Brideshead Revisited

As a student at Oxford, Charles Ryder is captivated by the decadent, aristocratic Sebastian Flyte, who invites him to spend time at his family home -- the magnificent Brideshead. He becomes infatuated with its eccentric inhabitants, especially Sebastian's sister, Julia, but things begin to unravel when Charles notices cracks in the family's carefully tended veneer: its secrets, its oppressive Catholicism, Sebastian's increasing reliance on alcohol. This remarkable examination of dysfunction and devotion remains one of the great novels of the 20th century.