I think that The Sword of Honour Trilogy shows incredibly well how "God writes straight with crooked lines." This is such a truly complete story. Only in the end does everything come together and make sense, and it does all make sense . . . everything that Guy Crouchback suffers, the sins of his wife, the countless mistakes made by his friends, colleagues, enemies and family members. Let's talk about these books.
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The Sword of Honor books are my all time favorite. I re-read them about once year and I always come away with a better understanding of the human condition.
I've always found it interesting that Waugh made extensive edits to Sword of Honor for subsequent printings. Most famously, the "Festival of Britain" epilogue... in the original ending, still preserved in U.S. printings of "The Sword of Honor" omnibus by Everyman's Library, Guy and Domenica are raising two of their own children in addition to the bastard son of Trimmer. When one of the Mitford's wrote to Waugh and said she was pleased by the happy ending, Waugh was sure to remove the two legitimate children from future editions, cementing Guy as the end of the line for the Crouchback family. The Back Bay Books version of "The End of the Battle" does not include the "happy ending."
There is a great resource online for BR and Sword of Honor. In has annotations for both works, as well as details on Waugh's edits of both works. You can find it here:
An Evelyn Waugh Website
I struggled through the trilogy, enjoying it somewhat, but not sure what everyone was so crazy about. It all fell together for me when Crouchback was working in Yugoslavia toward the end of the war. A woman complained to him about the war and the men who started it and the men who fought it. She makes a reference to men who had not fought in the last war and felt they had something to prove and had engaged vigorously in this one "to prove something".
"Did you have men like that in your country?" She asks.
"God forgive me. I was one of them."
And that is when this tough guy here gets a little weepy (just a little). That made the whole trip through the books worth it.
I was interested to see Sean's report about different endings. As far as I can recall, the edition I read had him and Domenica together at the end, and raising the bastard (no offense. I've got a couple). I can't recall if they had also had any others.
Waugh started the first book during the war at a time when he largely felt the Americans had taken the lead and the UK was more along for the ride... He was actually given leave from the army at the time to work on it for a few months! (Yes, this was during the war!)
Going to neither extreme of villifying all war, or portraying the darkest and ugliest parts of war... EW seems to make a special effort to show it is an enterprise alternately filled with much that is ludicrous when it isn't just downright ugly.
The entire story arc in the first book over Apthorpe's battle with Brigadier Ritchie-Hook for Apthorpe's prized "thunder-box" is, at points, laugh out loud funny to me.
I may be reading too much into this, but I think Waugh is taking aim at the all-too-common spitting contests over matters where the stakes are remarkably LOW when men are left with little better to do in the course of regimented, uniformed life.
I think Waugh was attempting to disabuse readers of some odd and misplaced notions of glorious warfare wherein men-at-arms are in constant, vigorous, noble battle... The mentality of "hurry up and wait" and the hijinx that ensues during periods of decampment demonstrate with humor how inglorious military life can be.
Plus there is no small amount of irony that fighting men spend a good deal of time fighting over an antique - to be crude - crapper.
Not the "braveheart warrior image" of men in the woods being primative, is it?
I have a rather delicate subject to broach here, but I thought this is the best place to bring it up. I don't know anyone that reads Waugh (I barely know anyone that reads).
Does it seem like Waugh had lingering ...issues...from an early dalliance with homsexuality?
I mean, for instance, his fixation on Apthorpe in the first book of the trilogy. And the porpoise skin boots. It made me feel a little...oogy. I mean, he seemed to gush about this guy and I just didn't get it.
I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have brought it up. I have only read the trilogy, Brideshead Revisited, and one other book (can't remember which, but I know I haven't read Helena yet), but it seems to me like it was something that Waugh struggled with.
Of course, this might be common knowledge about Waugh, I don't know. Hopefully somebody can set me straight. Ooh, sorry about that.
Set you straight . . . Ha! Rob's funny. You know, I've never been entirely certain about Waugh's actual experience with homosexuality. I know that his brother, Alec, definitely had actual experiences. However, with Waugh the whole issue seems to be a bit more complicated. I've read what what was supposed to be the first installment of his autobiography, _A Little Learning_, and this book led me to understand that Waugh at least had "crushes" on boys in school, but it is unclear to me just how far these infatuations went. And, it's obvious that Waugh was interested in girls from an early age. Alec was engaged to a young woman named Barbara, and Evelyn writes about playing flirtatious "games" with Barbara's younger sister.
And, by the by, you should definitely read _Helena_. It's amazing.
I have an understanding like any good Oxford Anglo Catholic at the time, he had an awareness and perhaps an experience of homosexuality... But I really don't read that into the Apthorpe relationship.
I always saw Apthorpe as highlighting how out of his depth Guy was... Not only was he older than everyone else in general, but the one other man his age - the other "Uncle" - was not exactly his peer in a lot of respects. Apthorpe was a colorful character who was anti-Catholic, somewhat rugged, but then had a very odd fixation with taking an antique chemical toilet with him everywhere...
BTW, if I was going to check out some more books by Waugh at my library, what should I get? Helena is not available. (I live in rural Arizona. In the entire Yavapai County network there is not one copy!)
Rob I know you are a family man and small business man at that, so I am sure you keep an eye on the bottom line in the luxuries department... But eBay is always good for some Waugh books on the cheap. Personally, I like to own them so I cam paint 'em up with highlighters.
(Yes, I am a Waugh Geek to the point where I would highlight his novels even though it is no way class related.)
Just a thought.
Oh, Rob, that is so sad about the complete lack of _Helena_ in your area. It really is a great book. I would totally loan you mine, but I'm trying to turn it into a screenplay right now . . . There, I went and gave away my major project. Oh, well. Anyway, yeah . . . Try ebay, or even amazon.com for good, cheap, often used books. And, Let me also mention _The Loved One_, _Decline and Fall_, _Vile Bodies_, and _Put Out More Flags_ as possible candidates for your reading pleasure. These are all by Waugh, and rock completely as you would expect them too. And, you know, I have to put out some props for a non-Waugh book that I'm just wicked fond of . . . _The Wanting Seed_ by Anthony Burgess is truly, truly good, and I'm dying to talk about it with someone.
Eek! That "too" should be "to." Sheesh. I guess that whole "trophy wife" thing is really going to my head.
Sinful Sinner, you highlight Waugh? For fun? That, sir, makes you the bomb diggity 5000. Everyone should be so cool.
err... that's Simple... no big deal, your version is probably more accurate.
At any rate, I can't claim all the credit... I bought a copy of BR for 10¢ rumaging through paperbacks - the copy I got had highlighting... (Probably from student usage, I am guessing...) And I found the prior owners highlighting useful, and took to adding my own...
From there each time I got an old paperback copy of one of these books on the cheap, I would selectively note different things I like and wanted to think about more for next time...
I do just take for granted I will read every Waugh novel more than once. There is a blessing in having a mass-transit trip to work!
I stand corrected, Simple Sinner, and I got a really good laugh out of that one. Not only did I get it wrong, I managed to be really freakin' redundant. :)
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