Brideshead Revisited - fail
Saw a glowing review of the book by Steve Sailer (who I respect a lot) so gave it a try. Unfortunately was an epic fail - I completely failed to get it, so dropped after a few chapters. The first part where protagonist talks about his being in the army I understood - but when action moves 20 years earlier to his time at Oxford (in the 1920s), it was completely lost on me.
I experienced what a foreigner who learned Russian and read 12 Стульев must feel like - you understand all the words but they together make very little sense. Just no common basis for references or allusions about upper English class in early 20th century (which what the book seems to be really all about). Wondering if it works better in translation (like Shakespeare).
Anyways - after I read the wiki article about it, I lost all interest completely (as the main theme of the book of Catholicism).
I experienced what a foreigner who learned Russian and read 12 Стульев must feel like - you understand all the words but they together make very little sense. Just no common basis for references or allusions about upper English class in early 20th century (which what the book seems to be really all about). Wondering if it works better in translation (like Shakespeare).
Anyways - after I read the wiki article about it, I lost all interest completely (as the main theme of the book of Catholicism).