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A review by lnatal
Men at Arms by Evelyn Waugh
3.0
From BBC Radio 4 - Classical Serial:
Evelyn Waugh's satirical WW2 masterpiece:
1/2: Guy Crouchback is a man scarred by a broken marriage, searching for a purpose in a modern world, when war breaks out he feels he may have at last found a cause worth fighting for.
2/2: The Halbadiers are yet to see action so Guy spends his time aiding Apthorpe with the concealment of his Thunder box - a portable latrine. And Guy's ex-wife Virginia makes a reappearance in his life.
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/b03bq0c2
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
CR Officers and Gentlemen
CR 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:
1/2: Guy Crouchback is a man scarred by a broken marriage, searching for a purpose in a modern world, when war breaks out he feels he may have at last found a cause worth fighting for.
2/2: The Halbadiers are yet to see action so Guy spends his time aiding Apthorpe with the concealment of his Thunder box - a portable latrine. And Guy's ex-wife Virginia makes a reappearance in his life.
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/b03bq0c2
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
CR Officers and Gentlemen
CR 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