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Sebastian
Lord Sebastian Flyte is an aristocrat, the second son of a broken Catholic home. Clinging to his childhood, he brings his teddy bear, Aloysius, to Oxford with him, and is extremely attached to his former Nanny. Sebastian begins by attaching himself to what Charles Ryder's pompous cousin Jasper dubs 'a bad set', a group of miscreants led by the notorious Anthony Blanche, an effeminate 'aesthete' who is 'part Gallic, part, perhaps Jew, wholly exotic'.
Through Charles' eyes we see Sebastian as 'the most conspicuous man in his year....because of...his beauty, which was arresting'. He is a fair-haired, charming and well-meaning eccentric, who will gladly fill a friend's room with flowers to convey something as simple as his apologies.
His family home is Brideshead Castle, where he lives with his mother, his sisters Julia and Cordelia, his brother Brideshead and their former Nanny. His father lives in Venice with his mistress.
Sebastian undeniably drinks too much and towards the middle of the book he begins to descend into a spiral of drink and depression from which not even Charles can rescue him.
Piece of random trivia that amuses me: Sebastian Flyte is thought by many to have been based partly upon Stephen Tennant, one of the brightest young things of the 1920s.
Stephen Tennant was Siegfried Sassoon's boyfriend. Sassoon/Owen is my prevailing obsession. Odd how everything links back, isn't it?