Novel: Men at Arms

Overview
Men at Arms, the first volume of Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy (1952), follows Guy Crouchback as he seeks to reclaim a sense of purpose at the outbreak of the Second World War. A devout Catholic and heir to an old family tradition of martial honor, Guy expects war to offer the restoration of a clear moral order. Instead he encounters a modern military world marked by bureaucracy, vanity, and frequent farce, which continually tests his assumptions about courage, leadership and integrity.

Plot arc
The narrative moves in episodic scenes as Guy attempts to join the fight and finds himself repeatedly frustrated by the practicalities and hypocrisies of wartime service. He endures training and assignments that reveal both petty officiousness and grand incompetence, and he drifts among fellow officers, administrators and opportunists whose motives and behavior complicate his search for meaningful action. The novel traces Guy's slow realization that personal honor and institutional honor can be at odds, and that the ideal of chivalry is both needed and endangered within the chaotic machinery of modern war.

Characters and relationships
Guy Crouchback stands at the moral center: earnest, somewhat naive, and committed to Catholic values that set him apart from many around him. Other figures orbiting him are vividly drawn as foils and comic types, careerists who exploit wartime turbulence, well-meaning but ineffectual commanders, and survivors from various social strata who adapt to or manipulate circumstances. Romantic and personal entanglements add further strain to Guy's journey, emphasizing how private loyalties and desires often conflict with public duty and the rhetoric of honor.

Themes and tone
Waugh balances satire with genuine moral concern. The novel skewers the absurdities of modern military life, bureaucratic red tape, pomposity, and theatrical patriotism, while mourning the erosion of traditional values that once guided men like Guy. Humor is often dark, edged with irony: comic scenes are frequently undercut by moments of poignancy or moral ambiguity. Central themes include the tension between duty and self-interest, the decline of aristocratic ideals, the difficulty of sustaining personal integrity in mass institutions, and the complex relationship between religion and modern warfare.

Style and significance
Waugh's prose remains elegant and precise, capable of razor-sharp satire and compassionate description within a few lines. The narrative voice can be caustic and amused, but it also permits moments of sincere sympathy for characters who struggle nobly or fail pitiably. Men at Arms establishes tonal and thematic groundwork for the following volumes, introducing recurring characters and motifs while framing the wartime experience as both tragic and absurd. The novel is widely regarded as a major postwar achievement, notable for its moral seriousness wrapped in comic energy and for the way it captures the disorientation of a society at war.