of the churches there that indirectly got me back into the practice of Catholicism after being lapsed in my college years/early twenties.
@Ginny: Similar to your observation, Father Barron has spoken and written on evangelization through beauty as expressed in Brideshead Revisited. You might find his piece at Catholic New Agency interesting: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column.php?n=2476
That is such a good point, Ginny! That is a crucial strand. I’m really glad you brought that up!
Thank you! I finished the book, but didn’t quite understand what it was getting at. These explanations have really cleared things up for me.
I hope you join us for the discussion of the second half of the book, Nancy!
I haven’t read this book, but this post makes me want to. Is it weird that what most makes me want to read it is the “unseen hook and the invisible line” mention? I love some good metaphor/imagery, especially when it makes sense. Maybe I can finish in enough time for the next discussion…
It’s interesting to read this discussion about Brideshead– so positive! I’m a big fan of many of the books you promote here, but I couldn’t stand Brideshead! I like other Waugh (he can be hilarious), but this book is dank, dark, depressing, full of insufferable characters. Meh. The whole time I was reading it I felt like I was stuffed into a mothballed closet and it was a breath of fresh air to finally put it down. 🙂 Not that I have strong opinions.
Did Part Two of this Discussion ever take place? I can’t find it on the blog or on FB!
Hi Nicki! here’s where did the second discussion on FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/263430663844074/
Lots of fun chatting about it 🙂
Thanks, Haley!