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  • Brideshead Revisited

  • By: Evelyn Waugh
  • Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
  • Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (3,298 ratings)

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Brideshead Revisited

By: Evelyn Waugh
Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
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Publisher's summary

Selected by Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of the century and called "Evelyn Waugh's finest achievement" by the New York Times, Brideshead Revisited is a stunning exploration of desire, duty, and memory. Read by Jeremy Irons, star of the acclaimed 1981 television series based on the novel.

The wellsprings of desire and the impediments to love come brilliantly into focus in Evelyn Waugh's masterpiece - a novel that immerses us in the glittering and seductive world of English aristocracy in the waning days of the empire. Through the story of Charles Ryder's entanglement with the Flytes, a great Catholic family, Evelyn Waugh charts the passing of the privileged world he knew in his own youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities.

At once romantic, sensuous, comic, and somber, Brideshead Revisited transcends Waugh's early satiric explorations and reveals him to be an elegiac, lyrical novelist of the utmost feeling and lucidity.

"A genuine literary masterpiece." (Time)

"Heartbreakingly beautiful...The 20th century's finest English novel." (Los Angeles Times)

©1973 Laura Waugh (P)2012 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Evelyn Waugh's finest achievement." (John K. Hutchens, New York Times)

"A many-faceted book....beautifully told by one of the most exhilarating stylists of our time." (Newsweek)

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What listeners say about Brideshead Revisited

Average customer ratings
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Beautiful reading of an amazing story!

Jeremy Irons is one of the very few persons who could do justice to this masterpiece. A story about love, family, addiction, the soul, and beauty in the midst of ugliness. A sad tale, but hopeful. I finished it and immediately hit play to start it again.

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Wonderful!

Jeremy Irons beautifully recreates this wonderful story. I was never taken out of the narrative and thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

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Wonderful!

Jeremy Irons is the best narrator I've ever heard and cannot imagine anyone else doing such a superb job,. He truly made the story come alive and I wish the story had never ended.

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phenomenal performance of a phenomenal book

So wonderful to hear Jeremy Irons himself read this literary masterpiece.
A true listening pleasure

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Interesting themes

Beautiful story. Brilliant performance. Took a while to get into it; once I did I could not stop listening.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Like Complex Music: Use a Top-quality Audio System

PLOT— The plot is very, very gradually, revealed to be something like: “What will happen to each of these many characters?” However, that isn’t it. It becomes something like: “What were they like? What were the lives, values, and personalities of these self-important, but fading people, these who were the Peerage of England in the time when their importance and usefullness were dissipating?” And that ... is an intriguing, complex story of a dying, upperclass subculture. Stay with this book and let it seep into you. It is not a tale. It is an experience.

Jeremy Irons is not just an outstanding reader. He is a stellar performer of the characters and dramas in the book. However, his voice range is wide, as a perfomance should be. It can be loud. It can become a whisper. He is perfect IF you use high quality earbuds. However, in a car, even with a great audio system, you will have to continually adjust the volume as your speed, traffic noise, and other factors drown out his whispers. No single volume setting works, not even in a very quiet car.

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One of my favorite audiobooks ever!

Jeremy Irons creates all the personalities with his amazing voice. The story and the beauty of the writing move me too. It is a surprisingly contemporary view of the beginnings of addiction, as well as an exploration of the search for spirit I have not enjoyed an audiobook this much since The Gentleman in Moscow. It is a gentle book, also rather amusing because of the characters Waugh and Irons create together.

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A pleasant surprise

This was my first experience of listening to an Evelyn Waugh novel. The narration and Waugh’s style of writing were a great pleasure to listen to.

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I can't believe I waited this long ...

.. to experience this jewel. It's one of those that you never want to end. And Jeremy Irons! It's the perfect pairing, and I treasured every minute

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Exquisitely written, exquisitely read

I read lots of history and biography and only occasionally dabble in fiction. Wow, this book might make a convert out of me. The language is sublime.

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