Saturday, July 26, 2008

Brideshead Revisited

I just finished reading Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. I've always wanted to read it, primarily because my mom has mentioned several times how much my father liked it. I don't know when or why, but somewhere along the line I must have swiped my father's copy from our house in Buffalo. Since then it's sat on our "Orange" shelf in the dining room, just waiting to be read. At one point I picked it up and read the opening pages which failed to capivate me.

Well, I finished the 4th book of my Caesar addiction and surprise, surprise the 5th installment seems like the Holy Grail of literature, out of stock every where and completely unfindable. While I wait for it to arrive on my lovely amazon wishlist, I figured now was as good a time as ever to read Brideshead Revisited. Particularly timely since the movie is opening soon.

I've now discovered the pleasure of reading someone else's book -- one that smells of old age and as with all of my father's books comes littered with surprises. Pressed within this book were two items which made me laugh. The first was a newspaper cutout from a January 1982 edition of the Buffalo News, reviewing the PBS miniseries starring Laurence Olivier and Jeremy Irons. The second was a receipt dating from March 1982, showing a purchase price of $2.69. Clearly my dad read the article and was moved to start reading. As was I. This past weekend, the New York Times ran an article on the new movie. Yes, it's now joined my father's article pressed between the somewhat fragilely bound pages.

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