Folio Archives 156: Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh 2001
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1wcarter
Sword of Honour by Evelyn Waugh 2001
This three-volume set contains the books titled Men at Arms (210 pages); Officers and Gentlemen (227 pages) and Unconditional Surrender (212 pages).
The pleasantly readable story flows from one book to the next, although they were written over a nine-year period from 1952 to 1961 and is the meandering fictional life of a middle-aged junior officer in the Army during World War 2 as he experiences the bureaucracy and interesting characters of the era. His adventures take him from Crete to Cape Town, Croatia to Cairo. and Italy to Scotland as he wanders rather aimlessly through the war. The characters in both civilian and military life that are encountered are realistic caricatures of those who inhabited those locations.
There is a nine-page introduction in the first volume by Mark Amory. Each book has 8 leaves of colour plates in each volume by John Lawrence, as well as line drawings for every chapter heading, and the books are bound in white plasticised cloth with a wrap-around cover design in black, brown and blue by Lawrence. The endleaves are dark green, as is the vegetable parchment three-volume 24x16 cm. slipcase which is gilt titled on front and back.
The FS has produced two different bindings and slipcases for the set. Mine is the 2001 edition, which I far prefer to the blander binding of the 1990 edition.
1990 edition – image from Google.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
This three-volume set contains the books titled Men at Arms (210 pages); Officers and Gentlemen (227 pages) and Unconditional Surrender (212 pages).
The pleasantly readable story flows from one book to the next, although they were written over a nine-year period from 1952 to 1961 and is the meandering fictional life of a middle-aged junior officer in the Army during World War 2 as he experiences the bureaucracy and interesting characters of the era. His adventures take him from Crete to Cape Town, Croatia to Cairo. and Italy to Scotland as he wanders rather aimlessly through the war. The characters in both civilian and military life that are encountered are realistic caricatures of those who inhabited those locations.
There is a nine-page introduction in the first volume by Mark Amory. Each book has 8 leaves of colour plates in each volume by John Lawrence, as well as line drawings for every chapter heading, and the books are bound in white plasticised cloth with a wrap-around cover design in black, brown and blue by Lawrence. The endleaves are dark green, as is the vegetable parchment three-volume 24x16 cm. slipcase which is gilt titled on front and back.
The FS has produced two different bindings and slipcases for the set. Mine is the 2001 edition, which I far prefer to the blander binding of the 1990 edition.
1990 edition – image from Google.
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2folio_books
>1 wcarter: The FS has produced two different bindings and slipcases for the set. Mine is the 2001 edition, which I far prefer to the blander binding of the 1990 edition.
Sorry to disagree, Warwick, but I much prefer the earlier binding to the garish 2001 set - all that gold!
Sorry to disagree, Warwick, but I much prefer the earlier binding to the garish 2001 set - all that gold!
3TabbyTom
>1 wcarter:
>2 folio_books:
I have the second (1993) printing of the 1990 original, which keeps the "blander" cover designs. I really can't make up my mind which I prefer, but thanks to wcarter I can now enjoy looking at both. Thanks, Warwick.
>2 folio_books:
I have the second (1993) printing of the 1990 original, which keeps the "blander" cover designs. I really can't make up my mind which I prefer, but thanks to wcarter I can now enjoy looking at both. Thanks, Warwick.
4LesMiserables
I'd like to get hold of this. One of my favorite reads. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Waugh at his best.
