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selling her furs. She had been persuaded to accompany
Trimmer, her former hairdresser, who has been set up as a war hero for propaganda purposes. She becomes pregnant by him and searches futilely for an abortion provider. Eventually, she decides to look for a husband instead. Crouchback is selected for parachute training, preparatory to being sent into action one last time. The commanding officer at the training center is Ludovic. In Crete, Ludovic had deserted from his unit, and in the process murdered two men, one on the boat. Although Crouchback was delirious at the time, Ludovic is afraid that he will be exposed if Guy meets him. Already a misfit as an officer, he becomes increasingly paranoid and isolated.
216:, finally succeeding with the (fictitious) Royal Corps of Halberdiers, an old but not too fashionable regiment. He trains as an officer and is posted to various centers around Britain. One of the themes is recurring "flaps" or chaos – embarking and disembarking from ships and railway carriages that go nowhere. Crouchback meets the fire-eating Brigadier Ben Ritchie-Hook (probably based on Lieutenant General Sir
371:: "he was not tempted to join them in their piety". Instead he goes for a surfeit of luxurious food for lunch on his 40th birthday and dwells neither on the past nor the future. Waugh also contrasts the sword, symbol for him of the betrayal of eastern Europe to the atheist Stalin, with the sword of honour of the crusading ancestor of Guy Crouchback, who is described near the beginning of the first book.
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and is a satire on the wasteful and perverse bureaucracy of modern warfare. The point of view of Guy, whose Roman
Catholicism and Italian experience combine with his diffident personality to make him something of an outside observer in English society, enables Waugh to push the satire hard and remain
292:
On his late father's advice, Guy attempts individual acts of salvation, but these ultimately make matters worse for the recipients. The
Yugoslavian Jews receive gifts from Jewish organisations in the US, infuriating non-Jewish locals, although the gifts consist largely of warm clothing and food. Upon
268:
Crouchback spends 1941–1943 in
Britain, mostly at desk jobs. He turns 40 and, with Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union and Britain's subsequent alliance with the Soviets, feels a sense of the war's futility. American soldiers swarm around London. Virginia has fallen on hard times and is reduced to
224:
whom Waugh knew somewhat from his club), and
Apthorpe, a very eccentric fellow officer; in an episode of high farce, the latter two have a battle of wits and military discipline over an Edwardian thunder-box (portable toilet) which Crouchback observes, amused and detached. Before being sent on active
276:
Before Guy goes abroad, he and
Virginia are reconciled and remarry (i.e., simply resuming their marriage, in the eyes of the Catholic Church). Virginia stays in London with Guy's Uncle Peregrine and has her baby there. Despite being incorrectly suspected of pro-Axis sympathies because of his time in
296:
After the end of the war Guy meets the daughter of another old Roman
Catholic family, Domenica Plessington, and marries her. In Waugh's first version of the novel's conclusion, Guy and his second wife produce further children who are to be disinherited by Trimmer's son. Waugh altered this ending to
256:
Ludovic. Crouchback acquits himself well on Crete, though chaos and muddle prevail. He, Ludovic and a few others achieve a perilous escape from the advancing
Germans in a small boat. Ludovic wades ashore in Egypt, carrying Guy; the others in the boat have disappeared. Apparently a hero, Ludovic is
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figure with his instinctive understanding of his culture, his hesitancy, courtesy and reluctance to make a scene. The novel reveals his discovery that the romantic worship of tradition and heroism – the aristocratic values which have supported him all his life – does not work in the modern world.
247:
brigade training on a
Scottish island under an old friend, Tommy Blackhouse, for whom Virginia left him. Another trainee is Ivor Claire, whom Crouchback regards as the flower of English chivalry. He learns to exploit the niceties of military ways of doing things from Colonel "Jumbo" Trotter, an
441:, a fact which came to light at the meeting, but despite an age difference of some fifteen years, neither lived to see the work broadcast the following year. The series was once available as a digital download, but the website has since been shut down, leaving it unavailable for public viewing.
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It is a resigned rather than an idealistic Guy who goes to
Yugoslavia, and it is made clear that the future belongs not to idealism but to the cynical Trimmer or the empty American Padfield. The reader is never quite sure whether it is that Guy is powerless to resist the world's decline from a
272:
Guy is injured during the parachute training, and finds himself stuck in an RAF medical unit, cut off from anyone he knows. He eventually contacts Jumbo Trotter to extract him and returns to live with his elderly bachelor uncle Peregrine Crouchback. His father having died and left behind a
265:. She arranges for Crouchback to be sent the long way home to England, possibly to prevent him from compromising the cover story worked up to protect Claire from desertion charges. Guy finds himself once more in his club, asking around for a suitable job. Thus ends the second book.
327:: a celebration of the virtues of tradition, of family and feudal loyalty, of paternalist hierarchy, of the continuity of institutions and of the heroic ideal and the calamitous disappearance of these which has led to the emptiness and futility of the modern world.
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expedition, his stint with the commandos, his time in Crete and his role in Yugoslavia. Unlike Crouchback, Waugh was not a cradle Roman Catholic but a convert from the upper middle class – although Waugh clearly believed that the
355:" is made "at the King's command", to be presented to the Soviet Union in recognition of the sacrifices that the Soviet people have made in the war against the Nazis (in reality, this was the jewelled sword commemorating the
261:, a character who also figures in other Waugh novels, takes Guy under her wing. She also endeavors to protect Claire, who was evacuated from Crete even though his unit's orders were to fight to the last and then surrender as
236:, supposedly of a tropical disease; when it is discovered that Guy gave him a bottle of whisky when visiting him in the hospital (there is an implication that Apthorpe's disease, unknown to Guy, was really alcoholic
297:
an uncompromisingly childless marriage in the revised text, after realising that some readers interpreted such a conclusion as hopeful. "No nippers for Guy," he clarified in a letter to
367:; long queues of people "suffused with gratitude to their remote allies" come to worship it. Guy Crouchback is unmoved and chooses not to visit, as he is distinctly not impressed by
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family. Guy has spent his thirties at the family villa in Italy shunning the world after the failure of his marriage and has decided to return to England at the very beginning of
285:, befriends a small group of Jews, and finds out that his former friend de Souza's loyalties are with the Communists rather than with Britain. While Guy is overseas, a German
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elderly Halberdier who knows all the strings to pull. Crouchback is posted to Egypt, headquarters for the Middle East theatre of operations. This involves him in the
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hits Uncle Peregrine's flat and kills him and Virginia, but not the infant son of Virginia and Trimmer, Gervase, who is in the country with Guy's sister.
995:
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This is made explicit in the episode after which the trilogy is named, at the beginning of the third and final book. A splendid ceremonial sword, the "
225:
service, he attempts to seduce his ex-wife Virginia, secure in the knowledge that the Catholic Church still regards her as his wife; she refuses him.
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returning to England, Guy is told that some of his friends in Yugoslavia were shot as spies, largely because they had become so friendly with him.
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significant estate, Guy is now able to support himself comfortably. This attracts the attention of Virginia, who begins to visit him.
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The novel is the most thorough treatment of the theme of Waugh's writing, first fully displayed in
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The novels have obvious echoes in Evelyn Waugh's wartime career; his participation in the
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early in 1966 before the latter started work on the script. They had both attended
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Underneath the comedy, the theme emerges ever more strongly. Guy Crouchback is a
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experience was vital in the development of English Roman Catholicism.
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The protagonist is Guy Crouchback, heir of a declining aristocratic
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of chivalry or whether the Golden Age was a romantic illusion.
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made an officer. In Egypt, the beautiful and well-connected
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pre-war Italy and of his Catholicism, Guy is posted to
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for the books were designed by the popular illustrator
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It paints an ironic picture of regimental life in the
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He and Ben Ritchie-Hook share an adventure during the
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which loosely parallel Waugh's experiences during the
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243:Crouchback eventually finds a place in a fledgling
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474:2013 radio version written by Jeremy Front, with
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387:There have been five dramatisations of
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252:, where he meets the disquieting
163:in the United States and Canada.
27:Trilogy of novels by Evelyn Waugh
32:Sword of Honour (disambiguation)
168:James Tait Black Memorial Prize
991:Novels set during World War II
956:Book series introduced in 1952
447:1974 radio version written by
1:
699:The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
502:"Radio Drama – Evelyn Waugh"
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634:Scott-King's Modern Europe
433:. Waugh met Cooper at the
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232:in 1940. Apthorpe dies in
129:is a trilogy of novels by
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18:Royal Corps of Halberdiers
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345:quintessentially English
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212:He attempts to join the
726:When the Going Was Good
689:Unconditional Surrender
478:as Guy Crouchback, and
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76:Unconditional Surrender
966:Novels by Evelyn Waugh
681:Officers and Gentlemen
429:, and was directed by
220:, a college friend of
218:Adrian Carton de Wiart
195:English Roman Catholic
150:Officers and Gentlemen
68:Officers and Gentlemen
930:Aloysius (teddy bear)
222:Waugh's father-in-law
161:The End of the Battle
934:Brideshead Revisited
825:Brideshead Revisited
785:Brideshead Revisited
750:The Temple at Thatch
626:Brideshead Revisited
357:Battle of Stalingrad
324:Brideshead Revisited
159:(1961), marketed as
30:For other uses, see
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451:with Hugh Dickson,
353:Sword of Stalingrad
166:Waugh received the
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971:Literary trilogies
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618:Put Out More Flags
359:, commissioned by
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109:Chapman & Hall
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718:Robbery Under Law
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506:Diversity Website
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365:Westminster Abbey
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153:(1955); and
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920:Mrs. Stitch
887:Piers Court
869:Daisy Waugh
761:Adaptations
710:Other books
673:Men at Arms
586:Vile Bodies
511:24 November
402:Theatre 625
172:Men at Arms
144:Men at Arms
60:Men at Arms
950:Categories
903:Characters
881:Alec Waugh
865:(grandson)
836:(TV, 2017)
788:(TV, 1981)
487:References
476:Paul Ready
377:Golden Age
340:in voice.
279:Yugoslavia
259:Mrs Stitch
883:(brother)
468:starring
361:George VI
287:doodlebug
283:partisans
174:in 1952.
117:1952–1961
114:Published
106:Publisher
877:(father)
316:recusant
245:commando
234:Freetown
183:Val Biro
147:(1952);
98:Language
895:(house)
889:(house)
844:Related
413:, with
101:English
745:(1964)
737:(1960)
729:(1946)
721:(1939)
702:(1957)
692:(1961)
684:(1955)
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653:(1950)
650:Helena
645:(1948)
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589:(1930)
581:(1928)
570:Novels
305:Themes
88:Author
79:(1961)
71:(1955)
63:(1952)
924:Scoop
914:Scoop
859:(son)
793:Scoop
610:Scoop
395:1967
311:Dakar
513:2018
459:and
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214:Army
205:and
177:The
170:for
123:The
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