A Companion to Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited

Revised Note to the Second Edition

More Penguin editions of Brideshead Revisited have appeared in my bookshop since the first edition of my Companion, but so far they have used the same page numbering as the edition I used. I have therefore not had to make any adjustment; nor anyway am I certain that I would do so if an entirely new print edition did appear on the shelves.

In the first edition of this Companion I included a Corrections page where I listed the changes I made to the information in the website. For this second edition I decided to eliminate this Corrections page and simply change an entry as the need arose.

In a project such as this is there will always be such considerations to take into account as second thoughts, the need for further clarification, the improvement of syntax, and the elimination of ignorant howlers. The internet is a flexible and ever-changing medium, so I decided that I would merely go ahead and adjust entries as occasion demanded.

In the two years that this Companion has been available on the internet I have received a number of emails which pointed out mistakes or obscurities, and I have accordingly amended my entries. I am grateful to these correspondents for their courtesy in contacting me, and indeed to everyone who has bothered to write and simply thank me, encourage me or give their own views.

Among that correspondence I have received a number of e-mails where I have been asked to help on topics which are of specialised interest to the writer. I have tried to do so to the limited extent of my powers. I very much welcome such correspondence, and not only for the selfish reason that I may have my own interest piqued; it is simply delightful to exchange views and information with aficionados of Evelyn Waugh and his world whether they are themselves expert or novices.

Please get in touch and don’t feel shy about it!

David Cliffe
12th June 2002