In our own day we bemoan the loss of any sort of culture; Oscar Wilde, 100 years ago, complains about having too much of it.

We’re never going to be happy in our own time. Much like youth, we waste it when we have it and long for it when it’s impossible to get back.

Unlike Brideshead Revisited whose characters are just awful and dreadful, Wilde uses humor to make them worth knowing. And the book is very funny.