Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh

[Emil Miller]

Sword of Honour may appeal more to British readers as it's primarily concerned with the military activities of British officers during WWII and its ethos is resolutely English upper middle class. But for those who appreciate form rather than content it offers some fine writing.
Based on the author's own wartime experience it vividly describes the organised chaos of a country ill prepared for major conflict and, Waugh, as in A Handful of Dust, uses a blend of comedy and tragedy to underline how it impacted on the class system then in place. The novel records the vicissitudes of Guy Crouchback, the last in line to a very old English Catholic family and opens with him living a disconsolate and aimless existence in a castle in Italy during the 1930s after his wife leaves him for another man.
However, he sees the looming war as a chance to assuage his wounded pride by becoming an officer of an old English regiment of the line where he finds a sense of purpose in the camaraderie of his brother officers; including the fearsome one-eyed Colonel Ritchie-Hook, who looks upon war as a violent sport and cuts off the heads of enemy combattants.
After the fall of France, the regiment stages a couple of raids on enemy territory in France and Africa which end in farce before Guy is transferred to the newly-formed Commandos training on a Scottish island. These are sent to the Mediterranian island of Crete to cover the retreat of British and Commonwealth troops after the German airborne invasion.
Waugh's description of the evacuation of the troops by the Royal Navy is tellingly related in some fine prose writing, as is Guy's disillusionment as he witnesses cowardice and treachery among the men. These scenes are contrasted with how the war affects people on the home front who are experiencing severe shortages of food and subjected to nightly bombing attacks by the Luftwaffe.
Guy escapes from Crete in an open boat and almost dies during the crossing to North Africa where he is nursed back to health before being transferred to a desk job in London. Although deemed unfit for active service, he is sent to join the partisans in Jugoslavia through the machinations of an officer who disgraced himself in Crete and fears Guy's knowledge of the fact.
Throughout the novel, various characters such as Guy's father and his uncle Peregrine intermingle with Guy's ex-wife and his sister who is married to a member of parliament: all of whom are aware that their world is fast disappearing and that things will never be the same again.
A defining moment in the book comes just before Guy leaves Jugoslavia when Madame Kanyi, one of a group of refugees whom Guy has been trying to help says to him: "It seems there was a will to war, a death wish, everywhere. Even good men thought their private honour would be satisfied by war. They could assert their manhood by killing and being killed. They would accept hardships in recompense for having been selfish and lazy. Danger justified privilege. I knew Italians - not very many perhaps - who felt this. Were there none in England?"
" God forgive me, said Guy. " I was one of them."

[Modest Proposal]

I started to read the review--I very much respect your opinions that I have read thus-far--but must ask if there are "spoilers". Waugh is one of my favorite authors and I look forward to reading the Sword of Honour Trilogy but don't want to know something important to the plot.

On a side note, I just finished and loved "Scoop". That makes "The Loved One," "A Handful of Dust" and "Brideshead Revisited" the other 3 I have read in the last year.

[Emil Miller]

I started to read the review--I very much respect your opinions that I have read thus-far--but must ask if there are "spoilers". Waugh is one of my favorite authors and I look forward to reading the Sword of Honour Trilogy but don't want to know something important to the plot.

On a side note, I just finished and loved "Scoop". That makes "The Loved One," "A Handful of Dust" and "Brideshead Revisited" the other 3 I have read in the last year.

I have deliberately avoided spoilers in my review, so you can confidently read it without detriment to your eventual enjoyment of the book. I would add that you might avoid reading any preface to the book such as that in the Penguine Classics series which, unfortunately, contains spoilers. The best thing is to read it afterwards. Scoop is probably the funniest novel ever written. As an American, I wonder what you think of The Loved One, given that Waugh was particularly satirical about the American lifestyle.

[dfloyd]

I read The Sword of Honor trilogy last year, and enjoyed it as I have all the Waugh novels (Scoop, Black Mischief, A Handful of Dust, Bridehead Revisited, and there are a couple of others I can't think of). Sword of Honor was a good read, but I enjoyed it more after viewing the movie with James Bond ((AKA Daniel Craig) as Crouchback. The movie scenes with the portable latrine were hilarious. We must have similar tastes since we enjoy the same novels. I read recently where Waugh's son died. I read his beginning novel years ago, but then lost touch; but I assume he wrote others. I think it was called the Foxglove Saga by Auberon Waugh.

I was a member of the London-based Folio Society for a number of years, and I bought from them Scoop, Black Mischief, and Brideshead Revisited. While they publish world literature, they seem to publish several odd English novels each year like those by Josephine Tey and Nancy Mitford. English Eccentrics is one I have yet to read.

[Modest Proposal]

I have deliberately avoided spoilers in my review, so you can confidently read it without detriment to your eventual enjoyment of the book. I would add that you might avoid reading any preface to the book such as that in the Penguine Classics series which, unfortunately, contains spoilers. The best thing is to read it afterwards. Scoop is probably the funniest novel ever written. As an American, I wonder what you think of The Loved One, given that Waugh was particularly satirical about the American lifestyle.

Thanks for the go-ahead and the tip on prefaces. And I agree with you that Scoop is one of the best comedies of all time. But more amazing, to me, then even that is its being so incredibly insightful about the future of media.

As far as The Loved One goes, it IS satirical of America and it IS exactly right. Though I don't subscribe to the self-loathing of many Western intellectuals (I think it was Mencken that said all intelligent men are ashamed of their country) I believe myself to be a discerning member of the strange American populous. In my opinion Waugh nailed the American commodification of all things, Love and Death most of all. I'm not just American but lived for years a half hour from the area he wrote about and could not agree with his assessment more. The best thing about reading someone like Waugh or even De Tocqueville is that they bring such a different perspective to the US that they are able to write about us with, in some ways, more clarity then we can achieve.

[Emil Miller]

The best thing about reading someone like Waugh or even De Tocqueville is that they bring such a different perspective to the US that they are able to write about us with, in some ways, more clarity then we can achieve.


I agree that both Waugh and de Tocqueville are objective writers. I haven't read Democracy in America but some years ago I read L'ancien regime at la Revolution by de Tocqueville and it was one of the finest assessments of the French revolution I have read. It wasn't one-sided and expelled a number of myths about the causes of the revolution that have unfortunately become accepted as facts by many people since. It is interesting that Waugh is equally objective when writing about the failures of his own countrymen.