The Balkan Trilogy

Fortunes of War #1-3

by Olivia Manning, Rachel Cusk (Introduction)

The Balkan Trilogy is the story of a marriage and of a war, a vast, teeming, and complex masterpiece in which Olivia Manning brings the uncertainty and adventure of civilian existence under political and military siege to vibrant life. Manning’s focus is not the battlefield but the café and kitchen, the bedroom and street, the fabric of the everyday world that has been irrevocably changed by war, yet remains unchanged.

At the heart of the trilogy are newlyweds Guy and Harriet Pringle, who arrive in Bucharest—the so-called Paris of the East—in the fall of 1939, just weeks after the German invasion of Poland. Guy, an Englishman teaching at the university, is as wantonly gregarious as his wife is introverted, and Harriet is shocked to discover that she must share her adored husband with a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. Other surprises Romania joins the Axis, and before long German soldiers overrun the capital. The Pringles flee south to Greece, part of a group of refugees made up of White Russians, journalists, con artists, and dignitaries. In Athens, however, the couple will face a new challenge of their own, as great in its way as the still-expanding theater of war.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, World War II, War, Romania, British Literature

924 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Olivia 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.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“As they reached the street, the dawn was whitening the roofs. Wide-eyed and wakeful from lack of sleep, Harriet suggested they stroll up to the German Bureau and see what had been done to the map of France. When they reached the window, they saw the dot of Paris hidden by a swastika that squatted like a spider, black on the heart of the country. They stood staring at it a while. Soberly, Guy asked: ‘What do you think will happen here? What are our chances?’

David pursed his mouth, preparing to talk, then gave his snuffling laugh. ‘As Klein says, it will be very interesting! The Rumanians had hoped to do what they did last time – keep a foot in both camps. But the Germans have put the lid on that. What they’re organizing here is one gigantic fifth column. The King hoped to rally popular support for the defense of the country, but too late. He’s lost the trust of everyone. The regime cannot last.’

‘You think there’ll be a revolution?’

‘Something of the sort. But, worse than that, the country itself will fall apart. Rumania cannot preserve her great fortune…As for our chances…’ He laughed again. ‘They depend on knowing when to get away.’

Guy took Harriet’s arm. ‘We’ll be all right.’

She said: “We’ll get away because we must. The great fortune is life. We must preserve it.’

They turned from the map of France with the swastika at its center and walked home through empty streets…”

- Olivia Manning, Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy

Olivia Manning’s Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy is a big fat novel about the Second World War. This is not totally surprising, for there are a number of big fat novels about the Second World War, an event encompassing enough dramatic elements to satisfy a near-infinite number of big fat novels. But while the size of The Balkan Trilogy is typical of members of its class, its contents are not.

In other words, The Balkan Trilogy is bit of an oddity. It is a seriocomic portrait of a marriage. It is a sketchbook filled with odd characters. It is about people living their lives at the margins of great events, not history makers themselves, but impacted by history’s convulsions.

It is also really, really long, and I’m not sure quite what it means that after nine-hundred pages, I’m not really sure how to explain this thing, but I never considered stopping once I started.

***

First, a bit of background. The Balkan Trilogy – as you have probably surmised – consists of three shorter books packaged together as one doorstopper: The Great Fortune; The Spoilt City; and Friends and Heroes.

An omnibus edition makes perfect good sense because – quite frankly – I’m not sure the component parts are effective as standalones. Examined separately, none of the three really stands out. That is to say, if I had only the first volume in my hands upon finishing, I might never have reached the second. Taken altogether, though, they form an idiosyncratic whole.

There is also – it should be said – a second threesome known as The Levant Trilogy. This is worth knowing, since at the end of 900 pages, we have not quite reached a resolution.

***

Everything in The Balkan Trilogy turns on Harriet and Guy Pringle. When the curtain rises, they are newly married – after a very quick courtship – and on a train to Bucharest, Romania, where Guy has a teaching position funded by the British Council.

The year is 1939, and things are about to get very interesting in Europe.

Despite its heft – and fraught setting – there is not a lot of plot here. For long stretches, nothing much really happens. Oh, to be sure, the geopolitical situation is collapsing quickly, with the fall of Poland; the Russo-Finnish War; the German invasion of Denmark, Norway, and the Low Countries; and the Fall of France. But all of these things are happening off-page, with the characters learning about them via the newspaper, or by the triumphant map hung by the local German Bureau.

Rather than thrusting us into the terrible-yet-visceral experience of combat, we’re mostly chilling with the Pringles, as well as the oddities in their orbit. There are a lot of conversations in bars, in restaurants, and in cafes. There are also conversations during walks on the streets of Bucharest. At certain moments, Manning pauses to give us wonderful snapshots of antebellum Bucharest. One lengthy sequence involves Guy staging an extremely serious production of Troilus and Cressida while large sections of humanity are plunged into chaos.

There are a couple of well-executed set pieces, but these can be counted on one hand. Instead, Manning is mostly concerned with observing her characters. Thankfully, they are worth the look.

***

The Balkan Trilogy is narrated in the third person, utilizing a roving but limited perspective. The majority of the time, we bear witness through Harriet’s eyes. Unfortunately, Harriet is a bit of a cipher. We learn very little about her. Even her physical description is sparse, making it hard to imagine her in the mind’s eye. She is also burdened by being the only sane person in her friend group. This makes her a perfect foil to the peculiarly British weirdos she encounters, yet detracts from her dimensionality.

The rest of the players are more intriguing. Without listing them all, I’ll note a few. We can start with Guy, Harriet’s husband, who is strikingly dedicated to his profession, to the extent that he is a constant low-grade asshole toward his wife. Their friction-filled dynamic is not wholly pleasant, yet I certainly paid attention. Then there is Clarence, an incredibly bitter cynic – somewhat after my own heart – who loves Harriet in his bitter and cynical way. We also have the marvelous Professor Pinkrose, an arrogant and condescending academic who flies into Bucharest to give a lecture, right on the eve of the German arrival in force.

Standing above them all is one of the great literary creations I’ve encountered. This is Prince Yakimov, or as he prefers to refer to himself in the third person: Yaki. Poor Yaki is an Englishman of mixed Russian and Irish descent. His father was a White Russian who served the Czar, and Yaki traffics on this faded glory as he mooches off the expatriate community. Manning outdid herself with Prince Yakimov, and his appearances are always welcome, brimming as they are with hilarity and pathos in equal measure.

***

Both trilogies in Manning’s Fortunes of War are semiautobiographical, and she made a similar journey to those of her characters, fleeing across Europe with panzers and stormtroopers on her heels. This lived experience is present here, with Manning’s sharp eye for detail – both animate and inanimate – making everything quite tactile.

***

Given its methodical pacing and prodigious size, The Balkan Trilogy is a bit of a hard sell. It’s not one of those books I’d ever recommend to anyone. It’s just too particular. Still, I liked it, for all the endurance it took to finish.

For good reason, historical fiction usually puts its protagonists in the thick of the action or at the center of the storm. In The Balkan Trilogy, the characters are generally caught in a tense stasis. There are moments of terror, when their lives are truly at risk. But these are fleeting when compared to the time spent waiting for the wave to crest and break upon the shore.

It makes for a fascinating twist on traditional wartime fiction. Instead of action, everyone is trying to avoid excitement; instead of shaping events, everyone is relegated to helpless bystander status. It is an extremely intimate examination on the overwhelming impersonality of war.

[Janet Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this in a bookshop in Bucharest, which is where Olivia Manning's story begins. Her heroine is newly arrived there when war is declared in 1939. Six books later - there’s a Levant Trilogy as well - her characters have taken you with them on a journey through Athens, Cairo and on into Palestine, always one step ahead of the war in southern Europe and North Africa.

It’s special on many counts, particularly on the manners, mannerisms and casual prejudices of the times. And she’s an acute observer, trained as an artist, terrific on places, smells, sounds and color. A wonderful storyteller too (if you’re planning six volumes you’d better be).

But there’s also another, more technical, reason. Olivia Manning lived through the period and the events. You can trust her on the vocabulary and idiom of those English ex-pats marooned by war. The voices and gestures are of their time, and that’s most instructive when your own story is set in London in same decade.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, but first a few words about how I'm an idiot:

Since you're here reading this you probably understand that it's no problem to wait.

"Yes, we can do your car service on Friday. Do you want to leave your car or would you like to wait?"

"Oh, I can wait."

I can wait, because I have a book. And, I not only have a book, I have a 924-page book which I have been fairly enjoying and have a mere 100 pages left. So, yes, I can wait. I can grab a coffee, decline biscotti, and find a leather seat as far away from the television as I can. I can open my book and, without adult supervision, advance another 40 to 50 pages to the end. You, you, will understand that in the pinball journey that is the human day, a 45-minute time-out, with just a book for company is no problem at all. Indeed, it is bliss.

And so, on Friday morning, I opened the garage door, my copy of Olivia Manning's 'Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy' in hand. I had, as I always do with books, treated it lovingly; despite its size there was no crease to the spine, no dog-ears, no underlinings. After two weeks, it was still pristine. The only evidence of human involvement were the pages of notes stuck in the back, notes that soon might be turned into a proper, thoughtful review. You laugh, but it could happen.

As the garage door opened, however, through the pouring rain, I could see that the yard waste bin had already been emptied by the local government sub-contracted service.

So I placed Olivia Manning on the trunk of my car and ushered the bin back to its accustomed spot. I have to say that at the precise moment I placed the book on my trunk I had an uneasy, deja vu-ey feeling. But I did not remember the box of Titlelist Pro-V1s that the et ux found down the road one day, remarkably still housing 11 of the original 12. Because in the two minutes it took me to retrieve the garbage can, 40-thousand headmen played segue through my brain, and I did not think again of 'Fortunes of War' for the 25 minutes it took to get to the car dealership.

Which is when I looked on the passenger seat and saw no book.

Did I mention that it was pouring? Cats and dogs. Biblical. Build an ark, ye heathen, kind of all week rain.

The et ux found The Balkan Trilogy in roughly the same spot where she found my golf balls, but a golf ball, it seems, handles weather better than the written word.

Properly lubed, I drove to the bookstore where I had purchased my now-ruined, unreadable copy of The Balkan Trilogy and entered, knowing exactly where the 'other' copy was shelved. The nice lady at the counter asked if I was looking for a specific book. HAH! HAH! I thought but did not say. Instead, I told her my story, my lament.

And, no, I did not get a cuddle with a "That's okay. That's okay." And I did not get a discount.

I had, what we call it, a book emergency. I would like to think I have learned from this. But I’m not hopeful.

And now, back to your previously scheduled programming:

It was a pre-war marriage, the Pringle’s, which makes it sound more like portent than a save-the-date calendar event. A hurried thing, too. Don’t want to miss that war. A young English couple. He (Guy): an idealist-communist, too myopic for soldiering (and maybe just too myopic, generally); a teacher of English literature, determined to do ‘his part’ by, well, teaching English Literature. She (Harriet): an observer, really; defined, even by herself, as a wife. Yes, these are the very words she uses to describe her life. They meet, they marry. We don’t know why. Then he, almost immediately oblivious, and she, almost immediately unhappy, are off to Rumania.

The War, that other war, is off-stage. We track it through a rumor in a bar, a shouted headline. As such, it’s a kind of ‘real-time’ look at the War, without the historical hindsight or its established truth. It’s ‘news’ overheard in a queue for food or whispered in an unheated flat.

The story told is semi-autobiographical, and not very semi. The Pringle’s life tracks pretty closely that of Olivia Manning and her husband. The reader stops, then, when ‘Harriet Pringle’ has this moment of introspection: I haven’t any parents. At least, none to speak of. They divorced when I was very small. They both remarried and neither found it convenient to have me. My Aunt Penny brought me up. I was a nuisance to her, too, and when I was naughty she used to say: ‘No wonder your mummy and daddy don’t love you.’

I’m sure some of the story here was meant to be satirical, but I’m not sure even Manning knew how much. Because I was left with this: Why were they there? What need for an English teacher, his wife and cohorts, soap-opera-ish friends and enemies . . . in Rumania, first, and then, when that country was overrun, in Greece, and then boarding the last boat to Egypt?

Seriously, the Nazis are coming, the Nazis are coming. So, let’s put on a stage production of Troilus and Cressida. Again, the Nazis are coming, the Nazis are coming. Should we do Othello? Or maybe Macbeth? Or can we do our part with a lecture, something to cheer the locals, like Byron: the Poet-champion of Greece?

Anyhow, I hope Manning was being satirical. Armies shattered, peasants starving, leaders deposed, yet the members of the British Legation feed their higher purpose by innocently reading Miss Austen.

And, oh, there’s no time for sex. Not the Pringles, certainly. A tender hand upon the other’s hand is all. And even when moved to adultery, hand upon the hotel room doorknob, well, instead, let’s have some tea.

It was like this: I did not ‘like’ a single character yet found myself riveted, enough so that I’m looking forward to The Levant Trilogy to see what happens in Egypt to the Pringles. It was on that last boat there they sat sleepless by the thumping engine, the bugs, and the jog-trots of cockroaches and blackbeetles. . . . Guy sat on the boat-deck, his back against a rail, and read for a lecture on Coleridge. The women, in a stupor, sat round him.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olivia Manning’s Balkan Trilogy consists of the novels: The Great Fortune, The Spoilt City and Friends and Heroes. The trilogy is a semi-autobiographical work based loosely around her own experiences as a newlywed in war torn Europe. The first book, “The Great Fortune,” begins in 1939, with Harriet Pringle going to Bucharest with her new husband, Guy. Guy Pringle has been working the English department of the University for a year and met, and married, Harriet during his summer holiday. As they travel through a Europe newly at war, one of the other characters on the train is Prince Yakimov, a once wealthy man who is now without influence or protection and who feels he is being unjustly ‘hounded’ out of one capital city after another. Harriet herself has virtually no family – her parents divorced when she was young and she was brought up by an aunt. In personality she is much less extrovert than Guy, who befriends everyone and expects to be befriended in turn. Throughout this novel I shared Harriet’s exasperation with her new husband, who constantly seems to care about everyone’s feelings, but ignores his new wife’s plight of being isolated in a new city, where she feels friendless and lonely.

This is the first in a book which introduces us to the characters and places that populate the trilogy. From ‘poor old Yaki’ who yearns constantly for a life now gone, to Guy’s boss, Professor Inchcape, to Guy’s colleague Clarence Lawson, whose company Harriet accepts when her own husband is too busy, to the scheming Sophie, who attempted to marry Guy for a British passport, to the journalists who cluster round the bars and cafes listening to rumours. For it is the phoney war and rumours abound about the possibility of the Germans invading. The English expats reassure themselves that the weather is too bad, that the Germans have other priorities, that the war will be soon be over. Meanwhile, the British Information Bureau (run by Inchcape) and the German Information Bureau delight in attempting to outdo each other with maps and window displays to create the illusion that they are winning. At this time, though, the Germans are certainly looking much stronger. As Guy throws all his time and energy into organising a play, Harriet is unable to refuse reality. At the end of this volume, Paris falls and England stands alone.

“The Spoilt City,” is the second volume in Olivia Manning’s Balkan Trilogy. The uncertainty surrounding Romania in the first novel is even more pronounced at the beginning of this book. Rumours and suspicions abound and the English are viewed as likely losers of the war. Harriet begins to long for safety, but Guy refuses to accept that he will have to leave and, to Harriet’s exasperation, throws himself wholeheartedly into organising the summer school at the University.

Many of the characters in the first book also appear here. Yakimov, always on his uppers and installed in the Pringle’s spare room, is disgruntled and depressed. When Guy and Harriet come across Sasha Drucker; the son of a wealthy Jewish businessman whose ruin is the talk of the city, the pair take him in too. Sasha has deserted from the army and Harriet is concerned that Yakimov will inform someone if he knows, so he has to stay in hiding. She is right to worry – Yakimov is concerned solely with his own well-being and is the least discreet person imaginable. When he goes to visit Cluj, he is so out of touch with events, that he imagines he can visit his old friend Fredi von Flugel; now a Nazi. His bravado and bragging may well have unpleasant repercussions for the very people who took him in when he had nowhere else to turn.

Meanwhile, revolution is in the air. As Bucharest experiences upheaval, martial law and shortages, the British await the arrival of Professor Pinkrose; invited by Guy’s boss, Inchcape, to – almost unbelievably - give a lecture. Harriet begins to despair that neither Guy, nor Inchcape, are prepared to accept the danger they could be in and have their heads firmly in the sand about current events. Bucharest now has a strong German presence, the Blitz has begun back home and getting to safety may soon be impossible. You really do feel for Harriet in this book – Guy is always so concerned with everyone else that he barely has time to consider how Harriet feels and she remains isolated and worried. Before the end of this volume, she has some difficult decisions to make about the future.


“Friends and Heroes,” is the third in the Balkan trilogy. The first two volumes of the trilogy saw Guy and Harriet Pringle in Bucharest – newly married and coping in a Europe newly at war. This book sees Harriet travel to Athens alone and awaiting Guy’s arrival. Many of the characters who populated the first two novels also appear here, including Dubedat, Lush and Prince Yakimov. Indeed, so isolated is Harriet when she arrives that Yakimov, previously despised by her as an unwanted presence in her life, and her apartment, now becomes a friendly face in an unknown city.

It is fair to say that Guy Pringle is one of the most frustrating characters in any novel and his arrival, as expected, does not improve Harriet’s life noticeably. Politically naïve, emotionally warm and gregarious; Guy spends his time thinking the best of everyone despite the reality of his situation and unwilling to face reality. Guy had worked in the English department of the University in Bucharest, but, once in Greece, he finds that Dubedat, Lush and Professor Pinkrose are unwilling to help Guy with work – as he once helped them. Harriet is constantly frustrated by her husband’s unwillingness to see anything but the best about everyone and begins to feel more and more neglected as these books continue. Indeed, this novel sees her attracted to Charles Warden, as she feels her marriage means little to Guy, who has time for everyone but her, in a life taken up by providing entertainment for the troops and pouring his attention on students and friends.

As with the other novels, this is largely based on Olivia Manning’s experiences as a young wife during wartime and paints an evocative image of life during that period. Harriet believes she has escaped the danger and upheaval of Bucharest for a better life in Athens. However, as optimism in Greece turns again to disquiet, rumour and encroaching danger, you worry that Harriet will never find her feet in a constantly unstable Europe – mirrored in her rocky, unsteady marriage. She wants certainty and safety and had hoped to find that within her marriage, but now she is unsure whether Guy is the man to provide that for her. This story continues in “The Levant Trilogy” - consisting of, “The Danger Tree,” “The Battle Lost and Won,” and “The Sum of Things.” Although I have read these books before, man years ago, I am enjoying re-reading these novels very much and look forward to reading on.

[Yiannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Καθόλου βαρετό, υπέροχο. Η ζωή στα Βαλκάνια "Περιμένοντας τους βαρβάρους". Προτείνω για τη συνέχεια τις Ακυβέρνητες Πολιτείες του Στρατή Τσίρκα, και το Αλεξανδρινό Κουαρτέτο του Λώρενς Ντάρελ.

[Hana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Addictive, compulsively readable, often savagely funny, Olivia Manning’s trilogy turns Rumania and Greece and the advent of World War Two into a stage for a vast array of characters from displaced European royalty, to members of the British ex-pat community, to Rumanian antifascists. They are described with such meticulous photographic detail and I sat through so many meals listening to them pontificating, joking, gossiping, arguing that I was convinced I really had met them before, perhaps at the English Bar in Bucharest’s Athénée Palace hotel. And I was fully persuaded that I might see them again tonight or run into them in town.



All of these people are flawed, empty in some way, yet I found myself growing fond of them; and as the darkness gathered and the Nazis massed on the borders my exasperated affection turned to dismay and a reluctant, futile sense of responsibility for these often useless idiots.

The book opens on the Orient Express as Guy Pringle and his bride, Harriet, head for Bucharest. They have been married barely a week and have known each other for hardly more than a fortnight; this wartime marriage of strangers is the central mystery of the novels: “She could only wonder at the complexity of the apparently simple creature she had married.” Guy, a leftist, is interested in ideas, intensely sociable, generous to a fault; he collects new people with an avid yet somehow impersonal hunger. His Marxism is the substitute for a deep religious urge and, perhaps impelled by his beliefs, Guy becomes a one-man safety net for his many hangers-on in Bucharest.

Harriet is the watcher who sees everything with clarity and a deep vein of cynical distrust. Intensely interested in private lives she longs for an exclusive love, a singular devotion that Guy can never give her. She is her husband’s opposite and even by the trilogy’s end we don’t know whether their marriage will become a partnership or fracture along fault-lines that are clearly marked. “Watching him urging the performers with the force of his personality, Harriet wondered: 'How did I come to marry someone so different from myself?' But she had married him; and perhaps, unawares, it was his differences she had married.”

Harriet is our guide for much of the trilogy and we rarely enter Guy’s mind, but there is one more character who serves as part-time narrator—Mannings’ most inspired creation, Prince Yakimov. When we first spot Yakimov he is draped in a moth-eaten sable-lined coat, a gift to his father from the Czar. Yaki is also possessed of a crocodile case, a British passport, and a receipt for an Hispano-Suiza, his beloved automobile impounded at the border in lieu of cash for his unpaid bills. For “Poor old Yaki” is as usual “a bit short of the ready”. Yaki is often down but never out and through his eyes we see Bucharest’s seamier side, as well as the faded grandeur of Europe’s displaced nobility who crowd the posh restaurants and cling desperately to their dwindling consequence. Yakimov drifts between the two worlds, longing not just for sustenance, but for the luxurious: the perfect asparagus of a particular kind, caviare blinis, rich with sour cream, piled layer upon layer.

Because at first food is everywhere in Bucharest—and food and hunger (physical and emotional) are central motifs that run through the trilogy.

“The heart of the display was a rosy bouquet of roasts, chops, steaks and fillets frilled round with a froth of cauliflowers. Heaped extravagantly about the centre were aubergines as big as melons, baskets of artichokes, small coral carrots, mushrooms, mountain raspberries, apricots, peaches, apples and grapes.”



The characters in Manning's first novel go from one gigantic meal to the next, from one party to another, drifting between cafes...talking, talking endlessly. The food, the plenty all around them is taken for granted. “They had been served with a goose-liver pate, dark with truffles and dressed with clarified butter. Inchcape swallowed this down in chunks, talking through it as if it were a flavourless impediment to self-expression.”

But hunger is there: A nightclub singer, Florica, who “…had the usual gypsy thinness and was as dark as an Indian…[was] singing there among the plump women of the audience, she was like a starved wild kitten spitting at cream-fed cats.” Beggars are everywhere: “A man on the ground, attempting to bar their way, stretched out a naked leg bone-thin, on which the skin was mottled purple and rosetted with yellow scabs. As [Harriet] stepped over it, the leg slapped the ground in rage that she should escape it.”

As winter, and eventually war, descend on Bucharest, and then on Athens, food vanishes even for those with some money left. Tame ducks in the parks, pet cats disappear—we clearly understand they wind up in pots. An obese British woman whose tented form once overflowed chairs is reduced to a skeleton draped with empty pouches of skin.



By the time they reach Athens most of the ever-smaller band of British ex-pats are getting two-thirds of their meager calories from alcohol and they draw together to find comfort. Yakimov, once an irritant, has become somehow, very dear to them—and to us. Even the loathsome Ben Phipps gets his “comic coda” breaking down the door to an infamous Major’s cabin, a storehouse packed with tinned food and rolls of toilet paper that Ben redistributes, in grand Socialist style, to one and all. “Here you are, ladies,” he said as he gave three squares of paper to each. “One up, one down and a polisher.” “What about tomorrow?” Miss Jay asked. “Tomorrow may never come,” he cheerfully replied.



I have reviewed The Balkan Trilogy as a single novel because that’s the way I read it. Despite its thousand pages, I was hard-pressed to put it down. If you read it be sure to get the three-volume edition because if it hooks you, you will not want to stop reading. In fact, even though my TBR plate is as full as a pre-war Bucharest banquet, I’m starting Olivia Mannings’ The Levant Trilogy RIGHT NOW because, as with any good soap opera, I can’t wait for the next installment.

Content rating: PG for wartime themes, scenes of poverty and destitution. There is no sex, not even a chaste kiss, and only occasional slang and jokes on scatological and sexual subjects--all fairly obscure. There is an intimation of possible infidelity, but nothing happens!

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book in this trilogy, set in Bucharest, is nearly perfect. Manning paints the odd ramshackle world of British citizens who have washed up in this (as they think of it) last vestige of Europe, as World War II tightens it grip on what has to that point been a backwater of delicious food, outdoor cafes, colorful gypsies, pre-modern peasants, degraded nobility and Jews (both wealthy/assimilated and desperately poor/religious). We see this fascinating world through the eyes of Harriet Pringle, a young Englishwoman in her first year of marriage to Guy, a left-wing teacher who collects society's strays (and there are many to be collected in Bucharest in 1940).

There are dozens of sharply delineated characters in the Balkan trilogy - and Manning has a real gift for tragicomic flair, as in her depiction of Yakimov and his visit to his Nazi friend.

There's also so much going on just beyond the margins of these books. Manning writes in the 1960s, and we know what becomes of the gypsies selling flowers and Bucharest's many Jews, both rich and poor, even if Guy and Harriet don't (though anti-Jewish persecutions are very much a part of these books). We know too, what lies in store for Romania after the war: we know where good old Joe Stalin (idolized by the leftist Guy) will take all of Eastern Europe. We know too that this moment is maybe the last moment in time when merely to be British is to have a certain ascendancy almost anywhere in the world (no matter how poor or shambolic you may be).

So this is the rich setting into which the jewel of Manning's epic story of marriage, class, war, masculinity, manners (so many things!) is placed. The first book, as I've said, is almost unputdownable.

And the end of the 3rd book, when the noose almost closes (but not quite - they are British, after all) on the Pringles in Athens, the very last tip of Europe (and we sense how close Hitler came to having it all, indeed), is stark, dramatic and wrenching.

There's just a middle section where it all bogs down a bit, and takes the trilogy from a five to a four, in my book. Manning is an excellent portraitist, but her characters don't grow or change much. As we move through books two and three, Guy is still obliviously gregarious and blind to Harriet's needs, Lush and Dubedat stay craven, Yaki still wants a drink, etc. etc. Perhaps the claustrophobia of that world is part of what Manning means to convey but the third book of the Balkan Trilogy (except, as noted, the dramatic very end) is a bit too faithful to reality for my tastes in depicting the neverending round of bars, bad wartime meals and boring conversations. You feel you've seen Mannning's set pieces before and I at least grew weary of her almost real-time depiction of the events leading up to the fall of Greece.

Nonetheless, fascinating, rich and well worth the read. One of those wonderful surprises that you feel you should have read sooner, but are grateful that you didn't, so that it is still there to delight.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is but one word which can describe this work, and it is as British as it gets: superb. I don’t know where to start, but I guess a little background information on Manning is necessary. Olivia Manning was a British writer who married an English teacher posted with the British Council at the University of Bucharest in 1939, a few weeks after Germany invaded Poland. Due to the movement of Germany’s army and the escalation of conflict in Romania, they escaped to Athens, and from there on to Egypt and Palestine. She has written two different trilogies in the Fortunes of War series, this one, The Balkan Trilogy, and The Levant Trilogy, mirroring the experiences she had. By all accounts and purposes, what she wrote is historical fiction; the characters and happenings at a personal level are fictional, but the overarching context is the factual one in which Europe was in 1939, 1940.

Manning’s writing is some of the best I’ve ever seen. Her character building skills are insane. Often times, between two lines of dialogue, you discover who an unimportant character is with the same depth you would an important one, and she seems to do this just to add colour to the story. At other times, the simple description of someone’s physical features, focusing on one particular element, gives you more insight into that character than their dialogue ever would. I mentioned dialogue – Manning has an uncanny ability to imitate the rhythm and cadence of actual, natural dialogue. I personally am very sensitive to that, because one of my biggest complaints when it comes to any work is that the dialogue sounds either forced or bland. When I write I also have a very hard time writing dialogue, so I consider it one of the hallmarks of great writing. Manning hits the nail on the head spot on. Not only does the entire book creak under the weight of pages upon pages of dialogue, but she manages to make it sound like prose. The entire reading experience is very pleasant, but these two things – character building and dialogue – deserve to be mentioned on their own.

And now let’s talk about what actually impressed me about this book. I myself am Romanian. I was raised in Bucharest. Manning managed to teach me a lesson about my own city – and that I am ever grateful for. She uses actual Romanian words to paint the picture authentically; she describes the beggars and poverty I am so accustomed to, but in a way only a foreigner could; she talks about the Romanian women and men and character in a way which I can instantly recognize; most importantly, she grounds the entire story in a place that she describes in its reality, not in a fictional way in which a foreign author who’s never been there would. I was more than impressed. I could look at my own city through someone else’s eyes, and it was a beautiful experience.

This is a long read, and you do need some patience to go through it, but it is absolutely worth it if you enjoy historical fiction.

[Vasileios Diakovasilis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Το μυθιστόρημα της Αγγλίδας Olivia Manning, Βαλκανική Τριλογία, το οποίο είναι αυτοβιογραφικό μιας και η συγγραφέας έζησε από κοντά όσα αφηγείται, ως σύζυγος μέλους του Βρετανικού Συμβουλίου στο Βουκουρέστι και μετά στην Ελλάδα. Η Manning περιγράφει την ζωή της σε σχέση με την ταχεία μεταστροφή της Συμμαχικής Ρουμανίας σε μέλος του Άξονα και πως αυτό επέδρασε και στη δική της ζωή.
Στην Βαλκανική Τριλογία, η πρωταγωνίστρια του, η νιόπαντρη Χάριετ Πρινγκλ, έρχεται στο Βουκουρέστι το 1939 για να βρει τον σύζυγό της, Γκάι και ζει τις μεγαλειώδεις στιγμές της Αγγλικής παροικίας με πάρτι, δεξιώσεις, υψηλές κοινωνικές συναναστροφές αλλά και τυχοδιώκτες συμπατριώτες της, σαν να μην αντιλαμβάνονται την καταιγίδα του Β' Παγκόσμιου Πολέμου που ήδη έχει αρχίσει. Περιγράφει βέβαια τα πολιτικά τεκταινόμενα, αλλά από την θέση του παρατηρητή περισσότερο. Οι περιγραφές όσων βλέπει και βιώνει στο Βουκουρέστι αλλά και της ζωής της υψηλής κοινωνίας είναι καταπληκτικές, τόσο που με άνεση μπορείς να τοποθετηθείς κι εσύ ανάμεσα τους, να γίνεις ένας από αυτούς. Συγχρόνως παρακολουθείς και την ζωή της, την βαθμιαία μεταβολή στη σχέση με τον άντρα της, τα ερωτήματα που της δημιουργούνται σχετικά με τον γάμο της. Το πιο σημαντικό όμως που αποκόμισα από αυτό το μυθιστόρημα, ήταν η αίσθηση της κατάρρευσης της Βρετανικής Αυτοκρατορίας, που μαζί της συμπαρασύρει και ένα πλήθος ανθρώπων που παρασιτούν, υποστηρίζοντάς την.
Ενδιαφέρον έχει και το τρίτο μέρος της Βαλκανικής Τριλογίας, όπου διαδραματίζεται στην Ελλάδα κατά τη διάρκεια του Ελληνο - Ιταλικού Πολέμου, με άγνωστες για εμάς λεπτομέρειες και την εντυπωσιακή καλοπέραση των Άγγλων γραφειοκρατών που βρίσκονταν στη χώρα μας, σε τέλεια αντίθεση με εκείνους που μάχονταν στα πολλαπλά μέτωπα του πολέμου.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manning's Balkan Trilogy is a very interesting look at a side of World War Two that I don't often encounter, that fought in eastern Europe. It mirrors some of her life experiences and is followed by The Levant Trilogy which I definitely plan to read also.

As the story begins, Guy and Harriet Pringle are arriving in Romania after a sudden romance and marriage during his leave in England. Now he resumes his lecturing duties in the university and Helen tries to fit in. But the turmoil of Western Europe is now reaching East and Britain's ally is weakening. We become bystanders for all levels of conflict as the Romanian people undergo internal strife, pogroms, onslaught of those fleeing war in other countries, and, ultimately, the realization that the Germans will come. Throughout this the reader also is witness to multiple interpersonal vignettes: the Pringle's marriage, the members of the British Consul, Yakimov ("poor Yaki"), the students and other teachers. Then the escape to Greece. Who will make it to Greece and will Greece be safe?

All in all a very readable and, at times, exciting book, one that I wanted to get back to once I had put it down. Do not be put off by the length.

[Anastasia Ts. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η Βαλκανική τριλογία είναι ένα μυθιστόρημα που το χαρακτηρίζουν κοινωνικό και εγώ θα προσθέσω ίσως θα μπορούσε να είναι και ιστορικό. Η συγγραφέας καταφέρνει με την πένα της να αποτυπώσει την κοινωνική ζωή των ηρώων της προσφέροντας συνάμα στον αναγνώστη απαραίτητα ιστορικά στοιχεία που καλύπτουν την περίοδο που διαδραματίζονται τα γεγονότα. Η Manning ξεκινώντας με το ταξίδι ενός νεαρού νιόπαντρου ζευγαριού, του Γκάι και της Χάριετ, καταγράφει την καθημερινότητά τους, δίνοντας έμφαση στην προσωπικότητά τους. Εικόνες περνούν από τις χώρες που βρίσκονται, ξεχωρίζοντας αυτές της Ελλάδας! Το ενδιαφέρον σε αυτό το βιβλίο είναι ότι βασίζεται στην ζωή της συγγραφέα, καθώς πολλά γεγονότα που αναφέρονται έχουν λάβει χώρα στην πραγματική ζωή της Manning. Ένα βιβλίο που αγάπησα καθώς ανήκω στους αναγνώστες που δεν δίνει τόσο έμφαση στην πλοκή αλλά στους χαρακτήρες και σε αυτή τη τριλογία η συγγραφέας σκιαγραφεί αριστοτεχνικά όλους τους ήρωές της από τους πρωταγωνιστές μέχρι τους δευτερεύοντες. Θα ενθαρρύνω τους αναγνώστες που αγαπούν το στοιχείο αυτό να το διαβάσουν, ενώ όσοι επιθυμούν δράση να μην έχουν μεγάλες προσδοκίες.
Ένα βιβλίο που ξεχώρισα αυτό το καλοκαίρι.

[julieta · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I take from this novel is the uncertainty of living in war. It centers on the british colony in the second world war, some good and some worse characters, but she specially portraits Guy, the husband, and Harriet, both british, and how their relationship shifts and changes through time. Llving in such strange circumstances, getting to know one another, is a motor that never stops in this entertaining book. I felt it a bit long at times, it took me a while to read, but I am happy I stuck to it.

[Eirini Proikaki · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
Διάβασα λίγο παραπάνω απο το μισό και το παρατάω.Δεν βρίσκω τίποτα το ενδιαφέρον σε αυτό το βιβλίο.Γραφή,χαρακτήρες,υπόθεση,όλα φλατ και αδιάφορα.

Ενα νιόπαντρο ζευγάρι Αγγλων ,που δεν μοιάζει για ζευγάρι, βρίσκεται στο Βουκουρέστι οπου εργάζεται ο σύζυγος.Λίγο πριν τον Β'ΠΠ και ενώ περιμένουν εισβολή Ρώσων ή Γερμανών και όλα γύρω τους αλλάζουν αυτές τις ιστορικές στιγμές ,αυτοί περιφέρονται απο καφέ σε εστιατόρια κι απο ξενοδοχεία σε φιλικά σπίτια.Τρώνε,πίνουν,βολτάρουν και ξανά μανά απο την αρχή.Βαρέθηκα να διαβάζω για τις βόλτες τους ,βαρέθηκα να διαβάζω τι φαγητά έφαγε ένας κοιλιόδουλος γνωστός τους,βαρέθηκα να διαβάζω μια ιστορία οπου όλοι είναι ή ηλίθιοι ή βαρετοί ηλίθιοι,μια ιστορία χωρίς νεύρο με ήρωες χωρίς ψυχή που τσουλάει τόσο αργά και που δεν έχει τουλάχιστον λίγη ίντριγκα,ένα ρομάντζο,κατι τελοσπάντων για να διαβαστει έστω σαν σαπουνόπερα για να περάσει η ώρα.Βαρέθηκα!

[Ιωάννα Μπαμπέτα · Rating 3 out of 5]

Να ξεκαθαρίσω πως δεν με τρομάζουν τα πολυσέλιδα βιβλία. Το αντίθετο μπορώ να πω. Τα προτιμώ γιατί ξέρω πως θα περάσω αρκετές ώρες με τους ήρωες κι αυτό είναι κάτι που μου αρέσει.
Ξεκίνησα λοιπόν με πολλή όρεξη το συγκεκριμένο. Ένιωθα πως είχα 1.278 σελίδες απόλαυσης. Μόνο που δεν ήταν ακριβώς έτσι. Οι ήρωες άρχισαν να με κερδίζουν από τη μέση και μετά... κι αν σκεφτεί κανείς πως έπρεπε να διαβάσω περίπου 600 σελίδες για να αρχίσω να απολαμβάνω... τότε υπάρχει πρόβλημα.
Στην αρχή δεν μπορούσα να νιώσω τους ήρωες. Και αναφέρω συνέχεια τους ήρωες γιατί πλοκή ιδιαίτερη δεν υπάρχει. Πολλά πρόσωπα εμφανίζονται και η συγγραφέας χρησιμοποιεί πολλούς διαλόγους, που είναι ζωντανοί και πετυχημένοι. Παραδέχομαι όμως πως κάποιες σελίδες τις διάβαζα διαγώνια.
Από τη στιγμή που οι ήρωες φτάνουν στην Αθήνα, τότε ξαφνικά υπάρχει μεγαλύτερο ενδιαφέρον. Ίσως γιατί μου άρεσε να διαβάζω για τη γενναιότητα των Ελλήνων, για τη φιλοξενία τους κλπ. Ίσως όμως και γιατί το συγκεκριμένο κομμάτι το απόλαυσε περισσότερο και η συγγραφέας. Τότε είναι που νιώθουμε περισσότερο τη Χάριετ και τον Γκάι. Τους καταλαβαίνουμε καλύτερα και εμφανίζονται επιτέλους ζωντανοί μπροστά μας.
Τουλάχιστον κλείνοντας το βιβλίο ήμουν ικανοποιημένη. Δεν ήταν χαμένος κόπος. Χάρηκα που το διάβασα, όμως δεν θα το πρότεινα εύκολα σε κάποιον.

[El · Rating 5 out of 5]

Partly based on Olivia Manning's own experiences during World War II, The Balkan Trilogy is the first part of a set of trilogies (the second being The Levant Trilogy). Harriet Pringle and her husband, Guy, (recently and hurriedly married due to the war) live in Bucharest as King Carol II tries to keep Romania free of the war. The first two volumes of the trilogy follow their lives as British expatriates trying to belong in an foreign land. The third volume follows the Pringles to Greece after they are forced to evacuate Bucharest. Despite the danger and violence surrounding them, their marriage does not exactly grow stronger - Harriet discovers just how little she knew about Guy before they married, and struggles with the reality of living in a dangerous time while her husband fills his time with projects that do not include Harriet. Their relationship is tried time and again by the rumors that surround their marriage as well as Harriet's friendships with other men (and Guy's friendships with other women).

I thought at first that Manning's realistic characters was what made the story so darn addictive, but then realized that they would have to be as detailed as the environment in which they lived. It is clear that the author had similar experiences from which to draw and she manages to do it beautifully. While giving each character (and there are several) a well-rounded life and story Manning managed to also be able to illustrate a growing fascist environment while discussing the politics of the late '30s/early '40s.

At times Harriet's co-dependency wore me down, as did Guy's flippant attitudes (and my personal problem of only picturing John Cassavetes, the actor playing Guy Woodhouse in the movie, Rosemary's Baby - what is with the name 'Guy' being so popular in the '60s??). No character is without some serious faults, which actually made their story all the more believable. Harriet's need for companionship is sadly all too familiar and is exacerbated by the background of war and uncertainty - she latches on to safe characters, generally men, and even a couple of animals. Guy's need for work and projects keep his mind occupied and is, most likely, a way for him to remain emotionally detached from his wife.

The second narrative The Levant Trilogy apparently details their life as the war forces them to move on to Egypt. I look forward to reading it as well, hoping it lives up this first trilogy.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Marry in haste, repent at leisure." I forget the origin of that quote, (was it Shakespeare?), but it's an apt description of the three books that make up "The Balkan Trilogy". I reviewed the first 2 books separately when I read them, so this is more of an overview of the three parts.
"Friends and Allies" finds Guy and Harriet in Athens, where they fled after the fall of Rumania into Nazi hands. The two were married after a very brief wartime courtship, and at first Harriet adores Guy and finds him fascinating and brilliant. It doesn't take long for her to realize his shortcomings, mainly his selfishness and self-centeredness regarding anything but his "work". This book finds her contemplating the wisdom of her marriage as she realizes that Guy is unlikely to change.

Her slow realization takes place against the backdrop of the Nazi invasion of the Balkan territory in WWII. It's a well-written series of books with interesting characters that appear and re-appear as the story emerges. Now I really want to read "The Levant Trilogy" by the same author, which finds Guy and Harriet in Cairo after escaping from Greece. I understand the BBC did a production of this one, so I'll be looking for that too. Highly recommended for the history of the war on the Balkan peninsula which I knew very little about.

[Joyce · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Full of Sound and Fury
Signifying Nothing"

What I took away from this 1000 page book is:

"The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming!"
"Let's go to a restaurant" "Let's go get a drink"

"The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming!"
"We can't leave because we are such good people and can't leave the little Jew boy behind, even though he's ungrateful and super rich, like all Jews"

"The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming!"
"We can't leave the Russian/Irish prince behind, from the goodness of our hearts, even though he betrayed us to the Gestapo."

"The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming!"
"I can't leave the cat behind, even though she's not mine and I have no idea where she is"

"The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming!"
Has the war started yet? No one knows because there are no dates.

The book did show me how good I am at speed reading and also how much there is to know about British adultery....

As for the quirky British characters ------ I'd rather read Dickens!

[Despoina Despoina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ακριβώς το είδος των βιβλίων που μ΄αρέσει να διαβάζω: μέσα στην Ιστορία χωρίς όμως να είναι ιστορικό και με ήρωες που δεν πρόκειται να ξεχάσει ποτέ όποιος διαβάσει το βιβλίο. Για όσους έχουν λατρέψει το Αλεξανδρινό Κουαρτέτο, τις Ακυβέρνητες Πολιτείες, το Ένας τζέντλεμαν στη Μόσχα και τα Άγρια Άλογα του Μισέλ Ντεόν.

Πλησίαζα στο τέλος των 1280 σελίδων και δεν ήθελα με κανένα τρόπο να τελειώσει, ήθελα να μείνω μέσα στο βιβλίο, μαζί τους, κι άλλο. Ευτυχώς υπάρχει συνέχεια, η Τριλογία του Λέβάντε, όχι μεταφρασμένη όμως ακόμα στα ελληνικά.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olivia Manning opens up a world that is completely outside my experience - the settings are Rumania and Greece during World War II - and yet is excruciatingly (in the cringe-worthy sense) familiar because many of its characters are British ex-pat, post-colonial slackers and pretenders of the worst sort. All the men who scrounge around these not- yet- at- war countries have some lame excuse for not actually joining in the fight against Hitler's armies. They're doing "important work supporting the war effort" like teaching English to Jewish students so they can better negotiate life in England or America should they miraculously happen to get to one of those places. Or they're doing something "hush-hush" they couldn't possibly discuss between cadging drinks, meals and lodging from fellow ex-pats while their clothes steadily degrade into rags. Then there are the left-behind women, elderly widows and spinsters who've lived their entire lives abroad dutifully tending now dead husbands and fathers who have left them tiny pensions on which to eke out their bravely genteel lives until they expire in poverty, alone, unloved, unremembered.

Manning sees her characters through a devastatingly clear eye - their foibles, pretensions, viciousness, sadness, humor, fear, hopes - and no one is let off the hook. At the centre of this trilogy is the portrait of a marriage. Guy and Harriet Pringle meet and marry in the space of Guy's summer break from his work teaching English - as an employee of a British Council-type organization - in Rumania. They are, of course, unprepared for each other and for the marriage which sways and flounders as they struggle to survive as civil society (such as it is) in the Balkans crumbles.

In all, a fascinating account of civilian life in middle-Europe on the brink of war, informed by the author's own experiences as the wife of a British Council employee in Bucharest during the war.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is now the third time I'm reading The Balkan Trilogy, and will then read the Levant Trilogy as well. I absolutely love this work - its myriad of characters, always complex, as we all are. Manning has really captured what it's like, I think, to be human - with love and fear and hope, each doing their best to be whatever it is that any of us need to be, and never quite sure what that is. She takes me to their world; a world that has long fascinated me - before the war and then during - and with Guy and Harriet, a woman who doubts about much, and Guy, who doubts nothing - to see the world through their eyes.

Now for the third time, I'm struck, once again, by Manning's great skill to capture sight and sound and smell - the pathos of the poor, the arrogance of the rich and the powerful ... the cold of a harsh winter and the delight of a long-awaited springtime ... the mindless chatter of dinner-table friends and living in a moment of rumors, before the onslaught of the inevitable.

Would I recommend?

What does it sound like?

Of course ... a great read by a great writer.

[Infada Spain · Rating 4 out of 5]

four and a half stars to be precise...

[Callie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! Feeling like I lived through WWII in Rumania and Greece. This book works on three levels--you're seeing world history unfold, you're also getting to know the friends and colleagues of this young, newly married couple, and you're watching how their marriage plays out. It really doesn't get better than this. The book felt to me like it must be highly autobiographical, it felt very real. If Olivia Manning had been a man and this book had been written about a male protagonist, it would have gotten far more attention and probably be on all the 100 best book lists. My favorite thing? The relationship between Guy and Harriet--it is so spot on believable. In fact, I could really identify with Harriet and I could see so much of my own husband in Guy. Weird. But ALL the characters are so well drawn. Yakimov provides a lot of comic relief. AND there is so much to learn about what it's like to have to keep on living even when the world is turned upside down by war, and one has no idea what the future holds. How can I convey the brilliance of this novel?

some quotes:

about Guy:

"She was annoyed at the same time, seeing his willingness to have Sasha here as a symptom of spiritual flight--the flight from the undramatic responsibility of to one person which marriage was."

"And yet, watching him as he sat there, unsuspecting of criticism or boredom, an open-handed man of infinite good nature, her heart was touched. reflecting on the process of involvement and disenchantment which was marriage, she thought that one entered it unsuspecting and, unsuspecting, found one was trapped in it."

"those who give too much are always expected to give more, and blamed when they reach the point of refusal"

"He did not recognize emotional responsibility and unlike emotional people, he was not governed by it."

"She had once been ambitious for Guy, but saw now the truth of the proverb that the children of darkness were wiser than the children of light. Guy, with all his charity, would probably remain ore or less where he had started."

"If Guy had for her the virtue of permanence, she might have the same virtue for him. To have one thing permanent in life as they knew it was as much as they could expect."

falling in love: "their sense of likeness astonished them. It resembled magic. they felt themselves held in a spellbound condition which they feared to injure. Although she could not pin down any overt point of resemblance, Harriet at times imagined he was the person most like her in the world, her mirror image."

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Better a ship at sea, or an Irish wife,
than a house in Macedonia.”

Semi-sprawling novelized memoir of Brits circulating through the occupations and evacuations of the world war in Rumania and Greece.

Author Manning deftly takes the reader along for an unpredictable and dangerous ride through the distant outposts of the Balkans, as Europe swarms with turmoil. Atmosphere and character are well crafted here, with portraits of people that could only exist in that time and place. Manning has a writerly sense of conveying the terroir of a new setting, or an unfamiliar situation. Part of the charm of the story is that the reader is left to contemplate whether the war makes the man, or vice versa .. As morality shifts, somehow identity shifts as well.

Layered underneath the basic narrative is the recognition that nothing about the way Civilization conducts itself-- would really ever be the same again. Convention and tranquility crash to the ground with the onslaught of annexation or invasion on the horizon. The ideas of Border or Frontier may be understood as metaphor here, wherein people re-align and transfer themselves toward something less like vulnerability and more like strength. Possibly.

And stitched into every page is the recognition that humor and humanity don't leave their critical qualities behind, even as all the characters become refugees :

He often himself hinted that he was engaged in espionage, but everyone knew that was just a little joke ... Spies were shot. Even if he were not actually shot, he would be ordered out of the country. And where could he go? Bad as things were here, Bucharest was the last outpost of European cooking. Levantine dishes upset his stomach. He could not bear the lukewarm food of Greece.
He sat up, all pleasure gone from the bath, and considered the possibility of safeguarding himself by acting as informer. That would never do, of course ...

The Balkan Trilogy can get a bit soapy at times, social drama overtaking the ennui before a fall. But Manning wants us to see the panorama of the applied-stress of wartime, where dysfunction, insight or even heroic action-- may be derived from the ghastly impetus of mass violence.

[Mat C Sharp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three novels written by Olivia Manning to describe the experience of living at war times without being immediately involved in the war; the protagonists are English that have found refuge in the Balkan area, in Romania first and then in Greece. There are supposed to be parts of the author's personal life incorporated in this book together with fiction.
As a subject it was quite interesting, I hadn't ever read a book about people trying to survive a war that wasn't theirs and this fact is depicted in a narrative that is loose and detached. There are so many events described, an every day life resembling consecutive diary entries of a person that seems emotionally unavailable.
Through this lense, most of the characters presented seem one one-dimensional, they're anti-heroes defined by their petty motives and their need to survive. However, this lack of complexity, although dull to read at times (a 1270 pages length is not helping), is what is expected of people bound in this kind of situation. After reflecting on this, I came to the conclusion that anything else wouldn't have been so authentic.
I believe that each the characters in the book are a paradigm of the sort of people one would meet trying to make a living in an inevitable situation: the opportunist, the withdrawn, the desperate, the fallen has-been, the one in denial, the unfulfilled lover...
Overall, an interesting read, although not at all exciting. If the three novels were published separately, I doubt I would have read all three of them. Had it been shorter, I would probably have enjoyed it more.

[How About Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Η Βαλκανική τριλογία είναι ένα χρονικό της ολέθριας περιόδου του Πολέμου του 40, της πιο σκοτεινής εποχής για την Ευρώπη και τον άνθρωπο. Μπορεί να θεωρηθεί ένα λεπτομερές ιστορικό ντοκουμέντο για τα γεγονότα αυτών των ετών που χωρικά εντάσσεται και ξεκινά από το Βουκουρέστι και συνεχίζει, μαζί με τους ήρωες, στην Αθήνα.

Στο κέντρο της αφήγησης τοποθετείται η Χαριετ και ο γάμος της με τον Γκάι. Νιόπαντροι, Βρετανοί και οι δυο, φτάνουν στη Ρουμανία μια μέρα πριν ξεκινήσει ο πόλεμος της Βρετανία με την Γερμανία. Ο χαρακτήρας της Χαριετ, η έλλειψη της αγάπης που έχει βιώσει σε όλη την ανήλικη της ζωή και η προσήλωση της στο γάμο της, ακόμα και όταν αυτός πάει να χαθεί, είναι κεντρικά θέματα της αφήγησης του βιβλίου.

Σε αντιδιαστολή, μέσω μια νατουραλιστικής και ενδελεχούς αφήγησης, ιχνηλατείται ολόκληρη η Ευρώπη, καταπιεσμένη και καθηλωμένη γεμάτη από ανθρώπους πεινασμένους, βασανισμένους αλλά και συναισθηματικά μουδιασμένους.
Η βαλκανική τριλογία εξελίσσεται, λοιπόν, σε ένα καθεστώς δημόσιας τρομοκρατίας και απάνθρωπης βίας αλλά και ατομικής δυστυχίας, στέρησης και καταπίεσης σε κάθε πτυχή της ζωής. Εκτός από τις πολιτικές και ιστορικές εξελίξεις, περιγράφει και τις συναισθηματικές αλλαγές ολόκληρης της δυτικής κοινωνίας.
Αποτελεί, έτσι, μια πλήρη πραγματεία της ζωής και της καθημερινότητας του τότε.

💗Στον τόμο της Βαλκανικής Τριλογίας περιέχονται τα τρία βιβλία της Olivia Manning: Η μεγάλη τύχη, Η κατεστραμμένη πόλη και Ήρωες κι φίλοι.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Guy Pringle nothing out side of Guy Pringle is especially important. To his new wife, Harriet, after a fast romance and being whisked off to Romania just in time for Europe to live , front row in the the Phoney War, there are things happening or at least might happen, but they are remote, as is her new husband.

And so with the so slow moving, English to its last cuppa tea, Fortunes of War trilogy by Olivia Manning. The notes on the book insist that this is autobiographical but one has to wonder to just what degree?
Against the fact that nothing happens, besides war, invasions, threats of invasions, another invasion the occasional assassination, program, local death and resurrection of fascism, collapse of the economy, taking with it the fun of café society, the steady arrival of war’s refugees, and the shredding of one, it used to be the Tsars, Sable winter coat. But all of this business is remote, somewhere over there, and hardly as important as the loss of a cat. Ok Now, a trigger warning, a cat dies; off page. And a lot of horses are underfed, also a lot of people, but I think the trigger warnings do not count human misery.

Our newly weds live around the work of the husband, a university lecturer who is paid for by “The Organiztion” which could not have sounded as arch when the books were written. Their mission seems to be little more than to prove that England is there, along side of its friends even if friends, with or without England are helpless against the soon to be arriving German Army. Hey kids, lets put on a Play, Shakespeare of course!

That Guy is at once deliberately oblivious to his wife, her needs and worries, the facts of what is happening just out side of his classroom, or eating places, and a total dupe to the dream of Communism seeing Communist Russia as a protector and a happy example of what the future should be… Non spoiler alert, we and Ms. Manning know better. At yet Harriet tells us over and over that there is much good in the man. We can conclude that she is really telling all of this to herself, but she is insightful enough that she does make a case.

Around this couple is a vast array of people, almost none of whom would any reader want to spend over 900 pages watching and listening too. In this I include ‘Poor Yaki, Russian émigré Prince Yakimov. All digestive system and ego, a man of the most transient loyalties, no real dis loyalties and who is the sincere follower of whoever stands him to the kind of food to which he is accustomed. Think Falstaff, with zero warrior or leadership skills.

And yet, and Yet. Author Olivia Manning manages all these wrong-footed, self-centered people, all this waiting for the war to get real and so many pages of so little, and I could Not Stop Reading. The woman writes well. Fore knowledge of the actual history means that there can only be trivial events in a list of spoilers. I wanted to read every word. Real people lived through the real Phony War not in the paragraph a history book might give to these months. The Pringles and associates lived it one day at a time. One rumor, one change in the political context one less degree of personal safety. Then the war reaches Bucharest, just in time for them to fee to the safety of Greece. Greece? Safety? Umm Waiter, more Raki, Retsina, or whatever it is that Yaki is drinking, please.

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of three novels provides an extraordinary look at the individuals in the lower echelons of the British Imperial administration in the Balkan theatre during the first two years of WW II. It is a great read for those interested in this highly esoteric topic. I am afraid that most readers under the age of 70 years will be unable to appreciate its prime merits. I was able to enjoy the work because I am the right age and had earlier read "Cairo in the War 1939-45" by Artemis Cooper which describes the historical context as well as devoting great deal of space to Olivia Manning.
The Balkan Trilogy which is highly autobiographical also tells the story of the marriage of Harriet Pringle (the literary alter ego of the author) and her husband Guy (based on Manning's husband Reggie Smith). While Harriet and Guy are two rather ghastly individuals their love story fascinates because of the authenticity of the detail.
Guy Pringle is a teacher employed by British Council a corporation founded by the Foreign Office which ran schools and performed propaganda services in foreign countries. He devotes a great deal of his energy to building and maintaining a group of revolting admirers. He is also a committed communist which puts him in a delicate situation as Russia is allied with Nazi Germany when the novel opens. The real-life alter ego of Guy, Reggie Smith, was also a communist spy which is something that Manning neglects to inform the reader of in the Balkan Trilogy.
Like their real life counterparts, Harriet and Guy meet in July 1939 in England, marry in August and arrive in Bucharest on 3 September 1939, the day Britain declares war on Germany. Guy will work as a teacher until the Germans invade in October 1940. They will win then flee to Athens where they will stay until the spring of 1941.
The Pringles in other words live through some very exciting times. However, they and their friends appear to believe that nothing is happening during the first two novels.. Guy is sure that they will have many years together in Romania. The British have guaranteed the borders of Romania which is a commitment that all the British characters believe will be honoured. Guy, the good communist, argues that the Russians will intervene should Germany ever decide to invade Romania. The third novel takes place in Greece where everyone expects a German invasion. This time the characters delude themselves into thinking that the British or rather Australian troops will be able to repel the invaders.
Olivia is much happier in Greece than in Romania but the idyll quickly comes to an end. The Germans invade. The British/Australian resistance crumples.
On 18 April 1941 Guy and Harriet Pringle (like Manning and Smith) depart for Greece on the last civilian ship to leave Piraeus (the port of Athens). Manning neglects to mention that on board are: George Seferis (the poet who won the Nobel Prize in 1963). Lawrence Durrell who like Guy worked for the British Council departed from Athens on a small private craft the same week. Manning's own life was probably seems to have been more interesting that of her fictional heroine.
In the Balkan Trilogy, Manning paints a negative picture of everyone. The foreigners are two-faced. They tell the British that they love them as they prepare to jump to the Nazi side. Their personal hygiene leaves much to be desired and their attitudes towards women are primitive. Guy (the proxy for her husband) comes off as a louse. He does not give up his old mistress and prefers to spend his time with his sycophants rather than his more critical wife. Guy's colleagues at the British Council are intriguers and back-stabbers who never show any gratitude to him for all the things that he does for them.
While the communist Guy consistently misreads the political and military situation he displays a remarkable talent for theatre. While Germany is over-running France, he decides to put on a production of "Troilus and Cressida" a play by Shakespeare about the Trojan War in which all the characters seem highly confused by the events that they are participating in. Manning devotes most of the final quarter of the first novel in the trilogy to the rehearsals and performance. All of the major parts are played by friend of Guy who are type-cast playing characters that they resemble in real-life. Not too surprisingly they acquit themselves splendidly. Manning seems to re-iterating Shakespeare's point that all the world is a stage on we which we simply play parts assigned to us. The fact that we do not understand the events that we are living through need not prevent us from playing our roles energetically.
Of all the hangers-on that Guy surrounds himself with, Manning devotes the most space to Yakimov an Englishman with Russian émigré parents. Yakimov enjoys the high life. He takes a mistress who can support him in the manner that he enjoys. When the mistress dies, he falls into poverty. Guy decides to support him and to horror of Harriet invites him to live in their apartment. When they decide to hide a Jew in the loft they are forced to go to great lengths to hide his presence from Yakimov who they fear might denounce him to the police. Yakimov never denounces the Jew but accidentally tips off the police that Guy is a communist. Yakimov is a dominating presence in the trilogy. When he is finally killed, the reader is happy enough to see the end of him.
The Balkan Trilogy has many great moments. However, to enjoy it, the reader must know a great deal about the historical context before beginning.

[Kevin Mckinnon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh Harriet.
Just have the affair already.
Leave your husband.
Forget about the damn cat.
And spare me from all these unpleasant characters.

[Sonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four and a half stars.

This trio of novels is about a rushed marriage of a young British couple who barely know each other and have gone to Bucharest in 1939 so that the husband, Guy, can teach English. His wife Harriet has some romantic notion of what their marriage will be like and finds her expectations to be upended due to Guy's personality, the pressures of an impending war, and her loneliness. There's so much more here than the core relationship. A colorful cast of secondary characters surround the Pringles, sometimes friends and sometimes not. The gamut of human behavior and emotions are in these pages; there are no real heroes. But nonetheless, it was impossible to read almost a thousand pages of these novels and not feel a real loss when it is finished.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm starting this review now because I've finished the first volume, The Great Fortune and will take a break before the next one. It reads almost as a travel memoir, as Manning describes Bucharest at the start of WWII so vividly, based on her own experience of living there. Full of well observed detail about the way of life and the group of British expats living there. Harriet is clearly a stand-in for Olivia -- a young woman just married to Guy, a British Council lecturer who has been based in Bucharest for a year. They met and married during his summer holiday in the UK.

At first you can't understand what could have propelled them together, and why Harriet would have been willing to marry and move to a foreign country on the basis of such brief acquaintance. Their marriage seems a rather rickety affair. Manning doesn't offer an explanation -- she leaves the reader to figure out that Guy probably treated Harriet as a project for improvement, as he does with so many people, and Harriet, who has no close family, was probably grateful.

Most of the characters here are unsympathetic if not downright unlikeable. Even Harriet, whom I did sympathise with because of her situation, can be quite irritating. Xenophobic prejudice -- no doubt true to life -- is on full display here, as the expats look down contemptuously on Romanians and Jews and live a sybaritic lifestyle based on their access to foreign currency.

There's not much of a plot -- it's more a slice of life and a study of characters. But it ends neatly with the cast and audience of Guy's production of Troilus and Cressida (set during the fall of Troy) pouring euphorically out onto the street, where they learn that Paris has fallen to the Nazis. The war has been a spectator sport up till now (Romania was neutral) but it's about to get real.

Volume 2, The Spoilt City, done now. Once more it’s fairly plotless but the tension is ratcheted up in the political turmoil as the Romanian government veers from the Allies to the Axis. Like probably most readers I knew nothing about Romania during the war, and Manning doesn’t go into detailed explanations. There’s a sense of gathering menace as the fascist Iron Guard appears on the streets, and gradually takes control.

Again, it’s a character study. Most of the British chaps seem much of a muchness to me, but we see a lot more of the growing problems in Guy and Harriet’s marriage, seen from Harriet’s point of view. Guy is worryingly insouciant, both for himself and Harriet, determinedly going on lecturing, running a summer school, even when there are only three students willing to turn up. Harriet, left to her own devices, has to figure out how to keep them safe, along with a Jewish student and army deserter whom they are hiding.

The rather boring and repetitive accounts of the British lives are offset by Yakimov’s positively dangerous adventures, which include giving the Gestapo the impression that Guy is a terrorist, and visiting his old friend Freddi, now a Gauleiter, who is not as welcoming as Yaki would like. Yaki is a great character, bringing plenty of drama and humour to the story.

Volume 3: no need to write a review, Violet Wells sums it up here. A shame, she got carried away with putting in every detail, clearly largely autobiographical. So many tedious conversations, and how many visits to the Parthenon do you need?