And so begins the season of Brideshead

Recognize this guy? The Crucifix in his right hand, the lily in his left hand, black robe and white rochet plus his youth are your big hints. No? Well it isn't the greatest photograph.

This very young Jesuit, he died in his early twenties, is Saint Aloysius Gonzaga. He is the patron saint of youth and, as all Brideshead Revisted fans will appreciate, the reason why the teddy bear is named Aloysius.

I find it hard to figure out why Aloysius was held in such reverence by his contemporaries. He was of noble birth and there were tensions with his family. His letters are a disappointment and they must have been even to their first readers. He died early as a result of caring for people during a plague and while that is tragic it is hardly unique. He seems to have had tremendous charm or maybe even charisma and that more than anything he actually did seems to be the source of his cult.

And, oh yeah, one of his attributes is a skull to symbolize his early death. Waugh knew all these things.

For any and all who've already read Brideshead this will all be ringing bells. For any who have not, grab a copy and join in.

This Advent is going to be all Brideshead all the time. I will blog it every day. My normal theme days will hold as usual but any Mad Men (this afternoon), Catholic culture, moral virtue, manliness or womanliness posts will be tied to the book somehow, even if only tenuously.

I learned the hard way with Rob Roy that blogging a book only once or twice a week doesn't work. The pace isn't fast enough and I lose interest before I get to the end, so daily blogging it will be.

A couple of technical points. I'll be using the revised edition (I've just learned that most American readers have never seen the revised version so I'll explain this further in an upcoming post). It's much better than the first version. In any case, the first version is very hard to find (outside the USA, that is, inside the older version appears to the only one available). I may refer to the first version occasionally but I'll be using the Everyman edition of the revised version.

I'll start tomorrow with the Preface.

I have a few readers whom I know have read this book many times and know it very well. Do feel free to rebuke, chastise and correct as you will should you feel I've missed anything.


The next post in the series is here.

There is also a related post here.