This book had been vaguely on my radar as one of the many classics of British literature I still had to read, a bit higher than most other books in that category thanks to the title. And then of course Rebekah's old username and love for the book contributed to the feeling that I should read it at some point as well. Then a couple months ago I found a cheap copy in the used bookstore (though not actually a used copy, I don't think - publishers' clearance or some such, more like), so I bought it, and now got around to reading it. I really ramble, don't I?

In my copy (presumably in most copies), the book itself is preceded by a rather interesting preface Waugh added in 1959, fourteen years after the initial publication of the book. This preface is, safe to say, of a remarkably open-hearted and blunt nature. Waugh informs us that publishing his novel "lost [him] such esteem as [he] once enjoyed among [his] contemporaries and led [him] into an unfamiliar world of fan mail and press photographers". I'm not really sure how or why this happened, but it's certainly a promising start to a book. Waugh also notes that one major theme of the novel - the rapid decline and deterioration of the "stately homes" of the British upper class during the first half of the 20th century - had by 1959 been rendered somewhat obsolete as things changed and interest in these houses grew again. No doubt he is right in stating that, but I can't say that particular defect, if indeed it is one, made the book less enjoyable or good in my eyes. There are other things that seemed far more outdated or obsolete to me than the matter of the stately homes. But I'm getting ahead of things.

The novel has the somewhat peculiar sub-title "The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder", though that covers the content of the book rather well. In the prologue and epilogue, we find Charles Ryder as an officer in the British army during WW2. His unit is kept busy by moving around Britain, and finally ends up in Brideshead, a small village with a stately home belonging to the Lord Brideshead and his family. The rest of the book concerns Ryder's encounters with this family - the eccentric and pessimistic Sebastian with his teddy bear Aloysius, his sister Julia, their devout mother, and the others.

I don't know how widespread this feeling is, but I have to say I liked the first half, roughly speaking, of this book far more than the second. Not that the second half is bad; but while the first half ranked among the most enjoyable reading I've had this year, I can't say the same about the rest. No doubt the change in atmosphere is intentional on Waugh's part, but I don't know if I find it entirely successful. The first parts of the book largely concern Ryder's studies at Oxford, where he meets and befriends Sebastian, and his initial encounters with the family. Sebastian's fears that his charismatic family will "steal Ryder away from him" ultimately prove justified, however, and Sebastian's role in the later parts of the novel dwindles to a very minor part. Which might be one of the things that bugs me about those, actually...

The abovementioned theme of the deteriorating or even torn down stately homes becomes dominant in this later part of the novel. Perhaps not surprisingly, the family's fate is not much better than that of its house, and so things become rather bleak. It's not quite such a simple process as a mere straightforward fall towards doom, though. Rather, things drift apart, as neglect, changing mores and norms and the passage of time take their toll on family and house alike. Thinking back on it as I'm writing this review, this effect is actually rather well done, the way the family and the house mirror each other. If Waugh meant by his statements in the preface that this depiction is overly bleak and not representative of what actually happened to the British noble houses, he's no doubt right. No reason why he can't tell the story in his novel all the same, though.

I think I will have to reread the novel at some later time to fully appreciate it, but after this first read, I have to say I found it a very good book, not always equally enjoyable because of the bleakness, but still recommended, particularly to anyone interested in (20th century) British history as I am.