“Much to repent and repair”: Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour and Modern War Literature

Although Evelyn Waugh’s World War II trilogy Sword of Honour is often read for its distinctly Roman Catholic critique of the war, not enough attention has been paid to the central role that the sacrament of penance plays in Waugh’s depiction of the war and the narrative structure of the trilogy. Guy Crouchback’s spiritual journey towards true repentance during the war is echoed formally by Waugh’s construction of a retrospective and didactic narrative that encourages the reader to look back and reflect, resulting in a war literature that is Catholic both in content and form.