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Fortunes of War #4-6
Fortunes of War: The Levant Trilogy
In The Levant Trilogy Olivia Manning returns to the story of the young English couple Guy and Harriet Pringle, last seen, at the end of The Balkan Trilogy, departing from Athens ahead of the invading Nazi army. Now, in the spring of 1941, they arrive in Egypt as Rommel’s forces slowly but surely approach Cairo across the Sahara from the west. Will the city fall? In the streets the people contemplate welcoming a new set of occupiers, while European refugees and well-heeled Anglo-Egyptians prepare to pack their bags. And at night, everyone who is anyone flocks to the city’s famed hotels and seedy cabarets, seeking one last dance before the tanks roll in.
Manning describes the Pringles’ ever complicated marriage and their motley group of friends and foes with the same sharp eye that earned The Balkan Trilogy a devoted following. And she also traces the fortunes of a marvelously drawn new character, Simon Boulderstone, a twenty-year-old recruit who must grapple with the boredom, chaos, and fleeting exhilaration of war.
Manning describes the Pringles’ ever complicated marriage and their motley group of friends and foes with the same sharp eye that earned The Balkan Trilogy a devoted following. And she also traces the fortunes of a marvelously drawn new character, Simon Boulderstone, a twenty-year-old recruit who must grapple with the boredom, chaos, and fleeting exhilaration of war.
584 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1980
235 people are currently reading
2047 people want to read
About the author
Olivia Manning
40 books175 followersOlivia Manning CBE was a British novelist, poet, writer and reviewer. Her fiction and non-fiction, frequently detailing journeys and personal odysseys, were principally set in England, Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. She often wrote from her personal experience, though her books also demonstrate strengths in imaginative writing. Her books are widely admired for her artistic eye and vivid descriptions of place.
In August 1939 she married R.D. Smith ("Reggie"), a British Council lecturer posted in Bucharest, Romania, and subsequently in Greece, Egypt and Palestine as the Nazis over-ran Eastern Europe. Her experiences formed the basis for her best known work, the six novels making up "The Balkan Trilogy" and "The Levant Trilogy," known collectively as Fortunes of War. As she had feared, real fame only came after her death in 1980, when an adaptation of "Fortunes of War" was televised in 1987.
In August 1939 she married R.D. Smith ("Reggie"), a British Council lecturer posted in Bucharest, Romania, and subsequently in Greece, Egypt and Palestine as the Nazis over-ran Eastern Europe. Her experiences formed the basis for her best known work, the six novels making up "The Balkan Trilogy" and "The Levant Trilogy," known collectively as Fortunes of War. As she had feared, real fame only came after her death in 1980, when an adaptation of "Fortunes of War" was televised in 1987.
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April 26, 2017
This is the second trilogy in an hexalogy about (mostly) Brits in the Second World War being expatriates. We've picked up a soldier in this one and he takes us to the war in chapters that alternate with the continuing story of Guy and Harriet Pringle and their revolving cast of characters. The setting is Cairo, mostly, but there are sidetrips to Damascus and Jerusalem, because all sunshine makes a desert, they say, and they'll have tea in Syria, won't they?
I wondered, and still do wonder, how much of what Manning wrote here is scorching satire. A reader can't be quite sure how much was intentional. It's almost as if Manning was saying, "Look, I was there and this is what I saw and heard, and it's unadulterated. But you tell me what it means." I show, you tell. And she does that with war, with Britishness, and with marriage.
An example:
Guy is almost caricature-ish in being insensitive to Harriet's needs and desires. He's not a lout, not a bad man, just unaware because he's far too busy explaining Finnegan's Wake to a couple of Egyptian students and otherwise prepping the Levantine soil for a Marxist garden. As a kind of Aw Shucks apology, he develops the habit of calling Harriet my little monkey's paw. Manning never shares Harriet's thoughts on this little endearment. Not once. But I'm absolutely convinced she hated it.
She does the same thing with Guy's Marxist pronouncements. She neither condemns nor endorses them. But you know Harriet must have some opinion.
Sometimes she's not that subtle though. An example here, where a British soldier helps Harriet find accommodations in Syria:
He led her across the square and into a side street. There was more rifle fire and she asked what the trouble was.
'Just the wogs. They're always ticking.'
'What's it like here in Damascus?'
'Same as everywhere else. Lot of bloody foreigners.'
Unsaid is that the British are never foreign. But how far does Manning want the reader to take that? Perhaps very far. Harriet and the naïve new soldier are having this discussion about the 'gyppos':
'You don't think they'd turn on us after all they've done for them?'
Harriet laughed at him. 'What have we done for them?'
'We've brought them justice and prosperity, haven't we? We've shown them how people ought to live.'
. . . .
'What have we done here, except make money? I suppose a few rich Egyptians have got richer by supporting us, but the real people of the country, the peasants and the backstreet poor, are just as diseased, underfed and wretched as they ever were.'
Aware of his own ignorance, Simon did not argue but changed course. 'Surely they're glad to have us here to protect them?'
'They don't think we're here to protect them. They think we're here to use them. And so we are. We're protecting the Suez Canal and the route to India and Clifford's oil company.'
This led me to think about a character who never appears in the book: Franklin Roosevelt. Historians have painted him in heroic hues, but Roosevelt was a pragmatist, a politician, a charmer. He could lie, too, if he had too. He would need all these skills to deal with his new best friends, Stalin and Churchill. Hero-worshipers like to think that Roosevelt and Churchill acted in collusion, wary of Stalin, and that's certainly true to some extent. Lost often, though, is that Roosevelt played Churchill as much as the pair of them tried to play Stalin. Roosevelt did so because he was well aware that Churchill did not want to lose the war, but perhaps not secondarily, did not want to lose the Empire. I thought of that as I heard a seasoned soldier in this book speak: Fresh blood and fresh equipment: that's what we need. Give us both and we'll manage somehow. They've got Hitler's intuition and we've got Churchill's interference: 'bout evens things up, wouldn't you say?
Before I end, this:
War brings death. And death came here. In each trilogy an adult civilian is killed by a gunshot, each time a sort of mistake. But early in this last trilogy, a young boy picks up a grenade in the desert while his mother, oblivious, paints nearby. There is a hole on the side of his face when he is brought home. He will be dead, he is dying. The guests in the home know this. The teller of the story knows this, yes she does. But the parents do not. They are not blinded by grief. They are, instead, unaware of what's been really done. Instead they think a cool drink will help. The father pours water into the hole. But the water keeps spilling out.
Yes, I believe the teller of the story knows this.
I wondered, and still do wonder, how much of what Manning wrote here is scorching satire. A reader can't be quite sure how much was intentional. It's almost as if Manning was saying, "Look, I was there and this is what I saw and heard, and it's unadulterated. But you tell me what it means." I show, you tell. And she does that with war, with Britishness, and with marriage.
An example:
Guy is almost caricature-ish in being insensitive to Harriet's needs and desires. He's not a lout, not a bad man, just unaware because he's far too busy explaining Finnegan's Wake to a couple of Egyptian students and otherwise prepping the Levantine soil for a Marxist garden. As a kind of Aw Shucks apology, he develops the habit of calling Harriet my little monkey's paw. Manning never shares Harriet's thoughts on this little endearment. Not once. But I'm absolutely convinced she hated it.
She does the same thing with Guy's Marxist pronouncements. She neither condemns nor endorses them. But you know Harriet must have some opinion.
Sometimes she's not that subtle though. An example here, where a British soldier helps Harriet find accommodations in Syria:
He led her across the square and into a side street. There was more rifle fire and she asked what the trouble was.
'Just the wogs. They're always ticking.'
'What's it like here in Damascus?'
'Same as everywhere else. Lot of bloody foreigners.'
Unsaid is that the British are never foreign. But how far does Manning want the reader to take that? Perhaps very far. Harriet and the naïve new soldier are having this discussion about the 'gyppos':
'You don't think they'd turn on us after all they've done for them?'
Harriet laughed at him. 'What have we done for them?'
'We've brought them justice and prosperity, haven't we? We've shown them how people ought to live.'
. . . .
'What have we done here, except make money? I suppose a few rich Egyptians have got richer by supporting us, but the real people of the country, the peasants and the backstreet poor, are just as diseased, underfed and wretched as they ever were.'
Aware of his own ignorance, Simon did not argue but changed course. 'Surely they're glad to have us here to protect them?'
'They don't think we're here to protect them. They think we're here to use them. And so we are. We're protecting the Suez Canal and the route to India and Clifford's oil company.'
This led me to think about a character who never appears in the book: Franklin Roosevelt. Historians have painted him in heroic hues, but Roosevelt was a pragmatist, a politician, a charmer. He could lie, too, if he had too. He would need all these skills to deal with his new best friends, Stalin and Churchill. Hero-worshipers like to think that Roosevelt and Churchill acted in collusion, wary of Stalin, and that's certainly true to some extent. Lost often, though, is that Roosevelt played Churchill as much as the pair of them tried to play Stalin. Roosevelt did so because he was well aware that Churchill did not want to lose the war, but perhaps not secondarily, did not want to lose the Empire. I thought of that as I heard a seasoned soldier in this book speak: Fresh blood and fresh equipment: that's what we need. Give us both and we'll manage somehow. They've got Hitler's intuition and we've got Churchill's interference: 'bout evens things up, wouldn't you say?
Before I end, this:
War brings death. And death came here. In each trilogy an adult civilian is killed by a gunshot, each time a sort of mistake. But early in this last trilogy, a young boy picks up a grenade in the desert while his mother, oblivious, paints nearby. There is a hole on the side of his face when he is brought home. He will be dead, he is dying. The guests in the home know this. The teller of the story knows this, yes she does. But the parents do not. They are not blinded by grief. They are, instead, unaware of what's been really done. Instead they think a cool drink will help. The father pours water into the hole. But the water keeps spilling out.
Yes, I believe the teller of the story knows this.
June 10, 2015
The three books which make up The Levant Trilogy are “The Danger Tree,” “The Battle Lost and Won,” and “The Sum of Things.” These novels follow on from Oliva Manning’s, “The Balkan Trilogy,” in which we first met young married couple, Guy and Harriet Pringle. .” In the Balkan novels, we followed newlyweds, Guy and Harriet Pringle, as they embarked on married life in Budapest – later moving to Greece. “The Danger Tree” sees many of these characters reappear, such as Pinkrose, Dubebat, Lush and Dobson. There are also new characters, such as the young officer, Simon Boulderstone, who has been separated from his unit, and the beautiful Edwina.
“The Danger Tree,” sees the Pringles now in Egypt; having fled Greece at the end of the “Balkan Trilogy,” As before, the move has not seen them any more settled – there are constant rumours of the planned evacuation of Cairo and the city seems to have become the, “clearing house of Eastern Europe.” Guy, so trusting and naïve, is hurt when Gracey appears to have no use for him in the organisation and finds himself shunted off to Alexandria, where Harriet worries he will be cut off by the approaching Germans. Unwilling to accept he is not wanted by Gracey, and always giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, Guy attempts to bury himself in work.
As always, Harriet is in the unenviable position of seeing Guy always admired, and used, by his many friends; while he gives his attentions to his students, his friends and his acquaintances, but never to her. She feels ill-used, neglected and at a loss of how to help, making excuses for her husband, while the war continues to cause chaos around her. Simon Boulderstone is a good new character, whose attempts to find his unit, his struggles with the life of the army, and the sheer confusion of war, open up a new vista to these books, in showing us the men who are fighting, as well as the civilians who are coping with the encroaching war.
The second in the trilogy, “The Battle Lost and Won,” follows seamlessly on from, “The Danger Tree,” and begins with Simon Boulderstone arriveng in Cairo on leave. Simon had been under the belief that his brother, Hugo’s, girl was Edwina, who has a room in Dobson’s apartment, as do the Pringles and Lady Angela Hooper. Edwina though, is a frivolous girl, currently obsessed with a titled beau, called Peter, and the minor embarrassment caused over Simon’s uncomfortable arrival, results in his later being promoted to a liaison officer.
As in the other novels though, it is Harriet Pringle who remains centre stage in the story. She watches Edwina’s doomed pursuit of Peter and Angela’s odd obsession with the drunken Castlebar, both married men, with concern. As always, Guy is obsessed with work – he has now also been promoted and relishes his new responsibility to run the organisation. Giving lectures, finding teachers, organising entertainment for the troops. He pays little attention to Harriet and treats her as though she is little more than a nuisance. When she becomes ill, and Guy takes a gift Angela has given her to pass on to Edwina, Harriet decides to return to England.
With all these books, Olivia Manning tells the story of war from the personal level. We are aware of rising Egyptian nationalism, of the tide of war turning as Rommel retreats, of how locals sneer at the English before the war turns in their favour, but this is cleverly done. Manning is not as interested in the main theatre of war – she is in the dressing room with the actors, who hear everything in whispers and snippets and rumours. As such, shocking events – such as an assassination – take on an air of farce.
“The Sum of Things,” is the third in The Levantine Trilogy. In this concluding volume, Harriet heads for Damascus, having failed to board the ship to England that Guy wanted her to take. Unbeknownst to her, the ship was torpedoed and there are only a handful of survivors. Meanwhile, Harriet has no idea that Guy imagines she is dead.
Many of the characters in earlier books also appear here, including the frivolous Edwina, Dobson, Angela Hooper, Castlebar, Aidan Pratt and the young officer, Simon Boulderstone, who was injured at the end of the last book. Guy finds his comfortable existence interrupted by news of Harriet’s death and is injured at any criticism of how he treated her. While Edwina attempts to use Harriet’s absence to integrate himself, Guy attempts to “take on” Simon.
This book follows both Harriet’s journey and her encounters, as she travels from Damascus and eventually to Jerusalem, and Guy’s continued life in Cairo. Eventually, the two are reunited and the novel end with how the war has changed all of the characters. This is a moving, but realistic, conclusion to the war of Guy and Harriet Pringle and the cast of supporting characters. The war has made many grow more mature, has made others attempt to use the time they have to advance themselves and has brought others death, changed circumstances and different opportunities. I enjoyed this book very much and, indeed, the entire six volumes. Harriet Pringle is certainly one of the fictional characters that will stay with me and I found her journey fascinating. Overall, I think I preferred “The Balkan Trilogy,” to this series, but both are expertly written and well realised accounts of a young couple coping not only with married life in insecure times, but with a war which chases them continually from one precarious existence to another. These are books I return to every few years and, each time, find more to enjoy
“The Danger Tree,” sees the Pringles now in Egypt; having fled Greece at the end of the “Balkan Trilogy,” As before, the move has not seen them any more settled – there are constant rumours of the planned evacuation of Cairo and the city seems to have become the, “clearing house of Eastern Europe.” Guy, so trusting and naïve, is hurt when Gracey appears to have no use for him in the organisation and finds himself shunted off to Alexandria, where Harriet worries he will be cut off by the approaching Germans. Unwilling to accept he is not wanted by Gracey, and always giving everyone the benefit of the doubt, Guy attempts to bury himself in work.
As always, Harriet is in the unenviable position of seeing Guy always admired, and used, by his many friends; while he gives his attentions to his students, his friends and his acquaintances, but never to her. She feels ill-used, neglected and at a loss of how to help, making excuses for her husband, while the war continues to cause chaos around her. Simon Boulderstone is a good new character, whose attempts to find his unit, his struggles with the life of the army, and the sheer confusion of war, open up a new vista to these books, in showing us the men who are fighting, as well as the civilians who are coping with the encroaching war.
The second in the trilogy, “The Battle Lost and Won,” follows seamlessly on from, “The Danger Tree,” and begins with Simon Boulderstone arriveng in Cairo on leave. Simon had been under the belief that his brother, Hugo’s, girl was Edwina, who has a room in Dobson’s apartment, as do the Pringles and Lady Angela Hooper. Edwina though, is a frivolous girl, currently obsessed with a titled beau, called Peter, and the minor embarrassment caused over Simon’s uncomfortable arrival, results in his later being promoted to a liaison officer.
As in the other novels though, it is Harriet Pringle who remains centre stage in the story. She watches Edwina’s doomed pursuit of Peter and Angela’s odd obsession with the drunken Castlebar, both married men, with concern. As always, Guy is obsessed with work – he has now also been promoted and relishes his new responsibility to run the organisation. Giving lectures, finding teachers, organising entertainment for the troops. He pays little attention to Harriet and treats her as though she is little more than a nuisance. When she becomes ill, and Guy takes a gift Angela has given her to pass on to Edwina, Harriet decides to return to England.
With all these books, Olivia Manning tells the story of war from the personal level. We are aware of rising Egyptian nationalism, of the tide of war turning as Rommel retreats, of how locals sneer at the English before the war turns in their favour, but this is cleverly done. Manning is not as interested in the main theatre of war – she is in the dressing room with the actors, who hear everything in whispers and snippets and rumours. As such, shocking events – such as an assassination – take on an air of farce.
“The Sum of Things,” is the third in The Levantine Trilogy. In this concluding volume, Harriet heads for Damascus, having failed to board the ship to England that Guy wanted her to take. Unbeknownst to her, the ship was torpedoed and there are only a handful of survivors. Meanwhile, Harriet has no idea that Guy imagines she is dead.
Many of the characters in earlier books also appear here, including the frivolous Edwina, Dobson, Angela Hooper, Castlebar, Aidan Pratt and the young officer, Simon Boulderstone, who was injured at the end of the last book. Guy finds his comfortable existence interrupted by news of Harriet’s death and is injured at any criticism of how he treated her. While Edwina attempts to use Harriet’s absence to integrate himself, Guy attempts to “take on” Simon.
This book follows both Harriet’s journey and her encounters, as she travels from Damascus and eventually to Jerusalem, and Guy’s continued life in Cairo. Eventually, the two are reunited and the novel end with how the war has changed all of the characters. This is a moving, but realistic, conclusion to the war of Guy and Harriet Pringle and the cast of supporting characters. The war has made many grow more mature, has made others attempt to use the time they have to advance themselves and has brought others death, changed circumstances and different opportunities. I enjoyed this book very much and, indeed, the entire six volumes. Harriet Pringle is certainly one of the fictional characters that will stay with me and I found her journey fascinating. Overall, I think I preferred “The Balkan Trilogy,” to this series, but both are expertly written and well realised accounts of a young couple coping not only with married life in insecure times, but with a war which chases them continually from one precarious existence to another. These are books I return to every few years and, each time, find more to enjoy
January 30, 2024
When the first book opens there’s a battle campaign in full tilt. In fact there are two. One is on the grand scale and affecting more lives than can be imagined. The other is so small it’s scarcely noticed. Except by Harriet Pringle. Because while her private campaign still wearies on, it’s obvious to her as much as to the reader, that it’s already lost. Lost on the day she tossed away the idea of making her own life, met a man whose temperament is a world apart from her own, married on a whim and followed him into a series of war zones.
Two years on, the settings of the second trilogy have changed with the progress of Harriet’s war. But the themes are constant wherever she pitches up: her husband’s complete self-absorption, the resulting neglect, the loneliness, and the worthlessness of whatever corner of wartime she’s become a refugee in.
This second story sets out from her arrival in Cairo in the spring of ’41, in the midst of the battle for North Africa and with Rommel at the gates of the city. In time she makes an escape of her own - alone - into Palestine, where she has more time to think about the fix she’s in. At the outset of war, her alternative was to volunteer in the British forces. By now it looks to her as if marriage had been the wrong rush decision. Given the time and place (the tide has begun turning for the Allies) her question is whether to look for a way out, or take her marriage on the chin and find a way to live with it.
Her answer? For that you need to work through close on six-hundred, tight-packed pages in this edition. They have you rooting for her all the way .
Two years on, the settings of the second trilogy have changed with the progress of Harriet’s war. But the themes are constant wherever she pitches up: her husband’s complete self-absorption, the resulting neglect, the loneliness, and the worthlessness of whatever corner of wartime she’s become a refugee in.
This second story sets out from her arrival in Cairo in the spring of ’41, in the midst of the battle for North Africa and with Rommel at the gates of the city. In time she makes an escape of her own - alone - into Palestine, where she has more time to think about the fix she’s in. At the outset of war, her alternative was to volunteer in the British forces. By now it looks to her as if marriage had been the wrong rush decision. Given the time and place (the tide has begun turning for the Allies) her question is whether to look for a way out, or take her marriage on the chin and find a way to live with it.
Her answer? For that you need to work through close on six-hundred, tight-packed pages in this edition. They have you rooting for her all the way .
April 21, 2017
Three and a half stars. The Levant Trilogy is a wonderful coda to The Balkan Trilogy and a delicate, beautifully rendered portrait of a struggling marriage and the final chaos of war. Psychologically the Levant Trilogy may in fact go deeper than the Balkan Trilogy. It kind of depends on your favorite style but for me it was a bit of a let down after the The Balkan Trilogy, which I loved and devoured with unseemly haste. Harriet and Guy Pringle did not wear particularly well in this second trilogy, nor did their tiresome friends. By the third book in the trilogy I was quite ready to abandon the whole lot of them although
The new characters lacked the dash and vibrancy of Prince Yakimov, the displaced European nobility, the crazed Rumanian agitators who peopled The Balkan Trilogy. Now, as the World War II drags through its final years, Egypt seems to be filled mostly with worn out remnants of a fading British Empire.
Guy's tireless campaigning for Shakespeare, poetry lectures and silly revues seems more pointless than ever. Harriet spends much of the series deeply depressed and sick with amoebic dysentery and when she goes off on her own in the third book she has no money, which rather limits the sightseeing and fine dining. It was realistic, but it reminded me of the saying that life is what happens while you're waiting for something else.
Among the new characters my favorite was Simon Boulderstone, a twenty year old officer facing his first combat experience in the North African campaign. The battle scenes were very convincing, as were the descriptions of the dreary life in camp in between fighting: the flies, the impossible heat, the mingled anxiety and boredom. Unfortunately Simon
The BBC mini-series The Fortunes of War was better than the The Levant Trilogy. It's not often I say that the movie was better than the book, but the last three episodes of the BBC's 1987 dramatization cover the events of The Levant Trilogy superbly and make the characters more accessible. Kenneth Branagh's Guy Pringle is simultaneously infuriating and lovable, while Emma Thompson gives Harriet an amused, sardonic edge--and makes her character's slide into depression entirely understandable. The superb ensemble cast, notably Charles Kay as 'Dobbie' Dobson and Robert Stephens as Castlebar, bring welcome humor and warmth to characters who seemed sterile and even repulsive in the novel.
Content rating PG: Some sexual encounters mostly heard rather than seen (this is a hilarious scene in the mini-series, much funnier than the book), some drearily clinical mentions of body parts, etc. Graphic battle scenes. Scatological and prurient language.
The new characters lacked the dash and vibrancy of Prince Yakimov, the displaced European nobility, the crazed Rumanian agitators who peopled The Balkan Trilogy. Now, as the World War II drags through its final years, Egypt seems to be filled mostly with worn out remnants of a fading British Empire.
Guy's tireless campaigning for Shakespeare, poetry lectures and silly revues seems more pointless than ever. Harriet spends much of the series deeply depressed and sick with amoebic dysentery and when she goes off on her own in the third book she has no money, which rather limits the sightseeing and fine dining. It was realistic, but it reminded me of the saying that life is what happens while you're waiting for something else.
Among the new characters my favorite was Simon Boulderstone, a twenty year old officer facing his first combat experience in the North African campaign. The battle scenes were very convincing, as were the descriptions of the dreary life in camp in between fighting: the flies, the impossible heat, the mingled anxiety and boredom. Unfortunately Simon
The BBC mini-series The Fortunes of War was better than the The Levant Trilogy. It's not often I say that the movie was better than the book, but the last three episodes of the BBC's 1987 dramatization cover the events of The Levant Trilogy superbly and make the characters more accessible. Kenneth Branagh's Guy Pringle is simultaneously infuriating and lovable, while Emma Thompson gives Harriet an amused, sardonic edge--and makes her character's slide into depression entirely understandable. The superb ensemble cast, notably Charles Kay as 'Dobbie' Dobson and Robert Stephens as Castlebar, bring welcome humor and warmth to characters who seemed sterile and even repulsive in the novel.
Content rating PG: Some sexual encounters mostly heard rather than seen (this is a hilarious scene in the mini-series, much funnier than the book), some drearily clinical mentions of body parts, etc. Graphic battle scenes. Scatological and prurient language.
September 20, 2021
Με τον δευτερο τομο να με κουράζει κ να σέρνομαι αναγνωστικά, εφτασα τελικα στο τρίτο που με αποζημίωσε... τουλάχιστον πηρα την απάντησή μου για το ζευγος Πρινγκλ!
February 8, 2017
"In an imperfect world, marriage was a matter of making do with what one had chosen."
In this second trilogy of Guy and Harriet Pringle, we learn more of their marriage, their travels from Budapest to Greece to Egypt during WWII, their friends, and the Battle of El Alamein (both of them).
Guy continues to be self-centered and blind to the needs of his wife, but always on call for his friends. In "The Balkan Trilogy", they were newlyweds and Harriett was learning that romance didn't last when real life came barging in. In this second set of books, she takes action on a marriage that has been disappointing. And along the way, we meet some of the people thrown together because of the war. We also travel through some beautiful scenery in the land of the pyramids and the dawn of civilization.
I really enjoyed this second set of novels. The whole series together gave me a view of WWII that I was unaware of before; the fight for the Balkans and the action in North Africa. And yes, Harriet finds a way to save her marriage and fight for her independence at the same time.
In this second trilogy of Guy and Harriet Pringle, we learn more of their marriage, their travels from Budapest to Greece to Egypt during WWII, their friends, and the Battle of El Alamein (both of them).
Guy continues to be self-centered and blind to the needs of his wife, but always on call for his friends. In "The Balkan Trilogy", they were newlyweds and Harriett was learning that romance didn't last when real life came barging in. In this second set of books, she takes action on a marriage that has been disappointing. And along the way, we meet some of the people thrown together because of the war. We also travel through some beautiful scenery in the land of the pyramids and the dawn of civilization.
I really enjoyed this second set of novels. The whole series together gave me a view of WWII that I was unaware of before; the fight for the Balkans and the action in North Africa. And yes, Harriet finds a way to save her marriage and fight for her independence at the same time.
May 22, 2020
Το βαθμολογώ πάνω από 5, η συνέχεια, η κορύφωση και το τέλος της ιστορίας που ξεκίνησε με την Βαλκανική Τριλογία.
Αν σας αρέσει
ο Τσίρκας, ο Ντάρρελλ, ο Σεφέρης,
η ατμόσφαιρα των "ακυβέρνητων πολιτειών" (Κάιρο, Αλεξάνδρεια, Ιεροσόλυμα, Βηρυτός) της εποχής του δευτέρου παγκοσμίου πολέμου,
στρατιωτικοί, διπλωμάτες, κατάσκοποι, τυχοδιώκτες, διανοούμενοι, αλκοολικοί και "βδέλλες"-εν ολίγοις κάθε καρυδιάς καρύδι, άνθρωποι παρασυρμένοι σαν φύλλα στον άνεμο από τα γεγονότα της εποχής.
Παρακολουθούμε δυό-τρεις ανθρώπους στην πορεία τους προς την ενηλικίωση μέσα σ'αυτόν τον ανεμοστρόβιλο που τους έτυχε να ζήσουν.
Και μια ιστορία αγάπης.
Αν σας αρέσει
ο Τσίρκας, ο Ντάρρελλ, ο Σεφέρης,
η ατμόσφαιρα των "ακυβέρνητων πολιτειών" (Κάιρο, Αλεξάνδρεια, Ιεροσόλυμα, Βηρυτός) της εποχής του δευτέρου παγκοσμίου πολέμου,
στρατιωτικοί, διπλωμάτες, κατάσκοποι, τυχοδιώκτες, διανοούμενοι, αλκοολικοί και "βδέλλες"-εν ολίγοις κάθε καρυδιάς καρύδι, άνθρωποι παρασυρμένοι σαν φύλλα στον άνεμο από τα γεγονότα της εποχής.
Παρακολουθούμε δυό-τρεις ανθρώπους στην πορεία τους προς την ενηλικίωση μέσα σ'αυτόν τον ανεμοστρόβιλο που τους έτυχε να ζήσουν.
Και μια ιστορία αγάπης.
September 7, 2014
Better than the Balkan Trilogy, Manning writes with searing honesty about Guy and Harriet Pringle -- the thinly fictionalized version of her own marriage. Unlike the first three books that comprise the Balkan Trilogy, the focus here is almost entirely on Harriet. Especially in the middle book (the fifth of the six total books in the Fortunes of War), she is relentlessly self-examining. And, in the course of the fifth and sixth book, she learns something about herself.
"Perhaps she had expected too much from marriage, but were her expectations reasonable?'
"'This,' she thought, 'is marriage: knowing too much about each other.'"
"She wanted a union of mutual devotion, while he saw marriage merely as a frame merely to hold an indiscriminate medley of relationships that, as often as not, were too capacious to be contained."
"She wanted a large, comfortable man as friend and companion, like Guy, but without his intolerable gregariousness."
Yet, in the end, his very inattentiveness becomes a positive: "Could she, after all, have borne with some possessive, interfering, jealous fellow who would have wanted her to account for every breath she breathed? Not for long."
Manning's language is worth the read:
In Egypt, Guy was "Lecturing on English literature, teaching the English language, he had been peddling the idea of empire to a country that only wanted one thing: to be rid of the British for good and all."
One character receives a "Dear John" letter from his wife in England, seeking a divorce, signed "Ever Yours, Anne".
"The little black triangle of the pyramids came out of the mist as they had done every evening for some four thousand years."
"Perhaps she had expected too much from marriage, but were her expectations reasonable?'
"'This,' she thought, 'is marriage: knowing too much about each other.'"
"She wanted a union of mutual devotion, while he saw marriage merely as a frame merely to hold an indiscriminate medley of relationships that, as often as not, were too capacious to be contained."
"She wanted a large, comfortable man as friend and companion, like Guy, but without his intolerable gregariousness."
Yet, in the end, his very inattentiveness becomes a positive: "Could she, after all, have borne with some possessive, interfering, jealous fellow who would have wanted her to account for every breath she breathed? Not for long."
Manning's language is worth the read:
In Egypt, Guy was "Lecturing on English literature, teaching the English language, he had been peddling the idea of empire to a country that only wanted one thing: to be rid of the British for good and all."
One character receives a "Dear John" letter from his wife in England, seeking a divorce, signed "Ever Yours, Anne".
"The little black triangle of the pyramids came out of the mist as they had done every evening for some four thousand years."
December 16, 2014
A must-read after The Balkan Trilogy, this sees Harriet becoming her own woman - eventually. Manning's experiences in Egypt and the Levant give the books an air of authenticity. The third book is largely an indulgence which gives her the opportunity to describe wartime Damascus, Beirut and Jerusalem but the descriptions are beautifully written and read just as well as a travelogue as fiction. I'm still not sure if Manning is a great author but I have thoroughly enjoyed taking this wartime journey with her. I've learned a great deal about many of the events of WWII and quickly became involved with the characters. I'm really sorry to have finished these books and I'm sad that there aren't any more in this series.
August 17, 2022
Minor grammatical tidying, 13 March 2021
The review does contain spoilers.
Someone posited that Guy Pringle is one of the great characters of twentieth century literature. He is certainly an interesting one: a charismatic fellow who attracts people to him, whether they be colleagues, his students or English expatriates far from home. Generally though they are disappointing as company and some of them are not at all attractive. But that is not the point, Guy thrives on conviviality. Absorbed in his work as a British Council lecturer in literature in wartime Cairo, he has time for everybody except for his wife Harriet, whom he takes for granted while thinking he understands her feelings and needs better than she does herself.
I think Harriet Pringle is the greater character: wise and helpful for newly married young soldier Simon Boulderstone, freshly arrived from England; she is the one who counsels Guy to be diplomatic when he is trying to negotiate a job with the odious Gracey; the one who sees Edwina Little for the beautiful, sweet but shallow girl she is; the one who befriends Lady Angela Cooper, not her type at all; the one who accurately reads the feelings and emotions of those around her.
Being with her in her thoughts is the most rewarding place in the narrative. Harriet appreciates her own strengths and limitations, even if less sure about what to do about her circumstances. Like her friends and acquaintances, she is living on the edge of a war: which impacts her life completely if indirectly: she is in a state of permanent impermanence. Harriet is in a foreign land, with a temporary job soon to end and Rommel’s army bearing down on Cairo. She feels disquiet because her husband pays her little attention while he thinks he doesn’t need to.
When she eventually takes action, spontaneously hitching a ride to Damascus rather than boarding the ship taking her back to England, she realises she is pretty much alone and needs helps from others but trusts her judgement about people, especially who she might find attractive.
A pivotal moment comes when Harriet is guided around Damascus by Halal, an educated Arab who does the legal work for his father’s silk factory. He aspires to having an English lady by his side and regards Harriet as suitable, despite her being married. They visit a mosque. Reluctant to wear a dusty and not over-clean black robe Harriet dons it but is obliged to use the hood to hide her face. But she asks why she must wear it. Halal replies:
They proceed, then the mosque keeper indicates she needs to be barefoot. Harriet says in Egypt they give you slippers, but Halal tells her they are more strict here. I was reminded of Geraldine Brooks remarkable book Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, about the Muslim women she got to know as a journalist in Egypt and the Middle East in the 1980s, which among other things brought out the subtle and not so subtle differences in Muslim practices in the different countries (and even within them).
Escorted by Halal she becomes aware that no one is bothering her for a moment:
The Pringles are in Egypt because they fled Greece as the Germans took the country. As Rommel is poised 50 miles from Cairo they expect to have to move again. Interwoven with the story of the Pringles is the desert campaign of Lieutenant Boulderstone, 20 years old and an innocent abroad. He is, however, not without resource, though he struggles at times to comprehend what is happening around him and to him. We follow his discovery of competencies he never knew he had, as he deals with the reality of war in the desert, including the loss of his brother and ultimately his naivety. Like all the characters major and minor in Olivia Manning’s book Simon is carefully and individually drawn. The characters stay with you long after the book is finished. Simon’s interactions with Harriet and Guy bookend the trilogy. At the beginning Harriet, with experience and maturity guides the boy in his first days in Egypt. Later, After Simon is severely wounded, Guy attempts to help him, more out of duty than anything else, with less understanding of what the young man is going through.
The authenticity of Manning’s writing is beyond dispute, skilfully telling the story of these men at war, as richly evocative of the life in the desert in the sporadic skirmishes as she is at depicting life in the capital among the expatriates. Only towards the very end does it feels like she was over it, having written the two trilogies for a long period of time.
There was a BBC production made in 1987 entitled Fortunes of War, combining the earlier The Balkan Trilogy with The Levant Trilogy, with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as the Pringles. As I was reading I didn’t have anyone in particular in mind who would make a good Guy Pringle but Harriet struck me as being like Tara Fitzgerald, small, slight and dark with surprising strength. Not sure I want to watch the adaptation, but I now need to read The Balkan Trilogy, having just found it in a second hand bookshop.
-Ian’s Book of the Year 2018
The review does contain spoilers.
Someone posited that Guy Pringle is one of the great characters of twentieth century literature. He is certainly an interesting one: a charismatic fellow who attracts people to him, whether they be colleagues, his students or English expatriates far from home. Generally though they are disappointing as company and some of them are not at all attractive. But that is not the point, Guy thrives on conviviality. Absorbed in his work as a British Council lecturer in literature in wartime Cairo, he has time for everybody except for his wife Harriet, whom he takes for granted while thinking he understands her feelings and needs better than she does herself.
I think Harriet Pringle is the greater character: wise and helpful for newly married young soldier Simon Boulderstone, freshly arrived from England; she is the one who counsels Guy to be diplomatic when he is trying to negotiate a job with the odious Gracey; the one who sees Edwina Little for the beautiful, sweet but shallow girl she is; the one who befriends Lady Angela Cooper, not her type at all; the one who accurately reads the feelings and emotions of those around her.
Being with her in her thoughts is the most rewarding place in the narrative. Harriet appreciates her own strengths and limitations, even if less sure about what to do about her circumstances. Like her friends and acquaintances, she is living on the edge of a war: which impacts her life completely if indirectly: she is in a state of permanent impermanence. Harriet is in a foreign land, with a temporary job soon to end and Rommel’s army bearing down on Cairo. She feels disquiet because her husband pays her little attention while he thinks he doesn’t need to.
When she eventually takes action, spontaneously hitching a ride to Damascus rather than boarding the ship taking her back to England, she realises she is pretty much alone and needs helps from others but trusts her judgement about people, especially who she might find attractive.
A pivotal moment comes when Harriet is guided around Damascus by Halal, an educated Arab who does the legal work for his father’s silk factory. He aspires to having an English lady by his side and regards Harriet as suitable, despite her being married. They visit a mosque. Reluctant to wear a dusty and not over-clean black robe Harriet dons it but is obliged to use the hood to hide her face. But she asks why she must wear it. Halal replies:
‘…they fear a lady will distract the men from their devotions. The men have, you understand, strong desires.’ (And she replies) ‘You mean they are frustrated. Tell him that you can’t make men chaste by keeping women out of sight.’
Halal stared at her, disconcerted, then smiled, not knowing what else to do: ‘You are an unusual lady, Mrs Pringle. Very unusual. You think for yourself.’
‘Where I come from that’s not unusual.’ (p448)
They proceed, then the mosque keeper indicates she needs to be barefoot. Harriet says in Egypt they give you slippers, but Halal tells her they are more strict here. I was reminded of Geraldine Brooks remarkable book Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, about the Muslim women she got to know as a journalist in Egypt and the Middle East in the 1980s, which among other things brought out the subtle and not so subtle differences in Muslim practices in the different countries (and even within them).
Escorted by Halal she becomes aware that no one is bothering her for a moment:
‘no one gave her curious looks or nudged against her or stared into her face with bold, provocative eyes. She was hidden…’ (p449).For a brief moment she remembers what it felt like back home, unbothered and comfortable. Up to now she has spent years in foreign counties with vastly different customs, usage and culture, always an outsider making do as best she can, dependent on her husband’s job. It is noticeable that women in the story are typically dependent or oriented that way: Edwina concentrates on landing an officer. Even Lady Cooper, who has wealth and can therefore guide her own destiny, is in that position because of the divorce settlement from her husband. Her money cannot prevent the humiliating treatment she receives at the hands of Mona Castlebar after lover Bill Castlebar succumbs to typhoid and Mona ploughs in as the grieving widow. Lovers have no status in the eyes of church, employer or law.
The Pringles are in Egypt because they fled Greece as the Germans took the country. As Rommel is poised 50 miles from Cairo they expect to have to move again. Interwoven with the story of the Pringles is the desert campaign of Lieutenant Boulderstone, 20 years old and an innocent abroad. He is, however, not without resource, though he struggles at times to comprehend what is happening around him and to him. We follow his discovery of competencies he never knew he had, as he deals with the reality of war in the desert, including the loss of his brother and ultimately his naivety. Like all the characters major and minor in Olivia Manning’s book Simon is carefully and individually drawn. The characters stay with you long after the book is finished. Simon’s interactions with Harriet and Guy bookend the trilogy. At the beginning Harriet, with experience and maturity guides the boy in his first days in Egypt. Later, After Simon is severely wounded, Guy attempts to help him, more out of duty than anything else, with less understanding of what the young man is going through.
The authenticity of Manning’s writing is beyond dispute, skilfully telling the story of these men at war, as richly evocative of the life in the desert in the sporadic skirmishes as she is at depicting life in the capital among the expatriates. Only towards the very end does it feels like she was over it, having written the two trilogies for a long period of time.
There was a BBC production made in 1987 entitled Fortunes of War, combining the earlier The Balkan Trilogy with The Levant Trilogy, with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson as the Pringles. As I was reading I didn’t have anyone in particular in mind who would make a good Guy Pringle but Harriet struck me as being like Tara Fitzgerald, small, slight and dark with surprising strength. Not sure I want to watch the adaptation, but I now need to read The Balkan Trilogy, having just found it in a second hand bookshop.
-Ian’s Book of the Year 2018
September 10, 2021
Η Βαλκανική Τριλογία και η Τριλογία του Λεβάντε αποτελούν ένα από το πιο μνημειώδη και ευμεγέθη έργα που έχουν γραφτεί ποτέ για τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο, συνδυάζοντας αγαστά Λογοτεχνία και Ιστορία. Η αξία του έργου αυτού της Βρετανίδος συγγραφέως Olivia Manning αναγνωρίστηκε μετά τον θάνατό της, το 1980 και γυρίστηκε μάλιστα και ταινία στη μικρή οθόνη με τίτλο Fortunes of War και πρωταγωνιστές τους Κάνεθ Μπράνα και Έμμα Τόμσον, στους ρόλους του πρωταγωνιστικού ζεύγους Γκάι και Χάριετ Πρινγκλ.
Το ζευγάρι αυτό των Βρετανών ένωσε τις τύχες του λίγο πριν από το ξέσπασμα του Δευτέρου Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου. Η αρχή του βρίσκει το ζεύγος στην Ανατολική Ευρώπη, όπου ο Γκάι διδάσκει σε πανεπιστήμιο. Η διαμονή τους εκεί είναι το θέμα του πρώτου βιβλίου, της Βαλκανικής Τριλογίας-να σημειώσουμε εδώ παρνεθετικά ότι το κάθε βιβλίο αποτελείται από τρία επιμέρους μικρότερα βιβλία-.
Η εισβολή των Γερμανών θα αναγκάσει τους Πρινγκλ να καταφύγουν από τη Ρουμανία στην Ελλάδα και από εκεί στην Αίγυπτο, όσο οι ναζί προελαύνουν. Ούτε στη Μέση Ανατολή θα γλιτώσουν, όμως από τον ναζιστικό κίνδυνο, καθώς τα γεγονότα της Τριλογίας του Λεβάντε διαδραματίζονται κατά τα έτη 1941-1942, ακριβώς τότε δηλαδή που η “αλεπού της ερήμου”, ο Γερμανός πανέξυπνος στρατάρχης Ρόμμελ προελαύνει στη Βόρειο Αφρική και σκορπά τον τρόμο στους Συμμάχους.
Η υπόθεση του βιβλίου εκτυλίσσεται σε τρεις κυρίως πόλεις: την Αλεξάνδρεια, το Κάιρο και τη Δαμασκό. Το νεαρό ζευγάρι πλαισιώνουν έντονες προσωπικότητες, όπως ο ηθοποιός Έινταν Σέρινταν και ο νεαρός αξιωματικός Σάιμον Μπόλντερστοουν και δυναμικές γυναίκες όπως η Αντζελίνα και η Εντουίνα.
Πέρα από την καθαρά ιστορική διάσταση του βιβλίου, το οποίο απεικονίζει έξοχα την καθημερινότητα των απλών πολιτών στις πόλεις της Μέσης Ανατολής, αλλά και των στρατιωτών στο μέτωπο, το βιβλίο καταγράφει τα ήθη και τα έθιμα της ζωής στην Ανατολή, αλλά και τα ήθη των αποικιοκρατών και της “καλής αγγλικής κοινωνίας”. Η υπενθύμιση της στυγνής αποικιοκρατίας Γάλλων και Άγγλων στη Μέση Ανατολή είναι διαρκώς παρούσα, αφού η συγγραφέας βάζει συχνά πυκνά τους ντόπιους να εκφέρουν κρίσεις για τους “προστάτες” που έχουν καταλάβει τη χώρα τους.
Θεματικά, εκτός από τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο και την ηθογραφία της κοινωνίας της εποχής, η Manning επιμένει στην εναργή αποτύπωση της γυναικείας ψυχολογίας μιας εκπροσώπου της ανώτερης μεγαλοαστικής αγγλικής τάξης. Η Χάριετ είναι μία γυναίκα δυναμική,γεμάτη ενέργεια και όρεξη για ζωή, την οποία όμως ο σύζυγός της αφήνει διαρκώς μόνη. Το αποτέλεσμα είναι να αισθάνεται παραμελημένη και να θελήσει να κάνει και η ίδια, κάποια στιγμή, την επανάστασή της με τον τρόπο της. Αγάπη υπάρχει φυσικά μεταξύ του ζεύγους, όμως η Χάριετ ξέρει πολύ καλά ότι αυτό δεν αρκεί. Και ο Γκάι αγαπάει τη γυναίκα του, αγαπάει, όμως, ίσως λίγο περισσότερο τη δουλειά του, δηλαδή τη διδασκαλία των φοιτητών, με την οποία δηλώνει ερωτευμένος.
Τα πρόσωπα που πλαισιώνουν το ζευγάρι είναι προσεκτικά διαλεγμένα από τη Manning, έτσι ώστε καμία πτυχή της κοινωνίας του ’40 να μην μείνει απέξω από τις σελίδες του βιβλίου. Τίποτε δεν είναι τυχαίο, όλα είναι προσεκτικά σχεδιασμένα σε μία αφήγηση κινηματογραφική και ρεαλιστική, που δεν επιμένει τόσο σε αποτύπωση συναισθημάτων και λεπτομερειών, δεν λησμονεί όμως συγχρόνως και την ωραιότητα των περιγραφών στα σημεία που είναι απαραίτητο.
Το ανδρόγυνο βιώνει στιγμές έντασης, αλλά και αγάπης. Η αρρώστια της Χάριετ θα είναι εκείνη που θα κρίνει τελικά το μέλλον της σχέσης της με τον Γκάι. “Αυτός είναι ο γάμος. Το να ξέρεις υπερβολικά πολλά για τον άλλον”. Αυτό μονολογεί η Χάριετ, θέλοντας να ξορκίσει τις άσχημες στιγμές της με τον Γκάι. Από τη μία νοσταλγεί τον τόπο της, από την άλλη, όμως, δεν θέλει να επιστρέψει μονάχη στην πατρίδα της. Πολλές φορές ευχόταν να είναι άντρας. Αυτό και μόνο δείχνει την συγκαλυμμένη καταπίεση που υφίσταντο πολλές γυναίκες, ιδίως των αστικών τάξεων, εκείνη την εποχή από τους συζύγους τους, οι οποίοι τις αντιμετώπιζαν πολλές φορές μονάχα ως διακοσμητικά “μπιμπελό”.
Η υπόλοιπη κριτική στο Literature
Το ζευγάρι αυτό των Βρετανών ένωσε τις τύχες του λίγο πριν από το ξέσπασμα του Δευτέρου Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου. Η αρχή του βρίσκει το ζεύγος στην Ανατολική Ευρώπη, όπου ο Γκάι διδάσκει σε πανεπιστήμιο. Η διαμονή τους εκεί είναι το θέμα του πρώτου βιβλίου, της Βαλκανικής Τριλογίας-να σημειώσουμε εδώ παρνεθετικά ότι το κάθε βιβλίο αποτελείται από τρία επιμέρους μικρότερα βιβλία-.
Η εισβολή των Γερμανών θα αναγκάσει τους Πρινγκλ να καταφύγουν από τη Ρουμανία στην Ελλάδα και από εκεί στην Αίγυπτο, όσο οι ναζί προελαύνουν. Ούτε στη Μέση Ανατολή θα γλιτώσουν, όμως από τον ναζιστικό κίνδυνο, καθώς τα γεγονότα της Τριλογίας του Λεβάντε διαδραματίζονται κατά τα έτη 1941-1942, ακριβώς τότε δηλαδή που η “αλεπού της ερήμου”, ο Γερμανός πανέξυπνος στρατάρχης Ρόμμελ προελαύνει στη Βόρειο Αφρική και σκορπά τον τρόμο στους Συμμάχους.
Η υπόθεση του βιβλίου εκτυλίσσεται σε τρεις κυρίως πόλεις: την Αλεξάνδρεια, το Κάιρο και τη Δαμασκό. Το νεαρό ζευγάρι πλαισιώνουν έντονες προσωπικότητες, όπως ο ηθοποιός Έινταν Σέρινταν και ο νεαρός αξιωματικός Σάιμον Μπόλντερστοουν και δυναμικές γυναίκες όπως η Αντζελίνα και η Εντουίνα.
Πέρα από την καθαρά ιστορική διάσταση του βιβλίου, το οποίο απεικονίζει έξοχα την καθημερινότητα των απλών πολιτών στις πόλεις της Μέσης Ανατολής, αλλά και των στρατιωτών στο μέτωπο, το βιβλίο καταγράφει τα ήθη και τα έθιμα της ζωής στην Ανατολή, αλλά και τα ήθη των αποικιοκρατών και της “καλής αγγλικής κοινωνίας”. Η υπενθύμιση της στυγνής αποικιοκρατίας Γάλλων και Άγγλων στη Μέση Ανατολή είναι διαρκώς παρούσα, αφού η συγγραφέας βάζει συχνά πυκνά τους ντόπιους να εκφέρουν κρίσεις για τους “προστάτες” που έχουν καταλάβει τη χώρα τους.
Θεματικά, εκτός από τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο και την ηθογραφία της κοινωνίας της εποχής, η Manning επιμένει στην εναργή αποτύπωση της γυναικείας ψυχολογίας μιας εκπροσώπου της ανώτερης μεγαλοαστικής αγγλικής τάξης. Η Χάριετ είναι μία γυναίκα δυναμική,γεμάτη ενέργεια και όρεξη για ζωή, την οποία όμως ο σύζυγός της αφήνει διαρκώς μόνη. Το αποτέλεσμα είναι να αισθάνεται παραμελημένη και να θελήσει να κάνει και η ίδια, κάποια στιγμή, την επανάστασή της με τον τρόπο της. Αγάπη υπάρχει φυσικά μεταξύ του ζεύγους, όμως η Χάριετ ξέρει πολύ καλά ότι αυτό δεν αρκεί. Και ο Γκάι αγαπάει τη γυναίκα του, αγαπάει, όμως, ίσως λίγο περισσότερο τη δουλειά του, δηλαδή τη διδασκαλία των φοιτητών, με την οποία δηλώνει ερωτευμένος.
Τα πρόσωπα που πλαισιώνουν το ζευγάρι είναι προσεκτικά διαλεγμένα από τη Manning, έτσι ώστε καμία πτυχή της κοινωνίας του ’40 να μην μείνει απέξω από τις σελίδες του βιβλίου. Τίποτε δεν είναι τυχαίο, όλα είναι προσεκτικά σχεδιασμένα σε μία αφήγηση κινηματογραφική και ρεαλιστική, που δεν επιμένει τόσο σε αποτύπωση συναισθημάτων και λεπτομερειών, δεν λησμονεί όμως συγχρόνως και την ωραιότητα των περιγραφών στα σημεία που είναι απαραίτητο.
Το ανδρόγυνο βιώνει στιγμές έντασης, αλλά και αγάπης. Η αρρώστια της Χάριετ θα είναι εκείνη που θα κρίνει τελικά το μέλλον της σχέσης της με τον Γκάι. “Αυτός είναι ο γάμος. Το να ξέρεις υπερβολικά πολλά για τον άλλον”. Αυτό μονολογεί η Χάριετ, θέλοντας να ξορκίσει τις άσχημες στιγμές της με τον Γκάι. Από τη μία νοσταλγεί τον τόπο της, από την άλλη, όμως, δεν θέλει να επιστρέψει μονάχη στην πατρίδα της. Πολλές φορές ευχόταν να είναι άντρας. Αυτό και μόνο δείχνει την συγκαλυμμένη καταπίεση που υφίσταντο πολλές γυναίκες, ιδίως των αστικών τάξεων, εκείνη την εποχή από τους συζύγους τους, οι οποίοι τις αντιμετώπιζαν πολλές φορές μονάχα ως διακοσμητικά “μπιμπελό”.
Η υπόλοιπη κριτική στο Literature
January 22, 2023
"The Levant Trilogy" would be of little interest on its own but it brilliantly finishes the plots and resolves the thematic issues initiated in the "The Balkan Trilogy". "The Balkan Trilogy" tells the story of Harriet Pringle (the alter ego of the author) and Guy Pringle (the alter ego of Manning's husband Reggie Smith) for the period from September 1939 to April 1941. Guy Pringle is a teacher employed by an agency of the British Government which runs schools around the world for students from rich families. At the start of "The Balkan Trilogy", Guy is teaching in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The fortunes of war will force the Pringles to flee first to Athens and then to Cairo.
"The Levant Trilogy" will then cover the period from May 1941 to September 1943. During this time, Montgomery will defeat the Gremans in North Africa. The Allies will land in Sicily and the Italian government will surrender.
"The Balkan Trilogy" describes how Harriet learns about Guy whom she has met him in July 1939, married in August and then accompanied to Romania in September as World War II begins.
Harriet concludes that her communist husband is very naive and does not understand the political events that he holds very strong opinions on. She is happy that being myopic he is exempt from military service. She is proud of Guy's ability to win friends and motivate people. She is saddened by his affair with Sophie a glamorous Jewish trollop who is looking first and foremost for a rich Englishman who can marry her and thus give her a British passport. Harriet concludes that the Romanians are essentially two-faced. They flatter the British until, they realize that they Germans will invade and seize control of their country.
In "The Levant Trilogy", Harriet decides that the British are fighting for the good cause and admires those Englishmen who are in the army. She begins to lose respect for Guy. She concludes that he is not only myopic physically but also spiritually and morally. She is appalled by Guy's admiration for those English communists who fought in Spain but fled to America to avoid service in WWII.
She is again outraged when Guy has an affair with Edwina another glamorous trollop. Being English Edwina unlike Sophie already has a British passport. Edwina's prime goal is to marry a rich Lord who can give her a title. When Guy urges Harriet to return to England to prevent her from interfering in his romance life, she agrees and then departs instead without telling him for the Holy Land. There she will discover and emancipate herself. She travels with Lady Angela Hooped a rich divorcee and an impoverished poet who is financially supported by Angela.
Harriet sees that Lady Hooper's parasitic companion still loves her and has certain good qualities. After witnessing the annual Easter season miracle of the "Holy Fire" in the Church of Sepulchre In Jerusalem, Harriet returns to Guy in Cairo.
Guy she quickly discovers is still the same louse that she left behind. However, like Lady Angela's parasitic lover, Guy still has had good qualities. Harriet resolves to spend the rest of her life with him.
Guy generally fails to distinguish himself in the "Levant Trilogy". He neglects Harriet spending too much his sycophants. His worst blunder is to hire two teachers who are Arab nationalists and who assassinate a British Lord when he is delivering a public lecture.
Guy's best actions are to befriend Simon a young English soldier who has been injured and must undergo a long period of rehabilitation. When Simon falls in love with Edwina, the fast living gold-digger Guy manages to open Simon's eyes about her.
A major problem undermining the popularity of "The Levant Trilogy" is that Harriet is not a "liberated" woman by today's standards. However, the book paints a very realistic portrait of the negative social attitudes toward women during the era. The male characters consider themselves to be intellectually superior to woman. They assume that because of her sex Harriet does not understand politics. A doctor decides that as a woman she is not smart enough to understand medicine and explains her medical issues to her husband instead. Harriet in fact understands things very well. She understands what is at stake in WW II better than any of the male characters. She is also the only character to understand that Arab nationalism is on the rise and that the British will not be able to hold Egypt after the war is over. Although a Manning is a successful novelist, she chooses not to make a writer of Harriet her literary doppelganger. Had Manning chosen to do so, feminist critics would very likely have fewer objections to Harriet.
"The Levant Trilogy" is highly intelligent and great fun. It must however be read on the heels of the "Balkan Trilogy" to which it is very tightly coupled.
"The Levant Trilogy" will then cover the period from May 1941 to September 1943. During this time, Montgomery will defeat the Gremans in North Africa. The Allies will land in Sicily and the Italian government will surrender.
"The Balkan Trilogy" describes how Harriet learns about Guy whom she has met him in July 1939, married in August and then accompanied to Romania in September as World War II begins.
Harriet concludes that her communist husband is very naive and does not understand the political events that he holds very strong opinions on. She is happy that being myopic he is exempt from military service. She is proud of Guy's ability to win friends and motivate people. She is saddened by his affair with Sophie a glamorous Jewish trollop who is looking first and foremost for a rich Englishman who can marry her and thus give her a British passport. Harriet concludes that the Romanians are essentially two-faced. They flatter the British until, they realize that they Germans will invade and seize control of their country.
In "The Levant Trilogy", Harriet decides that the British are fighting for the good cause and admires those Englishmen who are in the army. She begins to lose respect for Guy. She concludes that he is not only myopic physically but also spiritually and morally. She is appalled by Guy's admiration for those English communists who fought in Spain but fled to America to avoid service in WWII.
She is again outraged when Guy has an affair with Edwina another glamorous trollop. Being English Edwina unlike Sophie already has a British passport. Edwina's prime goal is to marry a rich Lord who can give her a title. When Guy urges Harriet to return to England to prevent her from interfering in his romance life, she agrees and then departs instead without telling him for the Holy Land. There she will discover and emancipate herself. She travels with Lady Angela Hooped a rich divorcee and an impoverished poet who is financially supported by Angela.
Harriet sees that Lady Hooper's parasitic companion still loves her and has certain good qualities. After witnessing the annual Easter season miracle of the "Holy Fire" in the Church of Sepulchre In Jerusalem, Harriet returns to Guy in Cairo.
Guy she quickly discovers is still the same louse that she left behind. However, like Lady Angela's parasitic lover, Guy still has had good qualities. Harriet resolves to spend the rest of her life with him.
Guy generally fails to distinguish himself in the "Levant Trilogy". He neglects Harriet spending too much his sycophants. His worst blunder is to hire two teachers who are Arab nationalists and who assassinate a British Lord when he is delivering a public lecture.
Guy's best actions are to befriend Simon a young English soldier who has been injured and must undergo a long period of rehabilitation. When Simon falls in love with Edwina, the fast living gold-digger Guy manages to open Simon's eyes about her.
A major problem undermining the popularity of "The Levant Trilogy" is that Harriet is not a "liberated" woman by today's standards. However, the book paints a very realistic portrait of the negative social attitudes toward women during the era. The male characters consider themselves to be intellectually superior to woman. They assume that because of her sex Harriet does not understand politics. A doctor decides that as a woman she is not smart enough to understand medicine and explains her medical issues to her husband instead. Harriet in fact understands things very well. She understands what is at stake in WW II better than any of the male characters. She is also the only character to understand that Arab nationalism is on the rise and that the British will not be able to hold Egypt after the war is over. Although a Manning is a successful novelist, she chooses not to make a writer of Harriet her literary doppelganger. Had Manning chosen to do so, feminist critics would very likely have fewer objections to Harriet.
"The Levant Trilogy" is highly intelligent and great fun. It must however be read on the heels of the "Balkan Trilogy" to which it is very tightly coupled.
June 8, 2015
Oh how I love reading about Harriet and Guy Pringle! I can't get enough of them and their adventures in various exotic places during World War II. If this book were written by a man and had a male protagonist, you can bet your bottom dollar it would be far more prestigious and known than it is currently. But I will spare you the feminist rant.
If you haven't read this book yet, you may want to move on now because I will probably spoil the ending for you.
Guy continues to be Guy in this trilogy, giving his best to everyone and everything except his own wife. There are a couple of moments when I was simply aghast at the level of his insensitivity. There was the matter of the brooch, and then after they are reunited and he's thought she was dead, and then he can't be bothered to spend the evening with her? Are you KIDDING me? But the thing that's so perfect about Guy, and about Harriet is that they are so real. Guy isn't a bad dude, he just doesn't know how to put his marriage first. And Harriet is slowly but surely figuring out that she's going to have to find something to occupy her time and engage her passion, the way Guy has. She can't keep waiting for him to change and become the person who will make her happy and meet all her needs. In my opinion, most of us have to learn what Harriet finally learns.
I wonder if Manning has an autobiography or a memoir, if so, I would simply love to devour it. I can't get enough of this stuff and I'm fairly certain that Guy and Harriet are based off of Manning and her husband...
"Opportunity to escape was offered and he would not be restricted by the disapprobation of other men."
"The war had abandoned them, leaving them in a vacuum that had been filled by everyday worries. But everyday worries were not enough. They had to invent excitements to make life bearable."
"In an imperfect world, marriage was a matter of making do with what one had chosen."
If you haven't read this book yet, you may want to move on now because I will probably spoil the ending for you.
Guy continues to be Guy in this trilogy, giving his best to everyone and everything except his own wife. There are a couple of moments when I was simply aghast at the level of his insensitivity. There was the matter of the brooch, and then after they are reunited and he's thought she was dead, and then he can't be bothered to spend the evening with her? Are you KIDDING me? But the thing that's so perfect about Guy, and about Harriet is that they are so real. Guy isn't a bad dude, he just doesn't know how to put his marriage first. And Harriet is slowly but surely figuring out that she's going to have to find something to occupy her time and engage her passion, the way Guy has. She can't keep waiting for him to change and become the person who will make her happy and meet all her needs. In my opinion, most of us have to learn what Harriet finally learns.
I wonder if Manning has an autobiography or a memoir, if so, I would simply love to devour it. I can't get enough of this stuff and I'm fairly certain that Guy and Harriet are based off of Manning and her husband...
"Opportunity to escape was offered and he would not be restricted by the disapprobation of other men."
"The war had abandoned them, leaving them in a vacuum that had been filled by everyday worries. But everyday worries were not enough. They had to invent excitements to make life bearable."
"In an imperfect world, marriage was a matter of making do with what one had chosen."
March 1, 2019
A pleasure to read. The follow up to the Balkan Trilogy and for me even better. Guy and Harriet have washed ashore in Cairo. A gentle read unhurriedly exploring the blithe disregard of colonialism, marriage and the chaos of war. Just as one is lulled into the commonplace going ons Manning unleashes the tragedy of war in a deadpan style that is haunting. Compulsive.
November 18, 2016
British diplomatic life in Egypt as well as a description of how Rommel is driven back
October 3, 2021
During the Covid epidemic, in Sydney’s second lockdown, which lasted the whole winter of 2021, I fell into a depression and was no longer able to direct my reading (or anything else.) Commitments I had made to myself and others to join in group reads fell by the wayside. I needed books to keep me company that were self propelling and not too hard on my limited supply of ambition.
This prescription was so well filled by the Olivia Manning Balkan and Levant trilogies. I have such a warm feeling in my chest after having finished the six volumes. Manning introduced me to a full range of human types, people I loved and hated as the clouds of war chased them across southern Europe and on to the Middle East. This was a part of World War II that I had not paid a great deal of attention to. And along that plane, incidentally, I learned a lot. There was so much.
Some might focus on this as a war novel. Others might focus on the perilous journeys: by train, by plane and by boat. Others might focus on the intervals between travel when the pressure of the advancing Germans brings out the best and the worst in people. Still others might focus on relationships: what does marriage, friendship, employment, and humanity mean when the horizons of “life and death,” for better or worse,” and “for richer or poorer” are stretched to their ultimate ends. Still another focus might be on personality types. Unlike the table fare in Athens, on the eve of German occupation, when the standard meal was lung soup, these books offer a bountiful smorgasbord of humanity— a feast for projection, as Manning carefully leads her characters through increasingly fraught situations.
I know now in my bones and in my soul what it would have meant to be part of a group one step ahead of the Germans in 1939 as our options dwindled, and the horizon closed in. This was such great company.
This prescription was so well filled by the Olivia Manning Balkan and Levant trilogies. I have such a warm feeling in my chest after having finished the six volumes. Manning introduced me to a full range of human types, people I loved and hated as the clouds of war chased them across southern Europe and on to the Middle East. This was a part of World War II that I had not paid a great deal of attention to. And along that plane, incidentally, I learned a lot. There was so much.
Some might focus on this as a war novel. Others might focus on the perilous journeys: by train, by plane and by boat. Others might focus on the intervals between travel when the pressure of the advancing Germans brings out the best and the worst in people. Still others might focus on relationships: what does marriage, friendship, employment, and humanity mean when the horizons of “life and death,” for better or worse,” and “for richer or poorer” are stretched to their ultimate ends. Still another focus might be on personality types. Unlike the table fare in Athens, on the eve of German occupation, when the standard meal was lung soup, these books offer a bountiful smorgasbord of humanity— a feast for projection, as Manning carefully leads her characters through increasingly fraught situations.
I know now in my bones and in my soul what it would have meant to be part of a group one step ahead of the Germans in 1939 as our options dwindled, and the horizon closed in. This was such great company.
July 8, 2018
This year I read Olivia Manning's Balkan and Levant Trilogies, and, in short, I loved these six books, which in their total make up one rather long novel, telling the tale of a young English couple caught up in World War II in its first four years – first in Romania (where the husband returns to his pre-war teaching job), and then buffeted and chased down to Greece, and then to Egypt, with excursions into Syria, Lebanon, and what was then known as Palestine. I highly recommend the books, and if you're interested at all, I strongly urge you to start at the beginning with The Balkan Trilogy. The second trilogy is perhaps a half-step less rich than the first, but still well worth reading. Typo-warnings: the second volume of the Levant Trilogy (which I read in its original single-volume edition) is rather poorly proof-read as far as typographical errors go, and the third volume (which was released around the time of Manning's death) has fewer typos, but a couple of major ones. I only hope that these errata were corrected in later editions. Manning was a major author, and she deserves better treatment!
April 8, 2012
A good follow-up to the Balkan Trilogy, with some very beautifully-written passages. There were some repetitive references to characters and events, as if Manning had forgotten that she had already mentioned these things. Guy Pringle, Harriet's husband, becomes quite infuriating by the 6th book (as I think he is meant to), as are most of the other male characters, and quite a few of the female characters. But I liked Harriet, the main character, quite a bit (especially when she strikes off to have her own adventures), and Simon, the young officer, was an engaging and sympathetic figure. Angela, Harriet's friend, was also a compelling figure.
I think both this and the Balkan Trilogy were well worth the read, and taken together offer a well-written view of British experience in WWII. The writing was consistently enjoyable and well-crafted, sometimes quite funny, and occasionally terrific, especially descriptions of the landscape. I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars, so I'll give the Balkan Trilogy 4 and this one 3.
I think both this and the Balkan Trilogy were well worth the read, and taken together offer a well-written view of British experience in WWII. The writing was consistently enjoyable and well-crafted, sometimes quite funny, and occasionally terrific, especially descriptions of the landscape. I'm torn between 3 and 4 stars, so I'll give the Balkan Trilogy 4 and this one 3.
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July 30, 2023I don't see what made these trilogies (this one and the preceding Balkan) the subject of so much praise. It may be fair to say that they accurately chronicle conditions of waiting to be invaded ranging from Bucharest to Jerusalem between 1939-1943. But the people. At one point, a character thinks that the mocking laughter of another "increased his nervous disgust with the people about him. . . . He had never known men behave so badly in company." That's how I find just about everyone: convinced of their own superiority in being British and obsessed with social standing and appearances, equally convinced of the inadequacy/insignificance of just about everyone else. One of the protagonists feels that "the whole idle, sensual, self-indulgent ambience" is "unbearably boring." I agree, though I find the character who conveys this judgment "unbearable self-centred" and ignorant himself. Not a sequence I will re-read, no matter how many people mention it in the same breath with A Dance to the Music of Time.
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August 2, 2019As with the earlier The Balkan Trilogy: "Great Fortune", "Spoilt City" and "Friends and Heroes", Harriet and Guy Pringle’s experiences echo those of the author, Olivia Manning and her husband, Reggie Smith. At the end of The Balkan Trilogy Harriet and Guy board the Erebus and leave Athens Harbour as the Germans arrive on that city’s doorstep. This was their last view of the city they had come to love:
Harriet, Guy and the other refugees arrive in Egypt, but now Ms Manning introduces another dimension to their tale. Enter Simon Boulderstone, aged twenty, who will take us to the battlefield. Unlike The Balkan Trilogy which focuses on the Pringles and their experiences in Bucharest and Athens, this trilogy alternates between Harriet and Simon’s stories which at times intersect.
“Simon, waiting at the station, was numb with solitude.” “He had never before seen such a wilderness or known such loneliness.” Young Simon newly arrived in Egypt suddenly finds himself alone (early in Chapter 1, so not a spoiler). In The Balkan Trilogy Harriet had been newly married when she left England for Bucharest, and Simon married his wife a week prior to going to the Front and leaving his new wife behind. He had made some friends on the journey to Egypt, but they had become separated. He didn’t have friends here, and his brother who was a year older was already with his unit in the desert. Simon was a junior officer, but to date his war had just been theoretical. This trilogy sees Simon leave his boyhood behind and become a man. He will fight battles, see the dead of the enemy and of Allies, he will suffer losses and he’ll learn to deal with grief. He will find that: “The need to survive was their chief preoccupation – and they did survive. In spite of the heat of the day, the cold of night, the flies, the mosquitoes, the sand-flies, the stench of death that came on the wind, the sand blowing into the body’s interstices and gritting in everything one ate, the human animal not only survived but flourished.” Simon will also have to think about that marriage made in haste and now almost forgotten (there are some interesting parallels between Simon and Harriet). Simon will come of age actually and metaphorically.
Harriet too is alone. She is an alien in Egypt, an alien in her job and she feels isolated in her marriage. She is in Cairo working at the American Embassy and it is there that she later learns about the attack on Pearl Harbour. Her immediate concern though is the capture of Tobruk by the Germans, and she fears for Guy whose job has taken him to Alexandria. For the moment she is reconciled with the status of her marriage and she tries to be more supportive: “Harriet, who might once have feared that Guy promised more than he could perform, was now confident that what he said he would do, he would do. Walking back to Garden City, he asked her, ‘Was I all right?’ ‘You were splendid.’” She more or less accepts that Guy shares himself and his time with all and sundry but not with her. According to his philosophy she is part of him and therefore there is no need to spend his time with her: ““But you’re part of me - I don’t have to be courteous to you.”” But “She wanted a union of mutual devotion while he saw marriage merely as a frame to hold an indiscriminate medley of relationships that, as often as not, were too capacious to be contained.”This trilogy continues the examination of the Pringle’s marriage. As events unfold, choices and decisions will have to be made.
Once again there is very good characterisation. Various interesting characters were introduced in The Balkan Trilogy; some died and others moved on. Of those who remained, several travelled with Harriet and Guy on the Erebus and are now in Egypt. Amongst others, there is Professor Lord Pinkrose, puffed up to the extreme with his own self-importance. There is also Dobbie Dobson whom the Pringles can always count on. Harriet also meets other people, one of the first being Simon Boulderstone whose story is told here. Harriet has a room in the house where the delectable Edwina Little lives. Simon is under the impression that Edwina is his brother Hugo’s “girl”, and he himself is most impressed by the young lady. Edwina, however, has her own agenda: finding a rich husband with a title, and having an impressive wedding. Another arrival in this trilogy is Lady Angela Hooper. She is an interesting, fun-loving character and a good friend. Angela attracts (and repels) various other people and she has her own story in this book. Some characters who initially don’t impress turn out to be kind and generous, and others who are generally accepted as being kind and generous are shown to be extremely selfish. Guy Pringle, I’m looking at you! Guy is well known and loved:
“Cairo had become the clearing house of Eastern Europe. Kings and princes, heads of state, their followers and hangers-on, free governments with all their officials, everyone who saw himself committed to the allied cause, had come to live here off the charity of the British government. Hotels, restaurants and cafés were loud with the squabbles, rivalries, scandals, exhibitions of importance and hurt feelings that occupied the refugees while they waited for the war to end and the old order to return.” Harriet is as observant as her author, and she notices the behaviour of those British citizens newly arrived in Egypt: “They believed that the British Empire was the greatest force for good the world had ever known. They expected gratitude from the Egyptians and were pained to find themselves barely tolerated.” She converses with Egyptian servants, as well as employees at the American Embassy, and she is interested to know what is happening and what their views are. Harriet highlights prejudices that Olivia Manning perceived. Harriet also likes to visit interesting places and monuments, and through Harriet’s eyes we see these as Olivia Manning herself had. Harriet wants to know what is happening in the real world whereas Guy prefers to concentrate on his work as lecturer, and on providing entertainments.
Ms Manning employs the vernacular of that time and place. The reader will find offensive words such as ’Gyppo’, ‘wogs’, ‘dago’, ‘popsie’ and ’bint’. These terms are not overused, but they are there and they add to the veracity of the story, whether we like them or not. There is a strong sense of time and place in these novels, which is not surprising as much is based on Ms Manning’s personal experiences. Here is a scene at a railway station: “The train was sighted and a groan went through the crowd. The train came at a snail’s pace towards the platform. The groan died out and a tense silence came down on the passengers who, gripping bags and babies, prepared for the battle to come. As the first carriages drew abreast of the platform, hysteria set in.” Many of the characters and events in this trilogy are fictitious, but several of the characters are modelled on people Ms Manning knew. They all have to battle heat, flies and mosquitoes. Harriet visits places that Ms Manning visited, and frequents restaurants, bars and clubs that Ms Manning frequented.
The first part of this trilogy takes place in Egypt, but later places such as Damascus, Baalbek, Galilee and Jerusalem feature. This is at the Sea of Galilee: “Hidden among the lupins were irises of a maroon shade so deep they looked black. Farther on there were other irises, purple and pink, and a buff colour veined with brown. The field ended in a downslope of grass starred like the Damascus Ghuta with red, white and purple anemones, and in the distance there was a lake of pure lapis blue.”
The Levant Trilogy includes social commentary, examines relationships and there is a substantial amount of history.
“The hills of the Peloponnesus, glowing in the sunset light, changed to rose-violet and darkened to madder rose, grew sombre and faded into the twilight. The Parthenon, catching the late light, glimmered for a long time, a spectre on the evening, then disappeared into darkness. That was the last they saw of Athens."( The Balkan Trilogy)Author Olivia Manning and her husband Reggie Smith had travelled from Athens to Egypt on the Erebus under similar circumstances, and Harriet’s experiences are much like those of the author.
Harriet, Guy and the other refugees arrive in Egypt, but now Ms Manning introduces another dimension to their tale. Enter Simon Boulderstone, aged twenty, who will take us to the battlefield. Unlike The Balkan Trilogy which focuses on the Pringles and their experiences in Bucharest and Athens, this trilogy alternates between Harriet and Simon’s stories which at times intersect.
“Simon, waiting at the station, was numb with solitude.” “He had never before seen such a wilderness or known such loneliness.” Young Simon newly arrived in Egypt suddenly finds himself alone (early in Chapter 1, so not a spoiler). In The Balkan Trilogy Harriet had been newly married when she left England for Bucharest, and Simon married his wife a week prior to going to the Front and leaving his new wife behind. He had made some friends on the journey to Egypt, but they had become separated. He didn’t have friends here, and his brother who was a year older was already with his unit in the desert. Simon was a junior officer, but to date his war had just been theoretical. This trilogy sees Simon leave his boyhood behind and become a man. He will fight battles, see the dead of the enemy and of Allies, he will suffer losses and he’ll learn to deal with grief. He will find that: “The need to survive was their chief preoccupation – and they did survive. In spite of the heat of the day, the cold of night, the flies, the mosquitoes, the sand-flies, the stench of death that came on the wind, the sand blowing into the body’s interstices and gritting in everything one ate, the human animal not only survived but flourished.” Simon will also have to think about that marriage made in haste and now almost forgotten (there are some interesting parallels between Simon and Harriet). Simon will come of age actually and metaphorically.
Harriet too is alone. She is an alien in Egypt, an alien in her job and she feels isolated in her marriage. She is in Cairo working at the American Embassy and it is there that she later learns about the attack on Pearl Harbour. Her immediate concern though is the capture of Tobruk by the Germans, and she fears for Guy whose job has taken him to Alexandria. For the moment she is reconciled with the status of her marriage and she tries to be more supportive: “Harriet, who might once have feared that Guy promised more than he could perform, was now confident that what he said he would do, he would do. Walking back to Garden City, he asked her, ‘Was I all right?’ ‘You were splendid.’” She more or less accepts that Guy shares himself and his time with all and sundry but not with her. According to his philosophy she is part of him and therefore there is no need to spend his time with her: ““But you’re part of me - I don’t have to be courteous to you.”” But “She wanted a union of mutual devotion while he saw marriage merely as a frame to hold an indiscriminate medley of relationships that, as often as not, were too capacious to be contained.”This trilogy continues the examination of the Pringle’s marriage. As events unfold, choices and decisions will have to be made.
Once again there is very good characterisation. Various interesting characters were introduced in The Balkan Trilogy; some died and others moved on. Of those who remained, several travelled with Harriet and Guy on the Erebus and are now in Egypt. Amongst others, there is Professor Lord Pinkrose, puffed up to the extreme with his own self-importance. There is also Dobbie Dobson whom the Pringles can always count on. Harriet also meets other people, one of the first being Simon Boulderstone whose story is told here. Harriet has a room in the house where the delectable Edwina Little lives. Simon is under the impression that Edwina is his brother Hugo’s “girl”, and he himself is most impressed by the young lady. Edwina, however, has her own agenda: finding a rich husband with a title, and having an impressive wedding. Another arrival in this trilogy is Lady Angela Hooper. She is an interesting, fun-loving character and a good friend. Angela attracts (and repels) various other people and she has her own story in this book. Some characters who initially don’t impress turn out to be kind and generous, and others who are generally accepted as being kind and generous are shown to be extremely selfish. Guy Pringle, I’m looking at you! Guy is well known and loved:
“He was on leave from Damascus.
‘Damascus? Then how did you come to know Guy?’
‘Doesn’t everyone know Guy?’ he gave a laugh. ‘Last time I was here someone told me a story: two men were wrecked on a desert island. Neither knew the other but they both knew Guy Pringle.’”
“Cairo had become the clearing house of Eastern Europe. Kings and princes, heads of state, their followers and hangers-on, free governments with all their officials, everyone who saw himself committed to the allied cause, had come to live here off the charity of the British government. Hotels, restaurants and cafés were loud with the squabbles, rivalries, scandals, exhibitions of importance and hurt feelings that occupied the refugees while they waited for the war to end and the old order to return.” Harriet is as observant as her author, and she notices the behaviour of those British citizens newly arrived in Egypt: “They believed that the British Empire was the greatest force for good the world had ever known. They expected gratitude from the Egyptians and were pained to find themselves barely tolerated.” She converses with Egyptian servants, as well as employees at the American Embassy, and she is interested to know what is happening and what their views are. Harriet highlights prejudices that Olivia Manning perceived. Harriet also likes to visit interesting places and monuments, and through Harriet’s eyes we see these as Olivia Manning herself had. Harriet wants to know what is happening in the real world whereas Guy prefers to concentrate on his work as lecturer, and on providing entertainments.
Ms Manning employs the vernacular of that time and place. The reader will find offensive words such as ’Gyppo’, ‘wogs’, ‘dago’, ‘popsie’ and ’bint’. These terms are not overused, but they are there and they add to the veracity of the story, whether we like them or not. There is a strong sense of time and place in these novels, which is not surprising as much is based on Ms Manning’s personal experiences. Here is a scene at a railway station: “The train was sighted and a groan went through the crowd. The train came at a snail’s pace towards the platform. The groan died out and a tense silence came down on the passengers who, gripping bags and babies, prepared for the battle to come. As the first carriages drew abreast of the platform, hysteria set in.” Many of the characters and events in this trilogy are fictitious, but several of the characters are modelled on people Ms Manning knew. They all have to battle heat, flies and mosquitoes. Harriet visits places that Ms Manning visited, and frequents restaurants, bars and clubs that Ms Manning frequented.
The first part of this trilogy takes place in Egypt, but later places such as Damascus, Baalbek, Galilee and Jerusalem feature. This is at the Sea of Galilee: “Hidden among the lupins were irises of a maroon shade so deep they looked black. Farther on there were other irises, purple and pink, and a buff colour veined with brown. The field ended in a downslope of grass starred like the Damascus Ghuta with red, white and purple anemones, and in the distance there was a lake of pure lapis blue.”
The Levant Trilogy includes social commentary, examines relationships and there is a substantial amount of history.
December 5, 2023
It’s the return of Guy and Harriet Pringle. Olivia Manning’s The Levant Trilogy picks up where her brilliant The Balkan Trilogy leaves off. The Pringles, a married young couple, arrive in Egypt after escaping from Nazi-occupied Greece in the middle of World War II. One obvious thing from the start is that they haven’t changed and their relationship continues to drift aimlessly like it has all along.
After their arrival in Cairo, Guy gets his dream job, working for the colonial British Legation as the director of an English department. Harriet also goes to work at the American embassy. They get put up in an apartment building supplied by the British embassy with rooms for U.K. expatriates. Harriet’s social life revolves around the residents there while Guy continues on living a separate existence with his group of friends who are considered to be bums by most people’s estimates. The two groups get connected through an unlikely coupling of Harriet’s erratic friend Angela and Guy’s alcoholic friend Castlebar.
Also a subplot gets introduced with Simon, a young English military officer who has just arrived in Egypt. Rommel’s forces are progressing across North Africa towards the Suez Canal and the Allies fight them off. Simon is ambitious, vowing to revenge the death of his brother until he gets injured and forced to spend time under medical care in Cairo. That is where he develops a friendship with Guy Pringle. Psychologically, Simon goes through a process of confronting the ephemeral nature of life during wartime and the often unpredictable loss of the people around him.
While The Levant Trilogy is not specifically about gender roles, there is an obvious and overriding preoccupation with the gulf between men and women throughout the narrative. With the exceptions of Simon and the kindly bachelor Dobson, the colonial bureaucrat working at the British embassy, the men in this book are portrayed as being selfish and self-absorbed. Guy’s group of heavy drinking friends are crude and irresponsible. Harriet’s friend Edwina also chases after men who use her and then abandon her. Even the Egyptian natives treat women as if women are not intelligent enough to understand the intellectual world of men.
Guy is at the center of all this. While Harriet makes every effort she can to spend time with him, he routinely ignores her, treats her like she is less important than his job and his peers, and even refuses to take day trips to the pyramids and other sites which he thinks of as tacky and of trivial importance. Later in the book, when Guy mistakenly thinks Harriet has died, Edwina tries to win his heart and asks him out to dinner. She dresses up in her most elegant clothes and Guy insists on going to a grubby, low class restaurant because he knows his friends will be there. Without even realizing that Edwina is putting the moves on him, he abandons her, leaving her to take a taxi home alone while Guy goes off to drink. The problem isn’t that Guy is cruel or heartless; he just doesn’t acknowledge that women are anything other than ornaments or pets. Guy’s vision is flawed, literally and symbolically. He wears glasses because of near-sightedness, but he is also myopic in his outlook on life. He often can not see the obvious or what is right in front of his face. The bigger picture always seems to elude his recognition. Even his optimism is naive and unnerving to the point where Harrier sometimes worries about his safety.
Guy isn’t entirely bad either. He goes out of his way to help anybody in need. His dedication to helping the downtrodden is admirable to a fault since he is unable to see that the people he helps are merely using him, usually to get meals or, more importantly, alcohol. But Guy shows what he is capable of in his friendship with Simon, offering him unconditional emotional support during his recovery from his injury. Despite all of Guy’s maddening shortcomings, it is hard not to admire his good nature and good intentions. This is the kind of nuanced characterization that makes Olivia Manning's work so powerful.
On other the other hand, everything wrong with Guy’s relationship to Harriet is signified by the brooch that Angela gives to Harriet as a gift. The diamond-studded heart design looks gaudy to Guy who takes it away from Harriet, telling her he wants to give to Edwina as a gift. When Harriet tells him she wants to keep it because it means something special to her, he tells her she doesn’t really want it anyways because it is so tacky. He has no consideration for her feelings or for his own conduct. This eventually leads to Harriet leaving him. Edwina later gives the brooch back to Guy, he puts it away and forgets about it and when he finds it again later, he can’t even remember where it came from. The brooch’s cycle of possession among the four people shows how oblivious he is to the presence and subjectivity of the women he associates with. To him, they are insubstantial, meaningless, and easy to forget.
Harriet gives up on Guy and leaves for destinations farther east. She heads off for Syria, meets up with Angela and Castlebar in Lebanon, and the three of them head off to Jerusalem. Guy mistakenly thinks Harriet has died and when she finds this out we learn that the separation causes the two of them to realize how much they love each other. Harriest also learns how to be more independent. The ending is more Victorian than Modern, leaving something to be desired and not entirely credible. It does provide closure to the whole saga though.
Like The Balkan Trilogy, the strongest point here is in the character building and the way the people interact. Almost through the use of dialogue along, each member of the story takes on a unique life of their own that stays consistent throughout the whole book. You can feel like you personally know each of them and it is easy to identify with Harriet, seeing the world through her eyes no matter what your gender may be. It is a portrait of a flawed humanity that gently reminds us that we need to accept people as they are and find a way to be comfortable with that. Harriet can not fix Guy’s ignorance, but she can find a way to deal with it and make the best of their imperfect relationship. Olivia Manning’s writing also makes it clear what it feels like to live in a male dominated world where women are seen but not heard and, most of the time, hardly even seen. And her writing never degenerates into bitterness or misanthropy. There is a certain kind of resignation to the characters’ imperfections, a certain kind of patience that reminds us of the need to tolerate people’s imperfections rather than wasting our lives trying to change people who don’t want to be changed.
Compared to The Balkan Trilogy, this was a little bit of a let down. In the previous novels, the encroaching Nazi menace that followed Guy and Harriet as they bumbled through life barely holding their marriage together made the whole narrative that much more unsettling. But here, while they reside in Cairo, the Nazis and the Allies fight off in the distance of the desert. While some passages depict Simon in combat, the story of Guy and Harriet continues on in its day to day routines while the war is little more than rumors and some distant noise in the background. There isn’t much dramatic tension between the two strands of the story line and that makes for some less exciting reading. Also, by replacing the subplot of the parasitical and unforgettable Yakimov with the subplot of Simon’s struggles, a lot of the tension in this second cycle of novelettes is lost as well.
The Levant Trilogy may be slightly less engaging than The Balkan Trilogy, but if you’ve read that one first, then The Levant Trilogy does a sufficient job of tying up the loose threads of Guy and Harriet’s marriage. If anything, if you are a male reader it will open your eyes to the way some women might see their marriages in a way that no other novel can. And if you are a woman, you might be able to relate. Of course, there are a lot of other themes in the book, but you just have to read it to experience it all. It is an easy book to read and understand; like Kurt Vonnegut said, “Writing something that is easy to read is the most difficult thing a writer can do.” Olivia Manning has mastered the art of writing something that is easy to follow without sacrificing depth, complexity, or insight. This is an excellent achievement.
After their arrival in Cairo, Guy gets his dream job, working for the colonial British Legation as the director of an English department. Harriet also goes to work at the American embassy. They get put up in an apartment building supplied by the British embassy with rooms for U.K. expatriates. Harriet’s social life revolves around the residents there while Guy continues on living a separate existence with his group of friends who are considered to be bums by most people’s estimates. The two groups get connected through an unlikely coupling of Harriet’s erratic friend Angela and Guy’s alcoholic friend Castlebar.
Also a subplot gets introduced with Simon, a young English military officer who has just arrived in Egypt. Rommel’s forces are progressing across North Africa towards the Suez Canal and the Allies fight them off. Simon is ambitious, vowing to revenge the death of his brother until he gets injured and forced to spend time under medical care in Cairo. That is where he develops a friendship with Guy Pringle. Psychologically, Simon goes through a process of confronting the ephemeral nature of life during wartime and the often unpredictable loss of the people around him.
While The Levant Trilogy is not specifically about gender roles, there is an obvious and overriding preoccupation with the gulf between men and women throughout the narrative. With the exceptions of Simon and the kindly bachelor Dobson, the colonial bureaucrat working at the British embassy, the men in this book are portrayed as being selfish and self-absorbed. Guy’s group of heavy drinking friends are crude and irresponsible. Harriet’s friend Edwina also chases after men who use her and then abandon her. Even the Egyptian natives treat women as if women are not intelligent enough to understand the intellectual world of men.
Guy is at the center of all this. While Harriet makes every effort she can to spend time with him, he routinely ignores her, treats her like she is less important than his job and his peers, and even refuses to take day trips to the pyramids and other sites which he thinks of as tacky and of trivial importance. Later in the book, when Guy mistakenly thinks Harriet has died, Edwina tries to win his heart and asks him out to dinner. She dresses up in her most elegant clothes and Guy insists on going to a grubby, low class restaurant because he knows his friends will be there. Without even realizing that Edwina is putting the moves on him, he abandons her, leaving her to take a taxi home alone while Guy goes off to drink. The problem isn’t that Guy is cruel or heartless; he just doesn’t acknowledge that women are anything other than ornaments or pets. Guy’s vision is flawed, literally and symbolically. He wears glasses because of near-sightedness, but he is also myopic in his outlook on life. He often can not see the obvious or what is right in front of his face. The bigger picture always seems to elude his recognition. Even his optimism is naive and unnerving to the point where Harrier sometimes worries about his safety.
Guy isn’t entirely bad either. He goes out of his way to help anybody in need. His dedication to helping the downtrodden is admirable to a fault since he is unable to see that the people he helps are merely using him, usually to get meals or, more importantly, alcohol. But Guy shows what he is capable of in his friendship with Simon, offering him unconditional emotional support during his recovery from his injury. Despite all of Guy’s maddening shortcomings, it is hard not to admire his good nature and good intentions. This is the kind of nuanced characterization that makes Olivia Manning's work so powerful.
On other the other hand, everything wrong with Guy’s relationship to Harriet is signified by the brooch that Angela gives to Harriet as a gift. The diamond-studded heart design looks gaudy to Guy who takes it away from Harriet, telling her he wants to give to Edwina as a gift. When Harriet tells him she wants to keep it because it means something special to her, he tells her she doesn’t really want it anyways because it is so tacky. He has no consideration for her feelings or for his own conduct. This eventually leads to Harriet leaving him. Edwina later gives the brooch back to Guy, he puts it away and forgets about it and when he finds it again later, he can’t even remember where it came from. The brooch’s cycle of possession among the four people shows how oblivious he is to the presence and subjectivity of the women he associates with. To him, they are insubstantial, meaningless, and easy to forget.
Harriet gives up on Guy and leaves for destinations farther east. She heads off for Syria, meets up with Angela and Castlebar in Lebanon, and the three of them head off to Jerusalem. Guy mistakenly thinks Harriet has died and when she finds this out we learn that the separation causes the two of them to realize how much they love each other. Harriest also learns how to be more independent. The ending is more Victorian than Modern, leaving something to be desired and not entirely credible. It does provide closure to the whole saga though.
Like The Balkan Trilogy, the strongest point here is in the character building and the way the people interact. Almost through the use of dialogue along, each member of the story takes on a unique life of their own that stays consistent throughout the whole book. You can feel like you personally know each of them and it is easy to identify with Harriet, seeing the world through her eyes no matter what your gender may be. It is a portrait of a flawed humanity that gently reminds us that we need to accept people as they are and find a way to be comfortable with that. Harriet can not fix Guy’s ignorance, but she can find a way to deal with it and make the best of their imperfect relationship. Olivia Manning’s writing also makes it clear what it feels like to live in a male dominated world where women are seen but not heard and, most of the time, hardly even seen. And her writing never degenerates into bitterness or misanthropy. There is a certain kind of resignation to the characters’ imperfections, a certain kind of patience that reminds us of the need to tolerate people’s imperfections rather than wasting our lives trying to change people who don’t want to be changed.
Compared to The Balkan Trilogy, this was a little bit of a let down. In the previous novels, the encroaching Nazi menace that followed Guy and Harriet as they bumbled through life barely holding their marriage together made the whole narrative that much more unsettling. But here, while they reside in Cairo, the Nazis and the Allies fight off in the distance of the desert. While some passages depict Simon in combat, the story of Guy and Harriet continues on in its day to day routines while the war is little more than rumors and some distant noise in the background. There isn’t much dramatic tension between the two strands of the story line and that makes for some less exciting reading. Also, by replacing the subplot of the parasitical and unforgettable Yakimov with the subplot of Simon’s struggles, a lot of the tension in this second cycle of novelettes is lost as well.
The Levant Trilogy may be slightly less engaging than The Balkan Trilogy, but if you’ve read that one first, then The Levant Trilogy does a sufficient job of tying up the loose threads of Guy and Harriet’s marriage. If anything, if you are a male reader it will open your eyes to the way some women might see their marriages in a way that no other novel can. And if you are a woman, you might be able to relate. Of course, there are a lot of other themes in the book, but you just have to read it to experience it all. It is an easy book to read and understand; like Kurt Vonnegut said, “Writing something that is easy to read is the most difficult thing a writer can do.” Olivia Manning has mastered the art of writing something that is easy to follow without sacrificing depth, complexity, or insight. This is an excellent achievement.
December 11, 2025
Если в Балканской части (Румыния, Греция) в основном только предчувствие войны, воздух уже вполне предгрозовой, но сама война где-то там, то в “Леванте” Оливия не запрягает, и погружение в египетский колорит с головой идет с первых же страниц. Никакой томности, война и без боевых действий ощущается везде и во всем как песок в пустыне. Я не знаю, что эта женщина видела из боевых действий, но описывает она все как очевидец, пронзительно и без лишней драмы.
Ну и о жизни не забывает, которая всегда идет, всегда, поэтому вторая половина трилогии исследует кризис взаимоотношений и уводит героиню в другие страны. Перемещения женщины в одиночку по Сирии и Ливану в военное время выглядят из нашей сегодняшней реальности полной дичью, поэтому ощущение сюрреализма и надуманности накрыло меня, но, с другой стороны, так умирала британская империя… они тогда реально еще везде чувствовали себя как дома.
Ну и о жизни не забывает, которая всегда идет, всегда, поэтому вторая половина трилогии исследует кризис взаимоотношений и уводит героиню в другие страны. Перемещения женщины в одиночку по Сирии и Ливану в военное время выглядят из нашей сегодняшней реальности полной дичью, поэтому ощущение сюрреализма и надуманности накрыло меня, но, с другой стороны, так умирала британская империя… они тогда реально еще везде чувствовали себя как дома.
June 17, 2021
After being not particularly impressed with the first book in the "Balkan Trilogy," I did not expect to continue with Manning's six-volume epic, but something drew me back and I was completely smitten by the saga after reading the second and third part. The "Levant Trilogy" is a worthy successor, a darker, more bitter one, but with the same wry sense of humor and flair for deft evocation of character and place of the first trilogy. These six books are an absolutely essential read, one that is perfect for a long vacation or pandemic, with the perfect balance of gravitas and fun essential for an immersive, page-turning experience.
June 1, 2021
Read this some years ago and was totally absorbed in the setting and the characters. Three novels (The Danger Tree, The Battle Lost and Won, and The Sum of Things) that follow on from the first three books (The Great Fortune, The Spoilt City and Friends and Heroes). Very detailed, drawn from Olivia Manning's own experiences.
August 10, 2019
I really enjoy Olivia Manning’s books and while I don’t think it rose to the level of the Balkan Trilogy, I thought the Boulderstone story line was quite well done (on top of Harriet and Guy’s ongoing story).
August 1, 2018
Very good. Almost as good as Balkan Trilogy. I really don't think I ever learned about this part of WW2.
November 23, 2021
Couldn't get into it for the first 100 pages but I persevered and really liked it after that. Fun characters.
November 24, 2019
Olivia Manning continues her semi-autobiographical novels of her and her husband's WWII experiences. An English professor, who was conscripted with his new bride at the outbreak of the war, the couple is sent to Romania to work for The English Institute. After living there for more than a year, they are routed by threats of the Germans advancing on Bucharest, and sent with other English community refugees to Greece. Then, with the Germans arrived on their doorstep, they are sent on flea-and-vermin-infested, rust-bucket ships to Cairo. Guy, Harriet's husband, reports to the English embassy, but, his boss having disappeared, there is no work for him. Harriet is forced to take a job, and, finding temporary work at the American embassy, she finds her boss pleasant enough to work with. I would not have liked my boss to take such liberties with me as Harriet/Olivia did, but when you are young and vain, I suppose you allow men to do things that a later, more mature woman would think of as inappropriate:
P.72
"mr. Buschman, a young married man, neatly built, not tall, with a flat, pale, pleasant face, was both fatherly and flirtatious with Harriet. He once tried to span her waist with his hands and nearly succeeded. Then he measured it with a tape and said, '22 in. I like that.' he asked her what she weighed. When she said 'Seven Stone,' he worked it out and said, 'exactly 100 lb. I like that, too.' "
Life in Cairo, with so many from the imperialist community stuck there, cut off by the war, with their money gone, and apparently no urge to look for work, can be strange. Harriet, often deserted by her forever too-busy-to-hang-out-with-his-wife husband, is befriended by the rich, divorced wife of Lord Hooper. Every night they go to drink in one or another hang-out of the English exiles. It makes one wonder how they lasted as long as they did, drinking hard liquor nightly, and smoking. indeed, Bill Castlebar, a poet, enjoying the absence of his wife, is taken up by Lady H. He is a chain-smoker:
P.220
"castlebar did not argue. Taking whiskey into his mouth, he held it there, moving it around his gums in ruminative appreciation, then let it slide slowly down his throat. After this, he went through his usual ritual of placing a cigarette packet squarely in front of him, one cigarette propped ready to hand so there need be no interval between smokes. As he concentrated on getting the cigarette up right, Angela smile indulgently. All set, he raised his thick, pale eyelids and they exchanged a long, meaningful look."
Supported in his vices by Lady Hooper, who has become infatuated with Castlebar, he quickly forgets what it's like to be penniless, and thrown on the kindness of those with money:
P.267
"the next night cookson thought he could go further: he brought a friend. He knew several people in Cairo whom no one else wanted to know and one of these was a youth who had no name but Tootsie. Before the war Tootsie had come on holiday to Egypt with his widowed mother. The mother had died, her pension had died with her and Tootsie, cut off by war from the rest of the world, wandered around, looking for someone to keep him. The sight of Tootsie lurking behind cookson caused castlebar to lower his eye tooth. He made a noise in his throat like the warning growl of a guard dog about to bark.
cookson, aware of danger, paused nervously, then made a darting sally towards the table, saying on a high, exalted note: 'hello, lady H! Hello, Bill! I knew you wouldn't mind Poor Tootsie...'
Castlebar spoke: 'go away, cookson. Nothing for you here.' 'go away?' cookson appeared flappergasted: 'oh, Bill, how could you be such a meanie? Tootsie and I have had such a tiring day around the bars.'
'go away, cookson.'
'please, Bill, don't be horrid!' Cookson, near tears, took out his handkerchief and rolled it between his hands while Tootsie, unaware of the contention, made himself agreeable to Harriet. He had a favorite, and, indeed, an only interest in life: the state of his bowels.
He bent over Harriet to tell her: 'it's been such a week! Senna pods every night and nothing in the morning. But nothing! Then, only an hour ago, what a surprise! The whole bowel emptied out, and not before time, I can tell you....'
Harriet, who had heard about Tootsie's bowels before, held up a hand it to check him while she watched cookson, now pressing the handkerchief to his cheek, shifting from one foot to the other in Shame. Tootsie, taking no notice of Harriet's appeal, continued in a small, breathy voice, asking her whether she thought the recent evacuation would be a daily event."
I wonder that the author has Dobson, the English diplomat in Cairo, forget who Percy Gibbon is. Guy and Harriet have a room that Dobson let Them have at the embassy flat, where another room is occupied by Gibbon. He snarls at everyone, and acts peeved and thoroughly put-out that he has to suffer others living in the flat. When Harriet mentioned to Dobson that she was afraid that she and her husband were putting him out, Dobson tells Harriet that it is he, Percy, who is putting Dobson out. Dobson had earlier been talked into letting Gibbon stay for a"few days," which had turned into more than a year. And yet, when Dobson was asked to find a place for the wife of a fellow diplomat, he seems to not know who Percy is:
P.361-362
"without further notice, mrs. Dixon arived as Hassan was setting The breakfast table. 6 months pregnant, with a year old son, a folding perambulator, a high chair, a tricycle, a rocking horse and 10 pieces of luggage, she stumbled into the living room, exhausted by a long train journey, and sank on to the sofa. Dobson, called to attend her, went to look at Percy's room. It was only then that he realized it was locked and there was no spare key. He was ordering Hassan to go out and find a locksmith when percy gibbom let himself in through the front door. Percy stopped in the living room to stare at the strange woman and her impedimenta then, sniffing his disgust, went to his room, unlocked it and shut himself inside it.
Dobson said, 'good God, who was that?'
guy, who was seated himself beside Mrs. Dixon in an attempt to cheer and comfort her, told him: 'it was Percy gibbon.' "
Harriet is a thin, frail woman who is sickened by the desert climate of Cairo. Her husband seems to have no use for her. Yet, when she leaves on an evacuation ship for England, and he doesn't hear from her for months, he suddenly misses her:
P.414
"guy felt betrayed by life. His good nature, his readiness to respond to others and his appreciation of them had gained him friends and made life easy for him. Now, suddenly and cruelly, he had become the victim of reality. He had not deserved it but there it was: his wife, who might have lived another 50 or 60 years, had gone down with the evacuation ship and he would not see her again."
The author's gift to us, her readers, this trilogy, and her earlier one, are full of loveable, and some thoroughly un-likeable characters that will make you laugh out loud at times, and at other times raise your eyebrows in wonder at their hutzpah and shenanigans. The reader with the ability to visualize the marvelous scenery of all the different locales so lovingly described will delight in places never visited by most. (Looking up places on Google maps was enjoyable.)
September 29, 2013
These three novels pick up, in Cairo, the story of The Balkan Trilogy. It is the story of a deep but flawed marriage set against the backdrop of World War II, always interupting and disrupting their lives in unforeseen ways. Given the length of the entire project, I would occasionally put it down and read something else. The characters are so well developed that I found I could easily pick it up after many weeks and get right back into the story. Manning is a master of evocative descriptions of people and places, and without straining for aphorisms she repeatedly achieves the same end.
Sample quotes:
“Every marriage was imperfect and the destroying agents, the imperfections, were there, unseen, from the start.”
”Guy and Major Cookson were the only people to follow Pinkrose’s coffin to the English cemetery and neither could be described as a mourner.”
“He not only had more confidence and more to say for himself but he had lost the seedy look of the alcoholic for whom any money not spent on drink was money wasted...but he still chain-smoked, placing the pack open in front of him with a cigarette pulled out ready to succeed the one he held in his hand. He still hung over the table, his thick, pale eyelids covering his eyes, his full, mauvish under-lip hanging slightly with one yellow eye-tooth tending to slip into view.”
“Beneath his confident belief in himself, beneath his certainty that he was loved and wanted wherever he went, he was deprived. She saw the world as a reality and he did not.”
Sample quotes:
“Every marriage was imperfect and the destroying agents, the imperfections, were there, unseen, from the start.”
”Guy and Major Cookson were the only people to follow Pinkrose’s coffin to the English cemetery and neither could be described as a mourner.”
“He not only had more confidence and more to say for himself but he had lost the seedy look of the alcoholic for whom any money not spent on drink was money wasted...but he still chain-smoked, placing the pack open in front of him with a cigarette pulled out ready to succeed the one he held in his hand. He still hung over the table, his thick, pale eyelids covering his eyes, his full, mauvish under-lip hanging slightly with one yellow eye-tooth tending to slip into view.”
“Beneath his confident belief in himself, beneath his certainty that he was loved and wanted wherever he went, he was deprived. She saw the world as a reality and he did not.”
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