Men at Arms succeeds in harmoniously integrating the various prose styles Waugh employed in Decline and Fall (1928) and Brideshead Revisited.

There are many moments of heightened humor and seriousness, but they are now blended into the flow of the plot rather than set off by radical alterations in style and mood. The lushness and overt sentimentality of the serious sections of Brideshead Revisited are nowhere in evidence, and the wild humor of Decline and Fall has been toned down to a much more realistic level. Men at Arms represents the culmination of Waugh's search for a style which would enable him to deal with the complete range of human experience, and it graphically demonstrates why even writers who dislike his religious and social views have usually expressed admiration for his mastery of literary technique.