The story begins in Oxford, just after World War I, when Ryder becomes the close friend of Lord Sebastian, a fellow undergraduate. Through him he is exalted from his rather commonplace middle-class background to the comradeship of aristocrats, wealthy aesthetes, the elegant and spend-thrift. He is taken by Sebastian to visit the family mansion of Brideshead and he falls into love with the place and into fascination with the family. It is, strangely, for a country whose ruling class is almost entirely Protestant, a Catholic family. Its members vary in their degrees of devoutness. Lady Marchmain, beautiful and pious, yet seems to be touched with evil. She has lost her husband to an Italian woman, with whom he lives in Venice in godless concubinage. Sebastian hates his mother but he is guilty about his hate, and he turns, under Ryder's eyes, into an alcoholic. Lady Julia marries a Canadian adventurer called Rex Mottram, a member of Parliament who loves to hobnob with the great. She, like her father, loses her faith. Only Lord Brideshead—"Bridey"—reflects his mothers piety, though in a dogmatic and humorless manner, while the youngest, Lady Cordelia, lives a life of drab good works.
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