Brideshead Revisited Revisited

Julia’s breakdown in the garden

brideshead — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:01:09 +0000

Julia’s breakdown in the garden with Charles is one of the central scenes in the film. Having read Madresfield, and some biographical material on Waugh, I now understand where many key scenes came from. Julia’s drive from the station is based on Sibell collecting Waugh from Madresfield’s local station. Marchmain’s deathbed profession of faith is based on that of Herbert Duggan, Anthony Blanche’s declamation of the Wasteland is Harold Acton’s.

So now the question presents itself. Julia’s profession of faith in the garden is so moving and authentic, it can’t spring solely from the author’s imagination. Where does it come from ?

The Real Brideshead

brideshead — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:54:48 +0000

Just finished Jane Mulvagh’s Madresfield, and can heartiy recommend it to Brideshead enthusiasts. The history of the house and the Lygon family is mixed freely with background on Waugh. Mulvagh argues convincingly that there’s a reason Waugh placed the epigram “I am not I, you are not you and they are not they” in the dedication. Simply because the Flytes are modelled closely on the Lygons. Earl Beauchamp goes into exile in Venice and other places, Lady Beauchamp is obsessively devout, Hugh is the beautiful doomed son, Elmley the stuffy heir etc. Dorothy is Cordelia, and Julia is a composite of Maimie & Sibell. Max Beaverbrook was Sibell’s lover, a Canadian press baron and government insider. Obviously the model for Rex. The chapel at Madresfield is the template for that at Brideshead. The parallels are many and striking…

Hibbs on the new film

brideshead — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:50:43 +0000

Here’s a wonderful essay by Tomas Hibbs full of fresh insight on the nature of time and memory in Brideshead, as well as the influence of Augustine’s Confessions on Waugh.

Don’t usualally..

brideshead — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:25:07 +0000

..just post links. But this essay is so wonderful…

Madresfield Court

brideshead — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:05:19 +0000

One for the reading list: Jane Mulvagh’s book Madresfield Court: the real Brideshead. Times review here…

Gilly flowers

brideshead — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:38:45 +0000

During his first week in college, Charles’ cousin Jasper visits to offer advice. I’ve mentioned this before, but return to it prompted by Ronald Knox‘s Let Dons Delight. Jasper offers lengthy advice, and concludes…

‘One last point. Change your rooms’ – They were large, with deeply recessed windows and painted, eighteenth-century panelling; I was lucky as a freshman to get them. ‘I’ve seen many a man ruined through having ground-floor rooms in the front quad,’ said my cousin with deep gravity. ‘People start dropping in. They leave their, gowns here and come and collect them before hall; you start giving them a sherry. Before you know where you are, you’ve opened a free bar for all the undesirables of the college.’

I do not know that I ever, consciously, followed any of this advice. I certainly never changed my rooms – there were gillyflowers growing below the windows which on summer evenings filled them with fragrance.

Reading Dons Delight, which is set in an Oxford common room, I was delighted myself to find a character asking “and does that scent of the gilly-flowers come in yet by the windows of the Common Room, when you sit talking there after dinner ?” (p42 1st ed). Don’s Delight was published in 39, and Waugh wrote Brideshead in 44. Waugh would likely have read his friend’s book on publication. Maybe that’s where Charles’ gilly flowers came from.

Hubert Duggan

brideshead — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:55:30 +0000

According to this Independent article, Hubert Duggan’s Waugh inspired deathbed return to the faith was the model for Lord Marchmain’s in the novel. Interesting that Duggan had an affair with one of the Lygon sisters.

Never so good

brideshead — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:38:43 +0000

Went to see Jeremy Irons playing Harold MacMillan in Never So Good. I expected the play to focus on MacMillan’d premiership, and to enjoy the rolling cadences of the Iron’s diction. I didn’t quite get what I expected. Jeremy’s cadences rolled, but weren’t quite the same as his glorious Brideshead narrative. His physical demeanour was typically diffident. The play covered all of Supermac’s life, and the surprise came in the depiction of Oxford days: up popped Ronnie Knox, friend and biography subject of Waugh, in an early scene attempting to persuade Harold to “pope” – to go over to Rome. MacMillan was an undergrad before WWI, and Waugh afterwards, but Knox was the link.

Lady Marchmain: the central character ?

brideshead — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:24:38 +0000

As I read and understand more of the key characters in the novel, I’m coming to see Lady Marchmain as the key. Adam Carr’s insightful essay from 82 concurs. Various sources give the templates for the characters: Lygons (Sebastian, Cordelia, Bridey), Beauchamps (Lord M, Bridey), Waugh (Ryder). And often their paths and motivations seem clear. Their destinies too – Sebastian, Julia, Lord M and Charles are all reconciled or converted to the faith.

But what of Lady M ? The two outsiders who comment at length to Charles have opposing views. Anthony Blanche, over dinner at Thame, hates her. But Cara, when she discusses Sebastian with Charles in Venice, sympathises with her. Opinion is divided amongst readers commenting on Fr Dwight’s blog are divided.

Fr Dwight is not a fan of Lay Marchmain, but I think he make the point well: Lord M abandoning his family was a gross dereliction of duty that damaged them all. A single mother must play the role of mother and father. Lady M has to do Lord M’s job too, and that jaundices our view of her.

Personally, I disagree with Fr Dwight, and don’t see Bridey and Lady M as in such spiritual deficit…

Thanks to Fr Dweight

brideshead — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:02:19 +0000

..we can forget the despondency prompted by the trailer of the new film. And instead enjoy Fr Dwight’s moving and insightful analysis of the meaning of Lord Marchmain’s behaviour for his offspring.