Author:Evelyn Waugh,Angus Calder,Angus Calder
Fictionalising his experience of service during the Second World War, Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour is the complete one-volume edition of his masterful trilogy, edited with an introduction by Angus Calder in Penguin Modern Classics.
Waugh's own unhappy experience of being a soldier is superbly re-enacted in this story of Guy Crouchback, a Catholic and a gentleman, commissioned into the Royal Corps of Halberdiers during the war years 1939-45. High comedy - in the company of Brigadier Ritchie-Hook or the denizens of Bellamy's Club - is only part of the shambles of Crouchback's war. When action comes in Crete and in Yugoslavia, he discovers not heroism, but humanity. Sword of Honour combines three volumes: Officers and Gentlemen, Men at Arms and Unconditional Surrender, which were originally published separately. Extensively revised by Waugh, they were published as the one-volume Sword of Honour in 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read.
Evelyn Waugh (1903-66) was born in Hampstead, second son of Arthur Waugh, publisher and literary critic, and brother of Alec Waugh, the popular novelist. In 1928 he published his first work, a life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and his first novel, Decline and Fall, which was soon followed by Vile Bodies (1930), A Handful of Dust (1934) and Scoop (1938). In 1939 he was commissioned in the Royal Marines and later transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, serving in the Middle East and in Yugoslavia. In 1942 he published Put Out More Flags and then in 1945 Brideshead Revisited. Men at Arms (1952) was the first volume of 'The Sword of Honour' trilogy, and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; the other volumes, Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender, followed in 1955 and 1961.
If you enjoyed Sword of Honour, you might like Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.
'Marvellous ... one of the masterpieces of the century'
John Banville, Irish Times
Masterly storytelling.
—— The Times..a good story
—— The GuardianLustig survived Auschwitz. Every fibre of his latest book...resonates with the pain, questions and scars of the Holocaust
—— Daily TelegraphLustig writes about the Holocaust experience with a modest authority that is virtually unique... His genius lies in his ability to understate themes and situations which cry out for melodramatic treatment
—— Lawrence L Langer , Washington PostWholly unsentimental and clean of self-pity, Lustig returns in his novels and stories to the harrowing landscape of his youth, discovering within its brutal boundaries the grim but still achingly recognizable panoply of a last, vast, various neighbourhood of man
—— Johanna Kaplan , New York TimesA compelling account of how closely linked innocence and brutality can be
—— London Review of BooksClearly, Holland has a deep knowledge of life in the 1930s and 40s, both civil and military, because every page oozes with authenticity ... a heartwarming homage to courage, honour, friendship and love ... Highly recommended, and five stars out fo five
—— Ben Kane, author of Spartacus: RebellionThis is literature at its very best: a book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one's life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it
—— Time OutSo powerful is this recreated past that you long to call Birdsong perfect
—— The TimesA powerful novel that is difficult to put down
—— Independent on SundayMy favourite novel of all time because it’s not just the most moving First World War story, it also has a wonderful romance
—— Kate Garraway , Daily ExpressIt broke my heart.
—— Matthew Lewis , BuzzfeedMagnificent. A classic that everyone should have read.
—— Sandra Howard , Daily ExpressA sweeping historical drama, it’s also erotic, poignant and tear-inducing. I read it and wept buckets. I don’t think anything else Faulks has written before or since surpasses the brilliance of this one.
—— Reading MattersThis is literature at its very best. A book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one’s life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it.
—— Andrew Denham-Davis , DISCUSWhile marked by poppy wearing and memorial ceremonies, the First World War is also sustained through family history, handed down from one generation to the next. No book better articulates the impact of this narrative than Stephen Faulks’ Birdsong.
—— Lucy Middleton , Reader's DigestA truly amazing read
—— Gail Teasdale , 24housingI’d never read such descriptive literature, and couldn’t sleep at night for thinking about what I’d just read. His [Faulks] portrayal of terror on the battlefield is so powerful
—— Anna Redman , Good HousekeepingMy all-time favourite book
—— Kate Garraway , Good Housekeeping
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