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Unconditional Surrender: The Conclusion of Men at Arms and Officers and Gentlemen by Evelyn Waugh
krysm's review against another edition
3.0
I would have given it four stars, but there was a certain presence of mature content in some scenes that gave some uneasiness.
urzajr's review against another edition
5.0
Thoughts on completion of the Sword of Honor trilogy:
I don't know why, but I didn't expect too much from these novels, despite being a Waugh devotee. (I suspect its because somewhere in my mind I had confused An Officer and a Gentleman with Officers and Gentlemen.) I found them to be a near-perfect synthesis of the brilliant satire of early Waugh (A Handful of Dust, Decline and Fall, etc.) and the conservative morality and real pathos of Brideshead Revisited. Absolutely brilliant.
I don't know why, but I didn't expect too much from these novels, despite being a Waugh devotee. (I suspect its because somewhere in my mind I had confused An Officer and a Gentleman with Officers and Gentlemen.) I found them to be a near-perfect synthesis of the brilliant satire of early Waugh (A Handful of Dust, Decline and Fall, etc.) and the conservative morality and real pathos of Brideshead Revisited. Absolutely brilliant.
alice_horoshev's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
asuph's review against another edition
4.0
Unconditional Surrender/End of Battle, the third volume of the WW2 saga is a fitting end to the Sword of Honor trilogy. The humor has become somewhat rarer, and when it's there it's either way too dry (not that I'm complaining) or scathing and dark. This installment is lot more meandering than the first two, or at least that's the memory I have after reading the three volumes over 5 months. But I for me that's never a problem, in fact I relish it. Although for someone who's looking for an out and out humorous book, it might be a huge disappointment.
lnatal's review
4.0
From BBC Radio 4 - Classical Serial:
Evelyn Waugh's satirical WW2 masterpiece:
1/3: Guy is beginning to lose his idealism about the War.
2/3: Guy's military career is revived when he is selected for a mission to Italy. He travels to London to await orders.
3/3: After injuring his knee during a parachute jump, Guy believes his wartime experience is at an end, but then he receives orders to fly to Italy on a secret mission.
Directed by Sally Avens
Waugh's trilogy of WWII novels mark a high point in his literary career. Originally published as three volumes: Officers and Gentlemen, Men at Arms and Unconditional Surrender they were extensively revised by Waugh, and published as the one-volume Sword of Honour in 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read. They are dramatised for the Classic Serial in seven episodes.
This is a story that continues to delight as we follow the comic and often bathetic adventures of Guy Crouchback. Witty and tragic, engaging and insightful, this work must be counted next to 'Brideshead Revisited' as Waugh's most enduring novel. Like Brideshead, Waugh drew heavily upon his own experiences during WWII. Sword of Honour effortlessly treads the line between the personal and the political - it is at once an indictment of the incompetence of the Allied war effort, and a moving study of one man's journey from isolation to self fulfilment. His adventures are peopled by colourful characters: the eccentric, Apthorpe, one-eyed, Ritchie-Hook, promiscuous, Virginia Troy. At the centre of the novel is Guy for whom we never lose our sympathy as he emerges from his adventures bowed but not broken. From Dakar to Egypt, the Isle of Mugg to the evacuation of Crete, tragedy is leavened by Waugh's acerbic and farcical comedy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03f87yp
3* Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
3* Decline and Fall
3* Scoop
3* Mr Loveday's Little Outing & Other Early Stories
3* Men at Arms
4* Officers and Gentlemen
4* Unconditional Surrender: The Conclusion of Men at Arms and Officers and Gentlemen
TR A Handful of Dust
TR Vile Bodies
TR Labels
TR Ninety Two Days: A Journey In Guiana And Brazil, 1932
Evelyn Waugh's satirical WW2 masterpiece:
1/3: Guy is beginning to lose his idealism about the War.
2/3: Guy's military career is revived when he is selected for a mission to Italy. He travels to London to await orders.
3/3: After injuring his knee during a parachute jump, Guy believes his wartime experience is at an end, but then he receives orders to fly to Italy on a secret mission.
Directed by Sally Avens
Waugh's trilogy of WWII novels mark a high point in his literary career. Originally published as three volumes: Officers and Gentlemen, Men at Arms and Unconditional Surrender they were extensively revised by Waugh, and published as the one-volume Sword of Honour in 1965, in the form in which Waugh himself wished them to be read. They are dramatised for the Classic Serial in seven episodes.
This is a story that continues to delight as we follow the comic and often bathetic adventures of Guy Crouchback. Witty and tragic, engaging and insightful, this work must be counted next to 'Brideshead Revisited' as Waugh's most enduring novel. Like Brideshead, Waugh drew heavily upon his own experiences during WWII. Sword of Honour effortlessly treads the line between the personal and the political - it is at once an indictment of the incompetence of the Allied war effort, and a moving study of one man's journey from isolation to self fulfilment. His adventures are peopled by colourful characters: the eccentric, Apthorpe, one-eyed, Ritchie-Hook, promiscuous, Virginia Troy. At the centre of the novel is Guy for whom we never lose our sympathy as he emerges from his adventures bowed but not broken. From Dakar to Egypt, the Isle of Mugg to the evacuation of Crete, tragedy is leavened by Waugh's acerbic and farcical comedy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03f87yp
3* Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder
3* Decline and Fall
3* Scoop
3* Mr Loveday's Little Outing & Other Early Stories
3* Men at Arms
4* Officers and Gentlemen
4* Unconditional Surrender: The Conclusion of Men at Arms and Officers and Gentlemen
TR A Handful of Dust
TR Vile Bodies
TR Labels
TR Ninety Two Days: A Journey In Guiana And Brazil, 1932
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