kit_carmichael's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Misogyny, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Racial slurs, and War
eli_jw's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I can see why this book is held as a classic, but for me it had just about everything I hate in a novel. I finished it but I greatly considered not doing so.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Infidelity, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Terminal illness, War, Racial slurs, and Homophobia
autiquarian's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I felt that this was a perfectly entertaining book, well-written too, but just cannot understand why it’s labelled by critics as ‘the Oxford novel’; I fortunately did not read it expecting a campus novel, but if you are I would put it aside unless you also enjoy the novel’s other, more prevalent, themes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Addiction, and Alcohol
Moderate: War
Minor: Miscarriage, Racial slurs, and Homophobia
felidmostfoul's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol and Infidelity
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
Minor: Homophobia and War
amotoquinha's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: War
rpg_gf's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Miscarriage, Racism, and Terminal illness
Minor: War
nohousekey's review against another edition
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
Minor: War
chalkletters's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Like Moab is My Washpot, Brideshead Revisited seemed wonderfully romantic to me when I read it at 23, having bought it because a boy I liked was reading it. Over ten years later, I remembered the relationship between Charles and Julia, but had forgotten that they were both married to other people, and that they don’t even get a happy ending. While I’d like to think this second reading was more objective, the truth is that it’s probably just as subjective, but in a different way.
While I found all the characters in Brideshead Revisited interesting, none of them struck me as particularly true to life. The whole book has the dreamy, unreal tone of a Neverland — where the characters never grow up, or at least where Charles’ perspective of them and his worldview never really changes. He’s always looking back on history through a particular lens, and the story ends where it began, so that each scene has the same kind of feeling.
Even with very little understanding of Catholicism, I found the theological discussions interesting. Like everything else, there’s a lot that goes unspoken, and I probably missed a great deal of context which would’ve helped me understand what the characters were struggling with. On the other hand, Charles is also an outsider to the Marchmains’ religion, and to some extent their social class, so maybe feeling a distance from it all is the intended effect.
Although I didn’t love the romance, or the characters, this time around, I still appreciated the prose, and found plot interesting, if rather sad.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Death, and War
karlo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness and Death
Minor: Homophobia, Antisemitism, and War
dan13dean's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: War
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