Sword of Honor, Evelyn Waugh
Sword of Honor, Evelyn Waugh
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Sword of Honor

Author: Evelyn Waugh

Narrator: Simon Prebble

Unabridged: 24 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/11/2012

Synopsis

This trilogy spanning World War II, based in part on Evelyn Waugh's own experiences as an army officer, is the author's surpassing achievement as a novelist. Its central character is Guy Crouchback, head of an ancient but decayed Catholic family, who at first discovers new purpose in the challenge to defend Christian values against Nazi barbarism, but then gradually finds the complexities and cruelties of war overwhelming. Though often somber, Sword of Honor is also a brilliant comedy, peopled by the fantastic figures so familiar from Waugh's early satires. The deepest pleasures these novels afford come from observing a great satiric writer employ his gifts with extraordinary subtlety, delicacy, and human feeling, for purposes that are ultimately anything but satiric.

Sword of Honor comprises the three acclaimed novels Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen, and Unconditional Surrender.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nigeyb on April 13, 2020

Evelyn Waugh did not have "a good war" as a soldier however he was able to transmute his uncomfortable personal experience into something wonderful. Through Guy Crouchback, the detached observer and would-be knight, who mistakenly believes his private honour will be satisfied by war, Evelyn Waugh pe......more

Goodreads review by M. D. on July 08, 2019

There is something fundamentally wrong with these books (referred to here as SOH so I don’t have to keep misspelling “honour” over and over), and I am not sure I can say exactly what that is, but I felt somewhat soiled after reading them. But this book (I will also refer to it in the singular, despi......more

Goodreads review by Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog on December 05, 2017

The dystopian and satirical world of and unprepared England World War II If this were just a review of the ineffective, jaundiced, sarcastic snobbish, effete England portrayed by Evelyn Waugh throughout the Sword of Honor Trilogy, this would be a 4 star review. It is depressing when it is not negativ......more

Goodreads review by Roger on June 14, 2016

Waugh's Final Words Essentially, this is Waugh's swansong: three novels about the adventures of his quasi-autobiographical hero, Guy Crouchback, in the Second World War, gathered together by him and edited into a single volume at the end of his life. This is a compendium of my separate Amazon reviews......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on January 18, 2021

My first impression of this trilogy was that it reminded me of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. There is the same hapless protagonist, buffeted by the same institutionalized incompetence of Army life. But whereas Heller’s antagonists were painted with broad strokes, cartoonish in their imbecility, Evelyn W......more

Quotes

"Sword of Honour was the climax of Waugh's career as a novelist . . . Here in his final work there run together the two styles, of mischief and gravity, that can be noted in his writing from the beginning . . . He may justifiably have thought of it as crowning his work."—Frank Kermode

"[Men at Arms is] a highly entertaining novel....Waugh's sharp wit and sure touch of satire are always at work."—Edward Weeks, Atlantic Monthly

"[Officers and Gentlemen is] deft and amusing, sober and appalling. And it offers, incidentally, one of the most graceful salutes of many seasons to the flexibility of the English language."—New York Times

"Sword of Honor now clearly emerges as Mr. Waugh's main achievement to date, and the one piece of English fiction about World War II which is certain to survive."—Times Literary Supplement

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