China and the West

O'Brien, Ellen. Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead revisited and the country house tradition [ID D31644].
Quite often, Evelyn Waugh's descriptions of the house depend on perspectives of his characters or contemporary attitudes toward country estates. For example, Waugh describes the Chinese bed room, the setting for one of the most mysterious and pivotal scenes in the novel, and starkly contrasts deathbed reverence with wartime inventory. The reverent description at the time of Lord Marchmain's passing is a testament to the English country house. Waugh includes details about decorations and conveys a sense of lavish grandeur. He neatly sums up a peculiar English style, a mad incongruity, a "mixed and mongrel style" of Chippendale furniture with Chinese hanging.