Men at Arms

The only source of fiction about the 1939-45 War which is certain to survive: So The Times Literary Supplement hailed Evelyn Waugh’s military trilogy, Men at Arms, the second volume of which is now published Penguin as The Sword of Honour.

For Guy Crouchback, embittered member of a dissipated family and a man of conscience, the war offered a glorious opportunity of service. He took a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers, fought a sharp engagement, lost one that followed almost without firing a shot, came home on leave for a dinner, all that was lacking in the first year of the war was action. Despite the fierce separations of war, he and his wife Virginia were facing their finest hour. Guy Crouchback, having embarked on an abortive campaign on the Liparean Islands with the Brigadier, was seeing the war differently.

“Outrageously and devastatingly funny”—Ava Sitwell

“The pattern is crystal clear, brilliant, with a touch of devastating irony”—The Sphere

“Another triumph for Waugh’s war novel”—The Black Memorial