I hope that the following chart will be useful for tracing the order of events in Brideshead Revisited or for judging what is happening at the same time. I give two columns, one basically for Charles and Sebastian, and the other for Julia and Rex. Of course their lives do intertwine considerably, but I believe that the division is helpful.
One has also to remember that Evelyn Waugh was not always meticulous about his dates or the ages of his characters, so that some of the points enumerated here could be questioned. For example, Julia’s birth date is not precisely enough indicated for me to be sure that she was born in 1905.
| Year | Time of Year | Charles and Sebastian | Julia and Rex |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1865/6 | Lord Marchmain born | ||
| 1900 | Bridey born | ||
| 1903 | Sebastian born | ||
| October | Charles born | ||
| 1905 | Julia born | ||
| 1911 | Cordelia born | ||
| 1914 | Lord Marchmain joins the Yeomanry and goes to fight in France | ||
| 1915 | Charles’s mother dies in Bosnia; Aunt Philippa comes to help in the house | ||
| 1916 | Aunt Philippa opens up her own house in Surrey | ||
| 1918 | Lord Marchmain forms an attachment with Cara and refuses to come back to his family home | ||
| 1921 | Aunt Philippa moves abroad | ||
| 1922 | October | Charles & Sebastian go up to Oxford; Jasper’s visit and advice | |
| 1923 | March | Sebastian sick through Charles’s window; they meet | |
| Easter | Charles & Collins holiday in Ravenna | ||
| June | Eights Week; Charles visits Brideshead for the first time; Jasper’s Grand Remonstrance | Julia is enjoying success as a debutante | |
| the next day | Anthony Blanche takes Charles to a restaurant in Thame | ||
| soon after | Charles starts the long vac at home | ||
| August | Telegram from Sebastian; Charles goes to Brideshead | Julia meets Charles at station; Julia goes to Cap Ferrat & meets Rex | |
| September | Charles & Sebastian go to Venice for 2 weeks; Charles meets Lord Marchmain & Cara | ||
| October | Charles & Sebastian return to London | ||
| the next day | Charles & Sebastian go back to Oxford (2nd year) | ||
| soon after | Charles joins Ruskin School of Art | ||
| a little later | Charles meets Lady Marchmain on her visit to Oxford to see Samgrass | ||
| November | Julia brings Rex to Oxford to visit Sebastian | ||
| a week later | Charles, Sebastian & Boy go to Julia’s ball & to the Old 100th & get arrested; Rex gets the boys out of jail | Julia’s charity ball | |
| the next day | Charles & Boy are fined 5/- | ||
| a week later | Sebastian is fined £10 in the magistrate’s court; there is press coverage | ||
| a little later | Charles, Sebastian & Boy are gated for the rest of term & watched by Samgrass | ||
| Christmas | Charles goes to his uncle’s | ||
| a little later | Charles goes to Brideshead | ||
| New Year | Julia, Rex & party leave to go elsewhere | ||
| 1924 | January 10 ? | Charles & Sebastian go to stay at Charles’s house | |
| January 20 ? | Charles & Sebastian return to Oxford for a new term | ||
| Hilary Term | Sebastian’s drinking & behaviour get worse | ||
| Easter Week | By this time Rex is indispensable to Julia | By this time Rex is indispensable to Julia | |
| a week later | Sebastian’s drunkenness is apparent to all | ||
| the next day | Sebastian flees to Charles’s house without Charles; Lady Marchmain gives Ned’s book to Charles | ||
| May | Charles & Sebastian return to Oxford; they find it is not the same | Julia sees Rex coming out of Brenda Champion’s house & is jealous; Rex & Julia make love & get engaged | |
| June | Charles & Sebastian look for lodgings for the next term | ||
| mid-June ? | Lady Marchmain visits Oxford; Sebastian gets very drunk again | ||
| two days later | Lady Marchmain takes Sebastian away | ||
| end of term (late June) | Charles goes home & tells his father that he wants to study art | ||
| early July ? | Lady Marchmain’s letter to Charles; Sebastian goes to stay with his father | Rex sees Brenda Champion again; Julia takes against her religion | |
| September | Charles goes to Paris to study art | ||
| September ? | Sebastian & Samgrass start on Tour of the Levant | ||
| October ? | Sebastian escapes from Samgrass in Constantinople | ||
| early December | Sebastian meets up with Samgrass in Syria | ||
| Christmas | Charles goes to his uncle’s; Sebastian goes missing in London | Julia refuses to make her Christmas Communion | |
| December 27 | Charles, Sebastian & Samgrass arrive at Brideshead; Samgrass shows photos of their Tour | ||
| December 28 | The hunt; Charles gives Sebastian money; Sebastian cuts the hunt to go drinking | Rex arrives at Brideshead with ‘obscene’ tortoise for Julia | |
| December 29 | Sebastian tells Charles that he is no help; Charles sees Lady Marchmain and leaves, he thinks for ever | ||
| 1925 | January | Cordelia secretly gets drink for Sebastian; Julia reveals Samgrass’s deceit | |
| mid-January | Charles receives a letter from Cordelia | ||
| late January | Lady Marchmain asks Rex to take Sebastian to Zurich; Sebastian escapes from Rex; Rex visits Charles & tells him the latest news in Paillard’s; Sebastian goes to stay with Anthony Blanche in Marseilles | Rex visits Lord Marchmain at Monte Carlo and gets permission to marry Julia | |
| March ? | Rex’s instruction starts; Fr Mowbray finds Rex the most difficult convert he has met | ||
| April (a week later) | Fr Mowbray puzzled by Rex’s odd ideas; Cordelia admits deliberately teasing him | ||
| May | Engagement of Julia & Rex announced | ||
| late May | Bridey’s ‘bombshell’ | ||
| early June | Lord Marchmain gives permission for a Protestant marriage | ||
| mid-June | Julia & Rex are married at the Savoy Chapel | ||
| September ? | Julia finds out that Rex is still seeing Brenda Champion | ||
| late 1925 ? | Sebastian and Anthony Blanche move to Tangier; Sebastian meets Kurt | ||
| 1926 | before May | Anthony Blanche goes back to England; Sebastian & Kurt move to Fez | |
| May | Charles returns to London for the General Strike (May 4–12); Party for the Black Birds; Charles meets Anthony Blanche & hears about Sebastian | ||
| May 13 | Julia asks Charles to find Sebastian & bring him back to his dying mother | ||
| a few days later | Charles arrives in Fez & talks to Consul; Charles meets Kurt | ||
| the next day | Charles finds Sebastian in hospital, too ill to travel | ||
| for a week | Charles visits Sebastian every day | ||
| May 24 ? | Charles hears that Lady Marchmain is dead | ||
| late May | Charles arranges financial security for Sebastian | ||
| soon after | Charles takes P&O ship from Tangier; Lady Marchmain is buried at Brideshead; the chapel is closed up | ||
| early June | Charles arrives in London & informs Bridey of the situation; Bridey commissions Charles to paint Marchmain House | ||
| June | Charles paints four pictures of the House | ||
| early July ? | Charles dines with Cordelia at the Ritz | ||
| summer | Julia learns that she needs an operation to have a baby | ||
| late 1920s | Sebastian & Kurt move to Athens | ||
| 1930 | Charles marries Celia; Julia is at the wedding; Charles’s first exhibition | ||
| 1931 ? | Johnjohn born | ||
| 1934 | Celia has an affair; Charles travels to Mexico & central America to paint there for two years | ||
| 1934 ? | Kurt is rounded up and brought back to Germany | ||
| 1935 | Caroline born | Julia has stillborn daughter | |
| 1935 ? | Sebastian finds Kurt in an SA uniform; Kurt absconds, is caught & put in a concentration camp; Kurt hangs himself after a week | ||
| 1936 | Cordelia goes to Spain; Sebastian has disappeared | Julia has an affair & goes to New York | |
| Summer | Charles meets Celia in New York & they return home on a liner; storm; Charles meets Julia; they make love | Rex makes Brideshead ‘a nest of party mutiny’ | |
| a month later | Private view of Charles’s pictures; Celia finds out about Charles & Julia; Charles meets Anthony Blanche again; Charles joins Julia at Brideshead | ||
| during the year | Sebastian finds out about Kurt’s death & returns to north Africa | ||
| 1937 | Christmas | Bridey gives Charles a photo of himself dressed as a Knight of Malta | |
| 1938 | January | Bridey invites Charles to a dining club | |
| Summer | Bridey announces his engagement to Beryl; Julia has an hysterical fit | ||
| a little later | Charles agrees to the proposed divorce arrangements | ||
| September | Rex makes a rabid speech in Parliament about the Munich agreement | ||
| November | Cordelia arrives from Spain with news of Sebastian; he is a hanger-on at a monastery near Carthage | ||
| December | Bridey marries Beryl; Lord Marchmain meets them in Rome; Charles’s divorce case is heard in the court | ||
| 1939 | January | Lord Marchmain arrives home | |
| end of February | Lord Marchmain makes the decision to take a drive in the grounds, but loses interest | ||
| Easter | Lord Marchmain has no good spells now; Bridey thinks he should see a priest, but Lord Marchmain declines pointedly to receive him | ||
| June | Charles’s divorce is made absolute; Celia marries Robin; Charles is put on the reserve list at the War Office | ||
| mid-July | Julia sends for Fr Mackay, who absolves Lord Marchmain; Lord Marchmain dies; Charles & Julia separate | ||
| September | Julia’s divorce is made absolute; Charles joins the Army | ||
| early 1940s | Charles becomes a Catholic | ||
| 1943 or 1944 | February/March | Charles is weary of the Army; Charles finds himself at Brideshead again; the chapel is open again | Rex is Minister for Whatever-it-is; Julia & Cordelia are nursing in Palestine; Bridey is also there with the Yeomanry |