Brideshead Revisited Art and Culture Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #13

The most influential critic, who in the past had dismissed me with a few wounding commendations, peered out at me from between his slouch hat and woolen muffler, gripped my arm, and said: "I knew you had it. I saw it there. I've been waiting for it." […] "Ryder's is the last name would have occurred to me. They're so virile, so passionate."

[…]

I remembered the exhibition, too, for another reason; it was the week I detected my wife in adultery. (2.2.26-9)

It’s interesting that Charles achieves this artistic breakthrough around the same time he begins his affair with Julia. The aesthetic and the passionate are once again brought together. Of course, both Charles’s supposed achievement and his love with Julia end up "thwarted" in the end.

Quote #14

"I went to your first exhibition," said Anthony; "I found it – charming. There was an interior of Marchmain House, very English, very correct, but quite delicious. 'Charles has done something,' I said; 'not all he will do, not all he can do, but something.'

"Even then, my dear, I wondered a little. It seemed to me that there was something a little gentlemanly about your painting. You must remember I am not English; I cannot understand this keen zest to be well-bred. English snobbery is more macabre to me even than English morals. However, I said, 'Charles has done something delicious. What will he do next?'" (2.2.60-1)

Art and aristocracy don’t mix – this is what Anthony is getting at when he said earlier that charm would strangle Charles’s artistry.