Reading Group Guide
Questions and topics for discussion
1. Many readers have speculated about the friendship between Charles and Sebastian. What is your view of their relationship and of the feelings they might have had for each other? In what ways do you think their friendship influenced their lives? How does Sebastian encourage Charles’s fascination with Brideshead and with the Flyte family?
2. At one point in the novel Brideshead’s wife, Beryl, says to Julia, “I’ve usually found every Catholic family has one lapsed member” (page 297). What do you make of the fact that more than one of the Flytes questioned their Catholic faith at different points in the novel? How much of an influence do you think Lady Marchmain had over the faith of her children and Lord Marchmain?
3. Sebastian continues to drink heavily—despite the efforts of his family and friends—and his health deteriorates over time. In their attempts to make sure he is happy, do you think those around Sebastian offer support or enable his behavior?
4. Lord Marchmain doesn’t have much of a relationship with his children while they are growing up, yet his eventual return to Brideshead has a dramatic effect on his family. How do the decisions he made while on his deathbed influence the lives of those around him? Who do you think changed the most after his death?
5. At Charles’s gallery opening after his return from South America, his wife, Celia, says, “Charles lives for one thing—Beauty” (page 267). In what ways do you think Charles’s profession as an architectural painter is indicative of his personality, his view of religion, and his relationship with others?
6. Discuss the ways in which various characters’ fortunes change dramatically in the course of the novel. What role do you think World War II played in the development of each principal character and of British society in general?
7. Brideshead is home to many different people in the years covered in the novel; in the end, only Nanny Hawkins remains. Out of all its residents, who do you think had the closest connection to the house? What is the significance of Julia inheriting Brideshead? How do you interpret the soldiers’ occupation of Brideshead at the close of the novel?
8. Discuss the institution of marriage as it is portrayed in the novel—through the relationships of Lord and Lady Marchmain, Julia and Rex, Charles and Celia, Brideshead and Beryl, etc. Is a happy marriage a possibility for any of the novel’s characters?
9. When Brideshead Revisited was originally published readers interpreted the novel as somewhat semi-biographical. Given what you know of Evelyn Waugh’s life, would you agree?
10. At the end of the novel Charles once again visits Brideshead and describes the desolate nature and destruction of the property. Two important locations are left in notably different conditions: the fountain (despite barricades) is filled with trash while the chapel remains untouched. What do you think is the symbolism of each place? How does the physical world ultimately influence Charles?
