Not sure what the context was for the recommendation, but it was through /lit/. Just wanted to say thank you. What a wonderful book. Heartbreaking.

>>24507272 (OP)
>Heartbreaking
Could you sell me on it? Been on my to-read list for a while but never had much of an impetus to pick it up immediately

>>24507290
Ultimately it's about the end of "old england" or the death of the aristocracy as England moved into a post-WWII world. It's told through the eyes of a middle/upper class guy who befriends a family of landed nobility in the years between WWI and WWII. The beginning definitely feels like "local man befriends the rich gays" but there is a nostalgia for the aristocracy that is infectious. Reading this after reading The Stars My Destination, which is ultimately a hopeful belief in the common mans ability to rise above their lot in life and not needing "great men" to guide society turned into unexpected pairing of question and answer. Either way you can definitely feel the authors pain at feeling like something was lost or being lost with the fall of the old aristocracy. It almost felt like an English Brothers Karamazov, since it talks a lot about faith, Catholicism in England, and modernization. All through the varying personalities of the family the protagonist befriends.

>>24507369
where does the title come from?

>>24507272 (OP)
Now read Decline and Fall for the lulz.

>>24507272 (OP)
>>24507290

>>24507381
The castle where the family lives is called "Brideshead Castle". The protagonist is revisiting Brideshead at the very beginning of the novel since it starts with him as a middle aged man reminiscing about his college years all the way into his 30's.

>>24507432
He is a real life Charles Ryder. RIP

>>24507272 (OP)
I read it a couple months ago and also really liked it. The death scene had me more on edge than some actual thrillers I've read.
>“Then I knew that the sign I had asked for was not a little thing, not a passing nod of recognition, and a phrase came back to me from my childhood of the veil of the temple being rent from top to bottom.”
Amazing book; they really don't write like that anymore.

>>24507478
Yeah the prose was definitely a treat.

>>24507290
If you are straight, you won't appreciate it. It's for the gays.

>>24507679
Oh no....

>>24507692
It's about Sebastian's twink death. It's so tragic.

>>24507383
This.

>>24507679
What did you expect. It's about the English upper classes. They took their classical education to heart ...

>>24507272 (OP)
Great book, better version of Chinkygook McNipjapslope or whatever the guys name is who wrote Spring Snow and all those gay books

Pretty sure he ripped BR off actually

>>24508435
That guy ripped everybody off. Noticed how he also ripped off Dazai's beginning? Shameless

>>24508321
People always say English boarding schools like their navy was a hotbed of buggery. Are there any good books to read about that?

>>24509429
it's object evolution or whatever the insult version is- maybe the same word, evolution

>>24509440
Preferably illustrated

>>24507272 (OP)
What the fuck, I never bothered to read this for years because I assumed the author was a woman. What kind of parents name their son Evelyn???

>>24507272 (OP)
really bad book, even by not-waugh standards.
it's the only waugh book i don't like besides men at arms. it's extraordinary how snobbish and boring and soft-headed it is in a sort of neo-beverly nichols vein

>>24511423
pronounce eve-lyn. there's a joke in lost in translation that the dumb hollywood actress thinks evelyn waugh is a woman

>>24511423
His wife was also named Evelyn

delightful book

>>24511444
how do you pronounce waugh though? i like woe

>>24512329
Waaaaaaah

>>24512329
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BO6GP9NMY&t=177

>>24507272 (OP)
okay

>>24507272 (OP)
The best character from this book was Lord Marchmain

>>24512329
war
https://youtu.be/UvtjUt0GzKg?si=XBmH9dLuqLzVoivU&t=86

So is Decline and Fall the only other thing I should read from Waugh?