Men at Arms

Part One of the ’Sword and Honour’ Trilogy by Evelyn Waugh

Guy Crouchback, determined to get into the war, takes a commission in the Royal Corps of Halberdiers. His spirits high, he sees all the trimmings but none of the action. And his first campaign, an abortive affair on the West African coastline, ends with an escapade which seriously blots his Halberdier copybook.

’Waugh’s characters have inexorably established themselves among the enduring fiction ... In this respect Waugh is in direct line with Shakespeare and Dickens’ – Clive James in The New York Review of Books.

Contents

• Title: Sword and Honour
  1. Men At Arms (1952)
  2. Officers and Gentlemen (1955)
  3. Unconditional Surrender (1961)
• Period: World War Two, 1939–1945
• Type: historic novel
• Author: Evelyn Waugh
• Format: 256-page paperback
• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, England
• ISBN: 0-141-18573-2
• Published: 1952

The author, Evelyn Waugh, was a staff officer of Layforce, at the rank of brigade-major. Layforce, the Commando brigade of Colonel Robert Edward Laycock, consisted of three British Special Service Battalions, and one battalion from No. 50 and 52 (Middle East) Commando. Waugh’s historical novels are strongly autobiographical, they show the futility and absurdities of war from a warriors perspective.

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– Published: 10.09.2007 – Updated:
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