Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The other day while cycling on the recumbent bike at the gym I finished Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. I was thinking about what I wanted to write about, and it occurred to me that I've developed an interest in British wartime (WWW) literature. I'm a huge fan of JRR Tolkien, and CS Lewis. Every time I go to the bookstore I am tempted to buy novels by GK Chesterson who was a friend of CS Lewis's. Then I bought Excellent Women by Barbara Pymm, not realizing that it was set in London directly following World War II, and contained, what I see now, several examples of how life changed for English people during the war. Now, I can add Evelyn Waugh to my list of British wartime authors I admire.

Two years ago Jeremy and I took Kaitlin to Portland for a long weekend. Of course we had to stop at Powell's Books so I could browse around a bit. I stumbled upon a book called Conversations with Chaim Potok. Chaim Potok happens to be one of my favorite authors of all time. He wrote two of my favorite books of all time (go figure), The Chosen and My Name is Asher Lev. (A quick aside, if you haven't read those books, go out right now, get them, and begin! They're fabulous.) As I began reading the interviews compiled in Conversations I noticed that Potok mentioned Brideshead Revisited several times. He credits reading Brideshead Revisited with his becoming a writer. Of course, I had to check it out.

Brideshead Revisited is the story of Charles Ryder and his involvement with the Flyte family, an aristocratic Catholic family in prewar England. Part of what draws Charles in to his fascination with this family is the fact that they are Catholic. His Protestant upbringing and his youthful agnosticism produce in him a curiosity about the family and their religion. Two of the four Flyte children, Lord Brideshead, the eldest son, and the youngest child, Cordelia, are devout Catholics along with their mother. Sebastian and Julia have followed their father's path and essentially left the church. Throughout the years Charles is a witness to the effect this has on the lives of Sebastian and Julia, primarily their inability to give up their religious traditions despite their disbelief.

The ideas of religious belief and spirituality have been on my mind a lot lately. I have recently started really trying to understand my own religion and the things I claim to believe. This was a timely read for me. Charles is of the opinion that the religion of his friends, or any religion for the matter, is merely superstition. For him the rituals have no meaning. Adherence to religious teachings is not the way to personal happiness, it is the exact opposite. It is the way to misery. What he fails to see is that when Sebastian and Julia are farthest away from their beliefs they are unhappy, even stagnant. Sebastian retreats into the numbness that alcoholism brings him, yet he ultimately realizes that the church is his only salvation.

It is Julia's relationship with her religion that fascinates me most. The consensus in the Flyte family is that Julia is the most "lapsed" (is that even an acceptable word anymore??) of all the children. Her lifestyle is decadent and, in the eyes of Catholic England, sinful. She married a divorced man, then left him to live, unmarried, with Charles. Throughout the book, we receive hints that Julia is not so unconscious of her sins as she would like the world, and herself, to believe. However, it isn't until her brother Brideshead announces his engagement, and the fact that his bride-to-be will not come to stay in their home because of Julia's sinful live with Charles. Julia is no longer able to conceal the internal struggle that has been going on in her mind. She breaks down and finally acknowledges the facts of her life through her Catholic upbringing. It isn't until the very end of the book, though, that we see how fully Julia has accepted her faith. Though she still doubts, and is not fully willing to live in strict observance of her religion, she is finally able to acknowledge the hold it has upon her. She realizes that the course her life is taking will not lead to her lasting happiness, and she changes it abruptly.

For me, the most important aspect of this book is that it has helped me to see the effects that abandoning religious belief can have on a person. (And no, I'm not nor have I ever considered abandoning mine!) Instead of being a liberating event in one's life, it has the potential to cause great confusion and the unbearable burden of having to carry around tremendous guilt. Ultimately Julia and Sebastian return to their religious roots. Granted, their return is on their own termsm but they still return. They will never be what would be considered good, devout Catholics. However, through their return they manage to find a peace that their lives previously lacked. Don't misunderstand--this is not to say their lives will end happily ever after. We know Sebastian's won't--he is nearly dead from his long term alcoholism. And, in fact I firmly believe that if the story were to continue Julia's life will not be full of joy. The point is that they have acknowledged their beliefs instead of denying them. They also have accepted the consequences that will result from living by their beliefs. When you think about it, isn't this one of the major tasks of our existence--to find out what is true and to live by it. I believe in modern jargon, this is called being true to oneself--and it is the only way to be truly happy.

I'm not one to draw parallels between works of literature, but I was reminded of two books while I was reading. The first is My name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, which deals with the themes of abandoning one's religion as it is practiced by one's parents and assimilating religion into one's life in new and perhaps unconventional ways, then coming to terms with the consequences of that act. The second book is The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, which addresses the idea of redemption. I can heartily recommend My Name is Asher Lev to anyone. I'm not so sure about The End of the Affair. It may be a little to readerly--the kind of book that only a stuck up book snob could love.