He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers it was all we were taught, really.” He went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he read History. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youth” (1917) a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. Like Sebastian, he is young and fairly wide-eyed, but Charles also carries a sense of disillusionment waiting to happen.Evelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher. Charles is capable of great maturity, but also of naïve wonder.

It sounds simple, but it is a difficult task for a man who no longer knows whether “my loves, my hates, down even to my deepest desires are my own, or stolen from those I once so desperately wished to be.” Personality… unassuming, mild-mannered, and thoughtful. He is driven – whether by fascination or envy – toward the Marchmain family, but in order to love truly, Charles must first learn how to truly be himself. Charles doesn’t know what he wants or why he wants it. Though heterosexual himself, Charles has a complex relationship with Sebastian, one which may be more than just platonic. Oxford is predominantly male, and a number of Charles’ group of friends are flamboyantly homosexual. After visiting their country home, Brideshead, Charles becomes particularly enamored with the family, their unusual Catholic ways, and of course, their fantastic wine cellar. Charles is interested not only in Sebastian, but also in Sebastian’s family, the Marchmains. Luckily, though, friendship with a young aristocrat can pay very well. When told by a fellow student that one either is or is not an artist, Charles replies: “then I am.” A mixture of this artistic temperament, his wide-eyed charm, and pure coincidence end up making Charles close with young Lord Sebastian Flyte, whose friendship ends up being nearly a full-time job. Profession… history major who would rather be an artist.

Charles, however, seems more interested in taking his new life into his own hands. Charles is living away from home for the first time, so his older cousin at Oxford often tries to prep him on what he needs to know about life in the city of dreaming spires. Living… at Oxford University, where he attends Hertford College. Still, if not an ideal upbringing, it spared Charles from inheriting some of his father’s odder mannerisms. An only child, Charles lost his mother at an early age and was raised mainly by his father, who was a decidedly hands-off parent.

Brideshead revisited charles ryder