11.29.05
Brideshead Revisited: Third Post (Cordelia)
Part One of the book ends with Cordelia having dinner with Charles. Within their conversation, she basically completely explains both Sebastian and what is happening to the family. She is probably my favourite character, certainly the one I find most interesting. She can see and understand what is going on throughout the whole book, but because she is a child through much of it, no one realizes how much she sees. She alone, of the family, can see what and why it is happening to Sebastian. And yet, her own story is all but absent from the book. Everyone else’s story is told - Julia, Brideshead, even Rex - but we never know much about Cordelia’s life. In some ways she is the heart of the family, but she is completely invisible in many ways as well. I am certain she sees and appreciates every twitch of the strings that hook the family members (and Charles too) to the manor house, Brideshead. She is very interesting. I think the book would be lacking something vital without her.