Officers and gentlemen
Officers and Gentlemen is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh published in 1955. The story tells the story of a British nobleman in the British Army during World War II . Together with the novels Men At Arms (1952) and Unconditional Surrender (1961), the book forms the trilogy Sword of Honor (German: Without fear and blame ), in which Waugh processed his own experiences in the service of the British Army.
content
The protagonist Guy Crouchback, from whose perspective the story is told, comes from a Catholic English aristocratic family.
The plot ties in directly with the previous novel Men At Arms . After the failure of the Battle of Dakar , Guy Crouchback is waiting in London to see if he will be tried by court-martial or otherwise deployed.
In order to keep him busy, he is assigned to distribute the remains of his dead comrade Apthorpe to his bereaved relatives according to his last will . Guy sets out through southern England under the difficult circumstances of the war of 1940; Immediately after his departure he was transferred to a special command, but under the communication conditions of the time he was not available. The experienced Colonel "Jumbo" Trotter, who has actually already been retired for reasons of age, should find him. The cunning Trotter, who knows all the absurdities and adversities of the military very well, finds Crouchback - on the way he secures his father's stay in a requisitioned hotel - and brings him safely to the (fictional) Hebridean island of Mugg.
A special unit is training there under the command of Tommy Blackhouse, the second husband of Crouchback's ex-wife Virginia. Crouchback's role in the unit is not entirely clear, but he meets Mugg interesting personalities, such as the Grand Seigneur Ivor Claire, whose attitude he greatly admires, or the laird of the island, who is obsessed with the idea of a rocky beach with the help of sappers to blow up his island. He hopes to get to a sandy beach that in peacetime would attract crowds of tourists. The niece of the Laird, who dropped out of her studies on the mainland, is an ardent Scottish nationalist and makes propaganda for Hitler and the Nazis, in the hope of being able to shake off the hated English rule over Scotland.
"Trimmer" McTavish, a low-ranking officer who missed his regiment on the way to Iceland , also landed on Mugg . McTavish is the opposite of Crouchback, an aspiring, ambitious plebeian who worked as a hairdresser on a transatlantic steamer before the war and entertained the upper class ladies there. On a fraudulent country vacation in a Glasgow hotel , he meets an elegant lady whom he recognizes as a former customer from his hairdressing days: It is Guys (and now also) Tommy's ex-wife Virginia, with whom Trimmer begins a short, passionate affair.
Trimmer - in contrast to Crouchback - would prefer to let the war pass by on an extended shore leave, but he is placed in front of a special command that receives the alibi order to blow up a lighthouse on an uninhabited channel island. A submarine is supposed to drop them off off the island; As the troop reached land, Trimmer and his men realized that they had mistakenly reached mainland France, which was occupied by the Germans. Before they retreat to the waiting submarine, they blow up the next best railway track. In England, this action is celebrated by propaganda for a hussar coup and Trimmer (who is promoted to colonel) is sold as a war hero.
Guy Crouchback, meanwhile, is supposed to head the commandos' intelligence unit under Blackhouse. The troops are shipped to Egypt, where they await deployment in Alexandria. For a long time it is unclear whether they should defend Egyptian territory from the advancing German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel or whether they will strengthen the British troops in Crete .
Finally they are transported to Crete. However, by the time they arrive, the battle is already lost from the British point of view. The motivated commandos are met by beaten, wounded and resigned British soldiers who only hope to be removed from the island. Crouchback learns again that his idea of heroic combat has nothing to do with the realities of war. During the day the British hide from the German Air Force, at night they try to get in touch with their high command, to get hold of something to eat or to move towards Sfakia , from where the British soldiers are brought to safety by ship. The general task of the Hookforce is to secure this retreat. They can only carry out their orders immediately before the last transport ships cast off.
According to orders, the rearguard should surrender to the Germans after the evacuation of the regular troops has been completed. However, the soldiers unexpectedly discover another boat that they can use to cross over to Egypt . A group of sappers offers them to come on board. Crouchback leaves the decision to his men - he is the only one on board; the rest of the unit stays in Crete. The crossing is full of privation and loss; eventually the survivors (Guy among them) make it to Alexandria . Guy finds himself in a hospital, Tommy Blackhouse and Ivor Claire are also back in Egypt; The latter is brought to India under the protection of the society lady Mrs. Stitch to avoid a threatened court martial there.
In the company of Mrs. Stitch, Guy learns of the German attack on the Soviet Union . His view of the world is shaken because Stalin's totalitarian atheist empire, which suddenly becomes an allied, appears to him as hostile as the Nazis. Against his will (he hopes to be deployed with his regular regiment, which is waiting in Egypt for the return of his commander Ritchie-Hook), he receives orders to march to England, where he awaits his next deployment.
background
Waugh also processed his own experiences in World War II in Officers and Gentlemen . Like his hero Guy, he was Catholic, from the upper class, unmilitary in habit. Waugh was also stationed with the Commandos and was used in the Battle of Crete. After he had completed the trilogy, he revised it and published it collectively under the title Sword of Honor .
Key characters
Waugh gave many of his characters traits of real people; therefore, his war trilogy was also read as a key novel. Waugh himself, however, resisted a simple 1: 1 assignment.
While Guy Crouchback has many parallels to Waugh's person, Tommy Blackhouse, the Colonel of the Command, is considered to be the image of General Robert Laycock , the founder of the Layforce , which secured the retreat and disembarkation of the British soldiers on Crete as rearguard and later in the special unit Special Air Service rose. But the Grand Seigneur Ivor Clair is also modeled on trains from Lay.
The character of Trimmer McTavish outwardly bears the traits of Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat , although the contrasts between the plebeian impostor Trimmer and the aristocratic adventurer Fraser could hardly be greater. Presumably Waugh was taking revenge on Fraser, who caused Waugh to be released from the commandos ; the literary reminiscence annoyed Fraser in any case: "Do you realize, thanks to that monster, I am Trimmer?" (German: "Do you realize that I am a trimmer because of this monster?")
Diana Cooper served as a model for the character of Mrs. Stitch, who also plays a role in other works by Waugh .
reception
Penelope Lively referred to the Sword of Honor novels in an article for The Atlantic as Waugh's masterpiece , also compared to the much better known reunion with Brideshead .
expenditure
- English: Officers and Gentlemen , 2001, London: Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0141184678
- German: Without fear and blame , German by Werner Peterich, 2016, Zurich: Diogenes, ISBN 978-3257069655
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Waugh hated it when readers tried to identify real people behind the masks of his fictional characters." (Byrne, 2008)
- ↑ See Johnson (2012)
- ^ Johnson (2012)
- ↑ See Johnson (2012)
swell
- Penelope Lively, A Maverick Historian , in: The Atlantic February 2001, online
- Paul Johnson, Novelists at Arms , in: Standpoint Magazine , Jan / Feb 2012, online
- Paula Byrne, Alexander Waugh: Mad World - Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead , in: Literary Review August 2009, pp. 26-27