Waugh's great English novel explores themes of love, loss, religion, and reinvention against the backdrop of a changing world. Set in the inter-war years, it tells the story of Charles Ryder, a young man infatuated with the aristocratic Marchmain family. When Charles encounters Lord Sebastian Flyte at Oxford he is dazzled by his glamorous country estate, known as Brideshead. But Charles also discovers complex family relationships and a fragile state of privilege corroded by Sebastian's alcoholism and the dark inevitability of war. Nostalgic, knowing, comedic, and tragic - there has never been a better depiction of the twentieth century's fading golden age.