Brideshead Revisited
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Brideshead Revisited |
| Abbreviation(s): | |
| Creator: | Evelyn Waugh |
| Date(s): | 1945 (novel) 1981 (series) 2008 (film) |
| Medium: | novel, film |
| Country of Origin: | United Kingdom |
| External Links: | [1] (novel) [2] (series)[3] (film) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Brideshead Revisited is a novel by Evelyn Waugh which follows Charles Ryder, his life, romances. and involvement with the Flyte family. The novel starts out in the 1920s and follows Charles to the 1940s.
Central themes are Catholicism, nostalgia, and the decline of the British aristocracy.
Waugh wrote a prequel, Charles Ryder's Schooldays, in 1945. It was first published post-mortem in the The Times Literary Supplement on March 5, 1982.[1][2]
Brideshead Revisited was adapted into a television miniseries in 1981 starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. In 2008 it was adapted into a film starring Matthew Goode and Ben Whishaw.
Canon
The novel is split into three parts, a prologue and an epilogue.
Et in Arcadia Ego
Set in 1923, this section follows Charles Ryder in his life as an undergraduate reading history where he is befriended by Lord Sebastian Flyte. The following year Sebastian introduces Charles to his friends, and takes him to his family's mansion - Brideshead Castle in Wiltshire. Charles briefly returns home during the summer holiday but is called back to Brideshead after Sebastian has a minor injury and spends the rest of the holiday with him.
Brideshead Deserted
The Flyte family becomes aware of Sebastian's drinking habits, attempting to stop him which only makes things worse. Charles leaves Brideshead after a falling out with Lady Marchmain. Julia, Sebsastian's sister, marries a man who, as it turns out, is a divorcé meaning they marry in an Anglican church. Julia asks Charles to find Sebastian after the latter has fled the country since he had been drifting away from his family. Charles finds him too ill to return to England and so returns to Brideshead to sort out his affairs.
A Twitch Upon the Thread
Charles finds success as an architectural painter. He has married and had two children but becomes cold to his wife. Julia separates from her husband and eventually forms a relationship with Charles. They plan on divorcing their partners to pursue a relationship with the other.
The youngest sister of the Flyte family had been minstering to the wounded in the Spanish Civil War and returns to England with news about Sebastian - including that she predicts he will die soon.
On the eve of the Second World War, Lord Marchmain returns to Brideshead to die there. He is appalled by the marriage of his eldest son to a middle class widow, so names Julia as the heir to the estate. This causes a knock on effect which leads Julia to decide she can't enter a marriage with Charles.
In the epilogue Charles finds himself back at Brideshead as an army officer - "homeless, childless, middle-aged and loveless". He finds that the house has been damaged, but the private chapel has been reopened for the soldier's use.[3]
Fandom
A large percentaged of the fic, art and other fanworks created for Brideshead Revisited focus on the first two sections of the novel - Charles and Sebastian as the charming young men about to take on the world.
As of February 2024, 81 of the 126 fanworks posted on AO3 have the relationship tag for Sebastian Flyte/Charles Ryder. Whereas the semi-canonical Julia Flyte/Charles Ryder only has 6 works.[4] On AO3 most Brideshead Revisited fanworks are tagged with the book fandom, but some are tagged with the film or television series.
Brideshead Revisited is eligible for the Yuletide small fandoms fic exchange, and over the years fans have written 23 stories based on the novel, the show, or the film.
Common Tropes
- Religious themes and imagery - these are highly popular due to the Flyte's Catholicism being a driving force and key motif in the novel
- Discussions of alcoholism, drinking, implied/ referenced alcoholism
Fan Comments
[semielliptical]
Last year I read Brideshead Revisited for the first time, and then watched the 1981 tv series. I had remembered watching it on PBS, I guess I must have been 12 or 13, but after reading the book and rewatching it I was no longer sure that I had seen the entire series. I only really remembered the early parts, and rather superficially - Charles and Sebastian together, Sebastian attractive but doomed, and carrying a teddy bear. I know that when I was younger I did not understand the significance of Sebastian and his family being Catholic at all. (I grew up Catholic, in a very Catholic environment, and for me being Catholic was normal, rather than something that set one apart.)I have read rumors that Jude Law will be playing Sebastian in a movie version. I can't imagine it will be much like the *11 hour* miniseries. I think I knit most of a sweater while watching it.[5]
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
- The Beginning by chirography, written for the contrelamontre vacation challenge
- Lost and Found: a review of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited by The Feckless Wonder
Fannish Resources
- Brideshead Revisited tag at AO3
- Brideshead Revisited section at Fanfiction.net
- Brideshead Revisited tag at Audiofic Archive
- 1981 tv gifsets at alexanderhamiltonisthebottom on tumblr
- bridesheadrevisitedtv on tumblr
- marchmainhouse livejournal community, created 26 April 2004
References
- ^ See: Wikipedia:Evelyn Waugh bibliography
- ^ See: Old Young Waugh, Archived version by Frances Donaldson (The New York Times, 1982)
- ^ See: Wikipedia:Brideshead Revisited
- ^ Brideshead Revisited - All Media Types, AO3 tag works page (Accessed 25 February 2024.)
- ^ semielliptical's post titled quick rare slash links in May 3rd, 2004 10:29 pm