In 1944 Captain Charles Ryder travels with a company of soldiers to Brideshead. He has been there before, and the great house serves as a potent reminder of the decadent, stylish lifestyle now destroyed by the austerity of the Second World War. Charles' mind travels back twenty years to when he was a student at Oxford, in thrall to the captivating, tragic Sebastian Flyte. This friendship leads to his involvement with Sebastian's aristocratic Catholic family - in particular Julia, the eldest Flyte daughter - and has far ...
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In 1944 Captain Charles Ryder travels with a company of soldiers to Brideshead. He has been there before, and the great house serves as a potent reminder of the decadent, stylish lifestyle now destroyed by the austerity of the Second World War. Charles' mind travels back twenty years to when he was a student at Oxford, in thrall to the captivating, tragic Sebastian Flyte. This friendship leads to his involvement with Sebastian's aristocratic Catholic family - in particular Julia, the eldest Flyte daughter - and has far-reaching effects on his life. Ben Miles stars as Charles Ryder with Jamie Bamber as Sebastian in this full-cast dramatisation, which also features Eleanor Bron and Edward Petherbridge.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Very Good Jacket. Size: 5x1x8; Previous owner's ink inscription. Posted within 1 working day. 1st class tracked post to the UK, Airmail tracked worldwide. Robust recyclable packaging.
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Seller's Description:
4th printing. 8vo. Original gilt lettered pictorial green cloth (Fine), slipcase (VG). Pp. xix + 275, illus with coloured plates by Leonard Rosoman (no inscriptions).
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Seller's Description:
Good. 1st Printing. First Edition/First Printing Published by Chapman & Hall, London 1945. Ink box to front pastedown with erased name. Erased name from ffep and ink number 89. No other marks or inscriptions. Clean pages with mildly age toned edges. Red cloth covers have some scattered mottling and black ink mark to bottom front edge. Some fading to text on spine.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. 1st Printing. First Edition/First Printing Published by Chapman & Hall in conjunction with the Book Society, London 1945. VG clean and tight condition. No marks or inscriptions. Book Society bookplate to ffep. Very occasional mild spotting. Clean and bright Red cloth covers with mild fading to spine.
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Seller's Description:
Good in Good jacket. 1st Printing. First Australian Edition/First Printing Published by Chapman & Hall, Australia 1946. No marks or inscriptions. Pages heavily tanned with wartime economy paper. Black boards have mottling. Dustjacket price clipped. Tanned. general wear and creasing with small loss. Closed tear to rear. Protected in archive cover.
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Good. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.
Absorbing plot and so evocative of its age. Much better than the overblown screen versions. Though these are beautifully acted, directed and shot they lose the humorous elements that form a part of the novel. Waugh is a master of brevity in style and this is lost in the adaptations.
katheliz1938
Oct 23, 2008
Wonderful book
This is well-known to be an excellent novel - nothing I can say will add to its fame.
venti1
Sep 25, 2008
Brideshead Worth Revisiting
After many years, I enjoyed rereading Waugh's classic novel. With the added hindsight of having viewed the Masterpiece Theatre production, I appreciated Waugh's stinging indictment of, and appreciation for, this view of early 20th Century Britain. Clearly, while the video captured every nuance of the disfunctional Flyte family and Charles Ryder's fascination with them, rereading the book allows for a thorough saturation in the language and a renewed appreciation of the narrative structure. I also learned something that I forget from time to time: if it looks too good to be true, it is: the book I purchased was a first edition;first printing of a reprint series -- not the original as I had thought. Live and learn.
ghmus7
Nov 20, 2007
One of the Finest english Novels
A great novel that captures so many currents of English life during the early 20th century. The charachters are so believable, that when the PBS series aired, many viewers exlaimed: "That not what Sebastian looks like!" The depiction of privleged English life at Oxbridge, the statley houses, the parties and denial of the upper-crust world coming into war is sort of a camoflage over the underlying theme of the book, the importance of faith and the state of one's soul. That, as glorious or squalid as life can be, it does not last and each person ought consider his soul in light of eternity. There is a marvelous atmosphere and feeling to the book, a sense of regretfulness that "This was once what was so great about English life...but will never be again". Waugh is essentially writing as a exile in place - As a Catholic, he was a disciple of a religion that England has never been comfortable with, to say the least. Considered a literary masterpiece, it is undoubtably Waugh's best book, and certainly his most insightful. Quite funny at times, it encommpasses so much of life in it's economical length. A truly great book that you will read several times.
WhisperingWind
Oct 25, 2007
Destined to be a classic.
I've read it more than a half-dozen times. It is filled with incredible insight into the human condtion and is more enjoyable each reading.