Brideshead Revisited Memory and The Past Quotes

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

Quote #7

My theme is memory that winged host that soared above me one grey morning of war-time.

These memories, which are my life – for we possess nothing certainly except the past –, were always with me. (2.1.1-2)

Charles may be a middle-aged captain of infantry now, but he is defined by the events in his past. This may go some way in explaining his new-found optimism at the close of the novel.

Quote #8

It needed this voice from the past to recall me; the indiscriminate chatter of praise all that crowded day had worked on me like a succession of advertisement hoardings on a long road, kilometre after kilometre between the poplars, commanding one to stay at some new hotel, so that when at the end of the drive, stiff and dusty, one arrives at the destination, it seems inevitable to turn into the yard under the name that had first bored, then angered one, and finally become an inseparable part of one's fatigue. (2.2.50)

Charles isolates the past as a completely separate part of his life. The titular "revisit" refers not just to Brideshead, but also to his past, which he explores through his narration.