Product Description

Waugh’s own unhappy experience of being a soldier is superbly re-enacted in this story of Guy Crouchback, a Catholic and a gentleman, commissioned into the Royal Corps of Halberdiers during the war years 1939–45. High comedy – in the company of Brigadier Ritchie-Hook or the denizens of Bellamy’s Club – is only part of the shambles of Crouchback’s war. When action comes in Crete and in Yugoslavia, he discovers not heroism, but humanity. Sword of Honour combines three volumes: Officers and Gentlemen, Men at Arms and Unconditional Surrender, which were originally published separately. Extensively revised by Waugh, they were published as the one-volume Sword of Honour in 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18632 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

About the Author
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was born in London and educated at Oxford. He quickly established a reputation with such social satirical novels as DECLINE AND FALL, VILE BODIES and SCOOP. Waugh became a Catholic in 1930, and his later books display a more serious attitude, as seen in the religious theme of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, a nostalgic evocation of student days at Oxford. His diaries were published in 1976, and his letters in 1980.

Customer Reviews

A great work by a master
A revealing, semi-autobiographical tale of EW's journey and ultimate spiritual fulfilment - 'Unconditional Surrender' - camouflaged under the guise of one Lt/Captain/Lt Guy Crouchback RC, Royal Corps of Halberdiers.

I found 'Officers & Gentlemen', the middle section of the three volumes quite by serendipity, long ago whilst on an extended holiday in Tobago, West Indies. Having previously read none of EW's work and with the requisite amount of time on my hands, I became utterly absorbed; and slightly irritated. It was a unique tale, and yet unsettling for some reason. I longed to read the first & last books in the series. Back in the UK and having sought out and read the rest of the trilogy, I began to understand something of the mastery of the language that this man possessed. His work demands much of the reader, and if the reader cares to respond, he or she will not be disappointed. I am no longer irritated or unsettled by his writing.

Funny, bitter, perceptive, witty, dry, deeply enjoyable but above all else: beautifully written.

Outstanding work of enduring relevance
Witty and tragic, engaging and insightful, this work must be counted next to 'Brideshead Revisited' as Waugh's most enduring novel. Sword of Honour effortlessly treads the line between the personal and the political - it is at once an indictment of the incompetence of the Allied war effort, and a moving study of one man's journey from isolation to self fulfilment. The chaos of war throws up winners and losers in a way which is at once unpredictable and disconcerting - for many readers this work will be an invaluable lesson in the horrors (and petty joys) which war brings.

Reflections on the passing of an age - and the absurdity of war
Perhaps Evelyn Waugh's finest work, this is his one-volume edition of the trilogy whose parts were previously published separately as `Men at Arms', `Officers and Gentlemen' and `Unconditional Surrender'. The three novels follow Guy Crouchback, scion of an ancient English Catholic family, exiled to Italy by the disgrace he feels at his own divorce. At the start of World War II, he returns to fight for his country against the `Modern Age' represented by the looming threat of Nazism.

Despite the subject-matter, it's actually a very funny, if at times rather too genteel, satire on the futility of war, which seems to amount to one per cent heroics (and some of that a very dubious snatching of honour from the jaws of farce) and ninety-nine per cent boredom, time-wasting, foul-ups and general folly. Throughout, Crouchback's attitude remains fairly enigmatic, though he is clearly meant to be a cipher for Waugh's own feelings lamenting the passing of old-fashioned chivalrous and courteous ways. That the work's main figure should remain so under-developed is perhaps a reflection of Waugh's professed lack of interest in character, which he sidelines in favour of `an exercise in the use of language - drama, speech and events'.

It's impossible not to warm to Crouchback, though, as he attempts to do the best for his men and country, whether on farcical training exercises in Scotland, the chaos of retreat during the fall of Crete, or among the partisans and beleaguered Jews of Yugoslavia. Never quite `up' with what goes on, frequently outflanked by modernity, he nonetheless emerges from the tragedy of personal loss - of family, of values - if not unscathed, then at least not bowed and broken. As Waugh's own mature reflection on the passing of an age, this is a work to be savoured.