Officers and Gentlemen [Paperback]

Evelyn Waugh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 1979

This is the second volume in the 'Sword of Honor' trilogy. The other volumes in this trilogy include: 'Men at Arms' and 'The End of the Battle'.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

7 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

About the Author

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) was born in London and educated at Oxford. He quickly established a reputation with such social satirical novels as DECLINE AND FALL, VILE BODIES and SCOOP. Waugh became a Catholic in 1930, and his later books display a more serious attitude, as seen in the religious theme of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, a nostalgic evocation of student days at Oxford. His diaries were published in 1976, and his letters in 1980. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (March 30, 1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316926302
• ISBN-13: 978-0316926300
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #734,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars War And The Solitary Man, February 16, 2004

By 

Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Officers and Gentlemen (Paperback)

The period of time between the fall of France and the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union justifiably has been called Britain's finest hour, when the island nation stood alone against Hitler and the Axis powers. Trust Evelyn Waugh to write a novel about this effort that manages to find more to mock and be acerbic about than to be proud of. Amazingly, as fiction "Officers And Gentlemen" not only works but shines, and is a gripping account of how one fellow's war may or may not jibe with the larger political effort around him.

In the previous volume of Evelyn Waugh's "Sword of Honour" trilogy, "Men At Arms," we met the pallid Guy Crouchback, heir to an Anglo-Catholic aristocratic line of no special importance, struggling to find some personal meaning in the great conflagration that was World War II. Men At Arms is a mostly funny read, a comedy of errors and barracks farce, with some dramatic detours that accumulate in frequency and gravity by story's end.

"Officers And Gentlemen" has a starker break point between the humor and the drama, which occurs after Guy and his unit is sent to Crete to cover the British retreat there. The Crete section of this story is harrowing, affecting reading; a collection of isolated moments that never quite gel because they are not supposed to. Waugh based this on his own similar experience doing very much the same thing in that battle, and throws up a dozen or so vignettes that only barely pierce through the fog of war: Radios thrown over the side of a ship; a soldier disguising himself as an officer so he can flee the front easier, a commander too tired to give orders to his newly-arrived reinforcements, a vigil beside a dead soldier lying nameless in a desolate village.

Virtually every soldier Guy meets is lacking in some way, particularly a by-the-book brigade major named Hound and a dashing but callow sort named Claire who are among his closest companions. While Stukas dive and rain havoc on the shattered troops, Guy tries to figure out what he's supposed to be doing in this awful place. When he finally gets his orders, they are to do the unimaginable: Surrender.

Before Crete, "Officers And Gentlemen" is a fairly funny read, not in a laugh-out-loud way so much as invigorating. The opening part features the aerial Battle of Britain, sacred stuff in the history of the conflict, but leavened here by the fact it is being observed by two tipsy officers inside a private club who watch nearby buildings burn and try to agree on which painter the resulting effect is most reminiscent of: "Not Martin. The skyline is too low. The scale is less than Babylonian."

Then its off to the Inner Hebrides, and the mythical island of Mugg, with its rocky outcroppings, its castle "indestructible and uninhabitable by anyone but a Scottish laird," and a troop of Commandos slowly going to seed. Guy struggles to prove himself worthy of this crew, even as he begins to wonder about their merit.

War is human tragedy, and Waugh never loses sight of that or allows the reader to. Even light moments are interrupted by grim tidings, like the fate of a minor character aboard a ship of Italian internees sailing to Canada (based on a true incident). At the same time, Waugh doesnt wallow in sorrow or bathos. Even his toughest sections in Crete are unsentimentally and plainly presented. He doesnt expect our tears, or want them. He just wants to involve us in his personal take on mankinds greatest challenge of the 20th century, a take all the more valuable because its not at all what you might expect from World War II storytelling. The ending of the story, for example, when Britain no longer finds itself alone after Hitler attacks the Soviet Union, would be a cause for celebration in any other book, but for Guy (and Waugh) it is something else to mourn. His nations cause is besmirched by the fact it has taken on an ally every bit as diabolically totalitarian as the enemy.

Such things make the novel tougher for others to take, but to me it points up the singularity and uniqueness of Waughs vision, which make all his writing, but particularly great works like this one, worth reading.

As with the other volumes in Sword of Honour, (Men At Arms before and Unconditional Surrender after), readers wanting insight and context are well off visiting David Cliffes handy notes at http://www.abbotshill.freeserve.co.uk/home2.htm.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More serious, September 26, 2002

By 

Dave Deubler (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Officers and Gentlemen (Paperback)

This book continues the 'Sword of Honor" trilogy begun with Men at Arms. Halberdier Guy Crouchback returns from Africa chastened, but still anxious to serve his country in its time of need. Dismissed from his regiment due to his complicity in the death of his friend Apthorpe, Guy is now assigned to a Commando unit. As part of a patchwork group called Hookforce, X Commando reaches the island of Crete just in time to cover the retreat and embarkation of the regular Allied forces, and are left with orders to surrender to the enemy after the other groups have left.

Once again, Waugh points his dry English wit at the freshly-commissioned British officers of WWII to amusing effect, while still making serious points about the readiness of British forces and the military suitability of Britain's gentry. For example, one running gag is an officer frantically rushing to headquarters only to find that the commander doesn't know what to do with him. The comedic high point is when Trimmer (a former hairdresser) is sent on a largely pointless mission by officers who are desperate to score a success - any success - in order to improve public perceptions of their unit. Operation Popgun goes awry when the sub gets lost and accidentally stumbles into enemy territory, and when a sergeant, acting without orders, blows up a supply train, a clever reporter manages to describe the mission as a dramatic success, rather than the comedy of errors that it actually was.

More serious are the concluding sections that describe various characters' arduous withdrawal from Crete. While there may be some black humor in these scenes, they seem to played more for dramatic effect, to show how men react to such harrowing situations. Although Major Hound, Guy, and Ivor Claire each make different choices, one can scarcely say that one was really better than the other.

Readers who enjoyed Men at Arms will find this volume rather darker, with less emphasis on hijinks and more on military action. Men at Arms really should be read first, however, because this volume assumes a certain familiarity with Crouchback's personality and military record, as well as some of the minor characters who are referred to frequently. If you read Men at Arms but didn't really care for it, be forewarned: this book isn't any funnier, but delves a little more deeply into the misery of war.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An English "Catch-22", January 14, 2007

By 

D. S. Thurlow (Alaska) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Officers and Gentlemen (Paperback)

Evelyn Waugh's "Officers and Gentlemen" is a often satirical look at the British Army in the often disasterous early years of the Second World War. "Officers and Gentlemen" is the middle volume of a trilogy on the career of the fictional everyman Guy Crouchback, an overage junior officer in the equally fictional Royal Corps of Halberdiers. Waugh picks up the story in this volume with Guy's return from an aborted mission in Africa to experience the London Blitz. Guy ends up assigned to a commando training base in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The Commando will be assigned duties in Egypt and end up participating in the struggle for Crete.

Waugh is a superbly gifted writer whose capture of the absurdities of the British class system and the bureaucratic foolishness of the British Army is often spot-on for humor. The narrative arc concerning Guy's successive and almost random Army assignments will be sidesplitting to those who have experienced that process in any army in real life. At the same time, and much in the manner of "Catch-22", Waugh captures the degradation of combat for individuals, even in successful battles. The description of the failed campaign in Crete is as heart-breaking as the commando training at the Island of Mugg is hilarious.

This book was first published in 1955, and some of the nuances of the humor may be lost on those without background in the history of the Second World War or British society. This volume of the trilogy can be read by itself but may make more sense when read in the sequence of the Sword Of Honor trilogy.

This book is highly recommended to those seeking some entertaining insights into the Second World War.