Episode 5.4: ‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh
It’s time for our dark academia adjacent title for season 5! We’re heading back to the world of modern classics to discuss a title that is often cited as a pre-cursor to the campus novel, itself laying the groundwork for dark academia.
We’re reading Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited’.
There’s always something special about finally reading a classic that’s been on your TBR for literal years, and even more so when you also get to examine it! It gives us literature gals a thrill.
Brideshead Revisited is Evelyn Waugh's stunning novel of duty and desire set amongst the decadent, faded glory of the English aristocracy in the run-up to the Second World War.
The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian Flyte at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognise his spiritual and social distance from them.
I always find the blurbs for classics a little…lacklustre, but I have a good feeling about this one! Will it demonstrate itself as informing dark academia, though?
In this episode we discuss:
The treatment and representation of women in the novel and society
Religion, Catholicism and spirituality in Charles
How being a classic or a modern classic doesn’t excuse racism and misogyny
You can listen to it here:
TEXTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘Brideshead Revisited’ by Evelyn Waugh
‘Iron Widow’ by Xiran Jay Zhao
OTHER MEDIA AND POP CULTURE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Jiminy Cricket from ‘Pinnochio’
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