Officers and Gentlemen (1955) by Evelyn Waugh is the second novel in his acclaimed Sword of Honour trilogy, a darkly comic and deeply poignant exploration of World War II through the eyes of the idealistic yet disillusioned officer Guy Crouchback.
Picking up after Men at Arms, the novel follows Guy’s further misadventures in the British Army as he is deployed to Crete amid the chaos of retreat and defeat. Waugh masterfully blends biting satire with tragic realism, exposing the absurdities of military bureaucracy, the crumbling of aristocratic ideals, and the moral ambiguities of war. Guy’s faith in honor and tradition is further eroded as he witnesses cowardice, incompetence, and betrayal among his fellow officers—including the flamboyantly unreliable Ivor Claire.
Waugh’s prose is at once razor-sharp and elegiac, capturing the farcical and devastating sides of combat with equal brilliance. Officers and Gentlemen stands as a piercing meditation on duty, disillusionment, and the fragile myths of heroism—essential reading for fans of 20th-century literature and military satire.
