Brideshead Revisited....anyone? I don't get it!

[RoseofLima]

Okay...so this book is on the book list for my senior British Lit class. I don't know how or why I haven't read it until now.

I love it, like love it in the way I loved Fitzgerald why I first read him. Sometimes the language is so exquisitly beautiful, I nearly weep.

HOWEVER....(I am just starting Book II, so perhaps the end will make it more clear??) why in the heck is this book considered "Catholic" the way it is in Catholic circles?? The heros are all homosexuals (they are fab heros and I love them dearly) and the Catholics are gruesome...

For those of you who've read it---what gives??? Why is this novel considered so Catholic?

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

never heard of it

whened you start takeing a british lit class?

 

[BillH]

Keep reading, m'dear. Keep reading.

A book in which all of the Catholics were perfectly holy people with no sins and no flaws would be neither very realistic nor Catholic.

 

[RoseofLima]

never heard of it

whened you start takeing a british lit class?

I teach it!! Mondays and Thursdays. My class is their favorite (which is mostly because I play football and listen to cool music- but hey whatever works!)

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

I teach it!! Mondays and Thursdays. My class is their favorite (which is mostly because I play football and listen to cool music- but hey whatever works!)

you play football in a british lit class?

strange teacher

 

[Da_Funkey_Gibbon]

I played football in a Brit. Lit class once.

Got detention.

(Oh and for you confused Americans, by football I mean soccer .

 

[RoseofLima]

you play football in a british lit class?

strange teacher

I wore a do-rag, too- whilst I had them rapping Sheakesperean sonnets...

 

[RoseofLima]

LOL- in my religion class we play trashketball all the time...

 

[RoseofLima]

I played football in a Brit. Lit class once.

Got detention.

(Oh and for you confused Americans, by football I mean soccer .

In my class the winners get extra credit

 

[Aaron-Aggie]

lol

 

[Filia Mariae]

Okay...so this book is on the book list for my senior British Lit class. I don't know how or why I haven't read it until now.

I love it, like love it in the way I loved Fitzgerald why I first read him. Sometimes the language is so exquisitly beautiful, I nearly weep.

HOWEVER....(I am just starting Book II, so perhaps the end will make it more clear??) why in the heck is this book considered "Catholic" the way it is in Catholic circles?? The heros are all homosexuals (they are fab heros and I love them dearly) and the Catholics are gruesome...

For those of you who've read it---what gives??? Why is this novel considered so Catholic?

You'll get it more when you finish it, although I kind of wondered that myself...

 

[Michie]

Evelyn Waugh--Catholic Convert & Writer

Evelyn Waugh was born in England in A.D. 1903, son of a devout Anglican churchman who led an exemplary life and attended church regularly. Although his father never promoted any special interest in theology, Waugh aspired to become a clergyman for the Church of England very early in his childhood.

While his schoolmates devoted their time and energy to such hobbies as model trains and sports, Waugh was most interested in church affairs. He was fond of speaking of such things as chasubles and Erastianism.

The church appealed to him mainly for aesthetic reasons. The medieval cathedrals and churches, the rich ceremonies that surrounded the monarchy, the historic cities like Canterbury and York, the social organization of the parishes, and the traditional culture of Oxford and Cambridge Universities were some of the main reasons that the Church of England appealed to Waugh as a boy. He also liked the Anglican liturgy, which was still recited in the original old English.
He was very aware of the Catholic Church as a boy, but it was not nearly as appealing to him. Catholics in England met in cheap modern buildings, ugly by Anglican standards, and were served mainly by Irish missionaries who were fond of simple living. And besides, Waugh was born Anglican, not Catholic. So as a boy, being a Catholic was far from his mind.
Because of his enthusiasm for serving the Church of England, his parents sent him to the grammar school which taught young boys who were interested in entering the seminary. Once there, he lost all faith he had in any religion. He became what is known as an atheist, one who believes there is no God. He had lost his boyhood faith because his religion teacher claimed that none of the books of the Bible were written by their supposed authors.
Waugh admitted in an autobio-graphy years later that he thought if he had been a Catholic boy at a Catholic school he would have found that his teachers straightened him out immediately. He also wrote that if he had been receiving the sacraments of the Catholic Church, he would not have abandoned his faith in God. But the teachers at the Anglican school simply dismissed his unbelief, saying the boy was just "going through a phase."

Continued- http://www.aquinas-multimedia.com/stjoseph/biography.html

 

[Michie]

"Catholic author"

Thus, Evelyn Waugh has become known to history as a "Catholic author." His novels after his conversion began to reflect a more serious worldview, as seen in the religious theme of his most famous work, Brideshead Revisited (A.D. 1945). He continued to travel widely throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. In addition to writing many novels, he also wrote several biographies. One of these was Edmund Campion: Priest & Martyr, which became the first significant story about this Elizabethan Jesuit martyr. Some believe the Waugh biography aided in the canonization of Campion.

He died in A.D.1966, known as a brilliant satirist—one of the funniest writers of the 20th century. Beyond that, Waugh was known as a faithful Christian pilgrim.

 

[RoseofLima]

Yes, I know he was Catholic..it's just that the novel doesn't seem so, well, Catholic... right now I'm in the midst of Ryder's hardcore adulteress affair with Julia...an affair the reader is drawn into with sympathy and wanting them to be together.... Ryder just had a drink with a chum at a gay bar....

 

[Michie]

Well I've yet to read it myself but it has peaked my interest. As some said, continue reading & it may unfold.

But I have noticed that Catholic writers, especially those of the past, their literary work is considered Catholic also, regardless of subject.

 

[RoseofLima]

It is a great, great book and I am loving it more than anything I have read in quite awhile...since Sister Carrie (byTheodore Drieser). And the language is stunning and beautiful...but reading the book itself is a bit like having an affair....I am left desirous for more, yet slightly horrified all the while..

 

[Michie]

So it isn't a hard read?

Nothing like Shakespeare I hope.

I consider the language labor intensive to read.

 

[RoseofLima]

Oh goodness no- it was written in 1944.... It reads a lot like Fitzgerald, though not so gloomy and star crossed as Fitzy.

I'll have read the whole thing in about 5 days (with 4 kids, 2 jobs, housework, trying to save my marriage, and religious obligations). So it is a quick read, too. Very accesssible language- you don't need to struggle with it--like a Henry James of a Faulkner novel..or good heavens like that scourge Joyce....

 

[Michie]

Oh goodness no- it was written in 1944.... It reads a lot like Fitzgerald, though not so gloomy and star crossed as Fitzy.

I'll have read the whole thing in about 5 days (with 4 kids, 2 jobs, housework, trying to save my marriage, and religious obligations). So it is a quick read, too. Very accesssible language- you don't need to struggle with it--like a Henry James of a Faulkner novel..or good heavens like that scourge Joyce....

Thank you! I'll be going to the library Monday. I think you are the second person that has mentioned this work & it has really peaked my interest.

 

[Carrye]

Carrie

Good name.

That is all I have to contribute to this thread.

Except that I thought this was going to be about a horror movie where a bride ends up decapitated. I mean, you never know what Shannon will come up with.