Men at Arms | Literary Precedents

Men at Arms Literary Precedents

Men at Arms and the Sword of Honour trilogy of which it is the first part are in many respects comparable to Ford Maddox Ford's tetralogy Parade's End (Some Do Not, 1924; No More Parades, 1925; A Man Could Stand Up, 1926; The Last Post, 1928). Both recount an English gentleman of the old school's encounter with war and its social consequences, and both take a realistic, unromantic and extremely effective approach to expressing this in literary form. The deft manner in which Guy Crouchback's Catholic concerns are woven into the narrative once again reminds one of the pioneering work of Graham Greene in making such matters interesting to the general reading public, although it should be emphasized that both Ford and Greene are general influences rather than specific models for Waugh's achievement in Men at Arms and its encompassing trilogy.