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Read The Sword Of Honour Trilogy (1994)

The Sword of Honour Trilogy (1994)

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Rating
4.24 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0679431365 (ISBN13: 9780679431367)
Language
English
Publisher
everyman's library

The Sword Of Honour Trilogy (1994) - Plot & Excerpts

Guy Crouchback, lonely, divorced, and living in Italy, returns to the UK at the beginning of the Second World War, and tries to do his patriotic duty by joining the army. Because of his age, however, no one will have him. Eventually, though an acquaintance of his father's, he joins the regiment of Halberdiers, and undergoes boring officer training. The war progresses, but nobody seems to want the Halberdiers either. After training, they have a new commanding officer, who wants them assigned to Hazardous Offensive Operations, for which more training is required. Whenever he seems about to go into active service, Guy Crouchback is sidelined, by accident, injury or illness, or the need for further training for some new task. This book was originally a trilogy of three novels, and was rewritten into one in the 1960s. While reading it, I wondered how Britain ever managed to win the war, as everything seemed to be stifled by red tape. At one level the novel is satirical, making fun of the military bureaucracy. But there is also something authentic behind the satire; this is indeed how many soldiers probably spent the war, with action brief and inconclusive, and much of the time just hanging around waiting for someone, somewhere, to give an order. So the book is also something of a historical record. Many soldiers left diaries and memoirs, but what they told and what they chose to leave untold varied a great deal. Many may have recorded battles and action, but the logistics of preparing for the action gets omitted. Waugh seems to tell more of the story than most. This is what it was actually like, not in surreal fantasies like Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow or in the story of planning and carrying out of military operations, but in the experience of one soldier, and a few of the people he encountered, buth military and civilian. I'm not an expert on military history, but some parts that touch on things that I have read about in history books, such as conditions in war-time Yugoslavia, seemed pretty authentic to me. Guy Crouchback is a Roman Catholic, and so we are given a glimpse of the lost world of pre-Vatican II Roman Catholicism, to which Evelyn Waugh was a well-known literary convert.It reminded me in some ways of Waugh's contemporary, Graham Greene, also a converet to the Roman Catholic Church, whose The power and the glory reflects on the challenge of being a saint. Guy Crouchback is nothing like the whisky priest in The power and the glory, in either his upbringing, his circumstances or his character. But he faces similar problems of conscience and ethical dilemmas, in which attempts to help others sometimes turn out well, and sometimes disastrously for all concerned. As it is a concatenated trilogy, it's a long read, and when I finally reached the end, the overwhelming impression was of the futility of war.

Incredible as it may seem, this is the first Evelyn Waugh book I've read. I really liked it. I see why he's so well regarded. The writing was interesting, with so much satirical humor. An example of that humor is the episode of Fremantle and de Souza searching for Guy. "I suppose it would be no good putting that man on a charge for insolence?" "It isn't an offense in the Air Force." "Surely you're wrong there?" "Not wrong; merely facetious." I had to laugh out loud at that.His descriptions of the "tortoise" of war reminded me of my parents' accounts of their "hurry up and wait" time in the US Army during WWII.I loved the part where he described Fido Hound with such canine language. I thought Guy Crouchback was aptly named too. "Guy" sounds like an everyman sort of name and Crouchback conveys the sense of his never quite belonging. He wasn't really a "here's how" kind of guy. All of the characters were such flawed humans--bumblers or ineffectual idealists or shady or opportunistic. In the end, where Mme Kanyi complains about those who "thought their private honour would be satisfied by war," Guy admits that he was one of them. To me, it seems that at last he has laid aside some of his Knight Roger fantasies and become a man.Am definitely looking forward to reading more of Waugh's books.

What do You think about The Sword Of Honour Trilogy (1994)?

I don't often laugh out loud when reading but Waugh's masterful wit and chummy irony got to me on more than one occasion. Characters like Apthorpe and Brigadier Ben Ritchie-Hook are what really set this novel apart in my mind. Wherever their names appear you know something is about to go down. Even though the novels are drenched in wit and irony, this is by no means a comedy but a rather complex drama set across a vast social, psychological, and spiritual tapestry. I didn't really know what to make of it until the last dozen pages where, by using eight simple words, the whole thing came together in one enormous flood. This was quite possibly one of the most unique and enjoyable experiences I've had with a book.
—Charles Samuels

It's difficult not to get annoyed with a protagonist whose problems mostly stem from being a Catholic, and an aristocrat at that. Such problems seem self-inflicted, avoidable... but then I got to thinking that perhaps they aren't. How could the hero give up any of the beliefs that have been inculcated in him from birth, even if he wanted to (which he doesn't). So the Catholic misery is a fixture of the plot. As to the rest, the dialogue often reads like a sitcom, often farcical. There is a recurring theme of futility. The hero's actions are often completely misinterpreted and no, it isn't all sorted out. His whole life is shaped by other people's misinterpretations, sometimes without him even being aware that anyone is watching. There are miscommunications on all levels. Lots of people die. And yet somehow the ending is appropriate and satisfying. A very human book, historically fascinating and quintessentially English (even if we're not much like that any more.)
—Karen

Ca vaut la peine de lire cette trilogie (qui comprend Hommes en Armes, Officiers et Gentlemen et La capitulation) juste pour ses commentaires hautement controverse sur deux evenements marquant de la deuxieme Grande Guerre mondiale auxquels Evelyn a participe en tant qu'officier de l'armee de la grande Bretagne; a savoir la defaite des foreces britannique lors de la bataille de Crete et la lutte des partisans communistes en Croatie sous le leadership de Tito.Evelyn Waugh accuse les officiers de l'armee britannique d'avoir lachement abandonner les simples soldats sur l'ile de Crete au lieu de rester avec eux et partager leur sort de prisonniers de geurre malgre le fait que les hautes echelons avaient donner des ordres clairs aux officiers de ne pas partir sans leurs troupes. Evidemment cet accusation fort deplaisant a deplu a biens des gens. De nos jours, cependant, la majorite des historiens croient que Waugh avait tres bien decrit le debacle de Crete.Evelyn Waugh accuse aussi les services d'intelligence Britanniques d'avoir grandement exaggere les nombres de combats que les partisans de Tito avaient livre contre les allemands afin de justifier la decision de retirer tout appui aux Partisans Royalistes Serbs. Dans ce cas, l'opinion des historiens est plus divise mais on n'a pas reussi a dementir de facon convaincante la these de Waugh.Cette trilogie qui est de grand interet pour les gens qui s'interessent a l'histoire de la deuxiem grande guerre est aussi une oeuvre litteraire brillante. Les trois romans racontent l'effort de Guy Crouchback d'etre un bon mari, un bon pere et un bon guerrier Catholique. Le ton est tres leger comme dans tous les romans de Waugh ce qui explique leur grande popularite aupres de mecreants autant qu'aupres des Catholiques pratiquants.La marque de commerce de Waugh c'est la gaite de coeur avec laquelle les gens font des peches affreuse and la pensee superficielle avec laquelle de telles gestes sont justifies. Une femme decide de laisser son bebe a la campagne aux soins d'une nourrice ce qui permettra de faire la fete a Londres. Elle explique que ca ne sert a rien a rester aupres de ses enfants pour les trois premieres annees parce qu'ils ne savent pas parler. Un general justifie la decision a Guy de retirer l'appui britannique des royalists jugoslaves et de l'accorder aux communistes parce qu'ils ne vivront pas en Jugoslavie apres la guerre. Des blagues de cet acabit sont sur chaque page. On jeune recrut arrive a la caserne avec son toilet portatif. On rit du debut a la fin.Lisez ce roman et apres visionnez le film qui met en vedette Daniel Craig.
—Czarny Pies

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