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amalia1985's review
4.0
''A pine forest came down to the edge of the track: the light from the carriages rippled over the bordering trees. As she gazed out into the dark heart of the forest, she began to see small moving lights. For an instant a grey dogshape skirted the rail, then returned to darkness. The lights, she realised, were the eyes of beasts. She drew her head in and closed the window.''
A jolly squad of British expatriates is currently residing in Bucharest, each one for their own reasons. But there is a terrible shadow looming over their heads. The Second World War is about to begin in all its terrible rage, and the characters need to battle their personal struggles in a world that will soon be torn to pieces and change forever.
In the first instalment of her famous Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning writes with honesty, clarity and elegance about the way of thinking of the British citizens in a foreign country that stands on an extremely threatening crossroads. Some of them parade hopes, fears, insecurities and prejudices, almost oblivious to the fact that disaster is coming, paying no attention to the poverty around them and the persecution of the Jewish people that no one seems to care about.
The writer gives us an accurate and sensitive critique of the parties and the dinners and all kinds of ridiculous, empty celebrations, full of magnanimous words and petty whinings, while the conflict is raging and the poverty of the citizens of Bucharest is everywhere. Contaminating the very air they breathe, the Germans already treat everyone like subjects, demonstrating their disgusting expressions of victory, exploiting Romania’s fear for the Soviets that led to the wrong choices. The Nazi monsters have not invaded Romania yet but that doesn’t stop them from parading around like ‘’victors’’, turning my stomach page after page.
And where do our characters stand amidst this situation? Hard to say. Manning eloquently depicts the fact that each one of us is always locked up in a private microcosm that cannot be influenced even by the worst affliction. War or no war, marital problems, financial insecurities, personal ambitions will always come first. Especially when you are somewhat affluent and you are in no danger to find yourself in a concentration camp...And, frankly, this is understandable. Manning doesn’t pass judgment. She observes and pin-points the bleak image of her characters but never becomes cruel.
But I am a reader and I can pass judgement and become cruel and cynical. And pragmatic. And I declare Guy as one of the most irritating, unlikable characters I’ve ever encountered in a novel. For the life of me, I can’t see why any woman would fall in love with him unless there were other reasons. He is terrible. He makes Harriett look utterly stupid and Lord knows why she puts up with his behaviour. Clarence, with his frequent use of the word ‘’bitch’’, is no less problematic even if he is an interesting, enticing character. Harriet tries. She tries hard. And despite her occasional moments of rebellion, she is too meek and docile for my liking. Yakimov is almost a tragic figure at times, and then becomes the unwanted guest, an almost pathetic comic relief. In short, the novel seems to lack an interesting cast of characters, judging by the first volume of the trilogy.
‘’But I don’t imagine I exist to enhance your sense of superiority. I exist to satisfy my own demands on myself, and they are higher than yours are likely to be. If you don’t like me as I am, I don’t care.’’
Many thanks to Penguin Random House UK and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
A jolly squad of British expatriates is currently residing in Bucharest, each one for their own reasons. But there is a terrible shadow looming over their heads. The Second World War is about to begin in all its terrible rage, and the characters need to battle their personal struggles in a world that will soon be torn to pieces and change forever.
In the first instalment of her famous Balkan Trilogy, Olivia Manning writes with honesty, clarity and elegance about the way of thinking of the British citizens in a foreign country that stands on an extremely threatening crossroads. Some of them parade hopes, fears, insecurities and prejudices, almost oblivious to the fact that disaster is coming, paying no attention to the poverty around them and the persecution of the Jewish people that no one seems to care about.
The writer gives us an accurate and sensitive critique of the parties and the dinners and all kinds of ridiculous, empty celebrations, full of magnanimous words and petty whinings, while the conflict is raging and the poverty of the citizens of Bucharest is everywhere. Contaminating the very air they breathe, the Germans already treat everyone like subjects, demonstrating their disgusting expressions of victory, exploiting Romania’s fear for the Soviets that led to the wrong choices. The Nazi monsters have not invaded Romania yet but that doesn’t stop them from parading around like ‘’victors’’, turning my stomach page after page.
And where do our characters stand amidst this situation? Hard to say. Manning eloquently depicts the fact that each one of us is always locked up in a private microcosm that cannot be influenced even by the worst affliction. War or no war, marital problems, financial insecurities, personal ambitions will always come first. Especially when you are somewhat affluent and you are in no danger to find yourself in a concentration camp...And, frankly, this is understandable. Manning doesn’t pass judgment. She observes and pin-points the bleak image of her characters but never becomes cruel.
But I am a reader and I can pass judgement and become cruel and cynical. And pragmatic. And I declare Guy as one of the most irritating, unlikable characters I’ve ever encountered in a novel. For the life of me, I can’t see why any woman would fall in love with him unless there were other reasons. He is terrible. He makes Harriett look utterly stupid and Lord knows why she puts up with his behaviour. Clarence, with his frequent use of the word ‘’bitch’’, is no less problematic even if he is an interesting, enticing character. Harriet tries. She tries hard. And despite her occasional moments of rebellion, she is too meek and docile for my liking. Yakimov is almost a tragic figure at times, and then becomes the unwanted guest, an almost pathetic comic relief. In short, the novel seems to lack an interesting cast of characters, judging by the first volume of the trilogy.
‘’But I don’t imagine I exist to enhance your sense of superiority. I exist to satisfy my own demands on myself, and they are higher than yours are likely to be. If you don’t like me as I am, I don’t care.’’
Many thanks to Penguin Random House UK and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
aseriesofunreadbooks's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
smcleish's review against another edition
5.0
Originally published on my blog here in April 2008.
Olivia Manning's two trilogies featuring Harriet Pringle make up one of my favourite reading experiences of the last couple of years. The Great Fortune is the first book of the earlier Balkan Trilogy, set in Roumania in 1940 during what was known as the Phoney War. The book covers more or less the period from the British declaration of war on Germany to the fall of Paris, during which time Roumania went from being an ally of Britain who guaranteed protection to being a rather reluctant friend of Germany. Naive English newly web Harriet travels to Bucharest with her husband Guy, who teaches English under the auspices of the British Council. She does not speak the language; she has no work; she does not yet know Guy all that well - it was a whirlwind romance. So she is a lonely outsider, standing at the fringes and observing.
Indeed, no important character in the novel is really on the inside. Roumania itself is affected by, but on the fringes of, events in Western Europe; the expatriate British community become more and more isolated as German victories lead up to Dunkirk and the fall of Paris; Guy and Harriet are not really part of the English community, which is split between the British legation and journalists; other characters, such as Prince Yakimov, are excluded by poverty. This last mirrors the condition of the chorus of the Roumanian peasantry, who appear in the guises of mobs and groups of beggars, driven to the city by hunger and exploited by the upper class. (It is the behaviour of the ruling class in the country which provides the novel's title, as they are described as having squandered the "great fortune" of Roumanian natural resources.)
The characters are none of them without faults, naturally - and in some cases, these are what have led to their exclusion from the in crowd. Yakimov is greedy and perpetually whining; Harriet is over-critical. But Guy is portrayed, through his wife's eyes, in the most unflattering way. Charming he may be (and that is a very difficult quality for a writer to portray), but self-centred to an extreme: so much that it is hard to believe that anyone would get to the point of marriage to him without perceiving it and pulling out. The picture is so strong that it quickly becomes clear that part of Harriet's character is involved as well as Guy's: she is an exasperated, bored spouse, tired of being taken for granted when there are new people for Guy to captivate, new projects for him to keep himself in the limelight. Harriet feels that she has a closer relationship with a stray kitten than with the people around her, she is so lonely.
While the theme of exclusion is a major one in The Great Fortune, and indeed flows through the whole of both trilogies, this is not a sad read. The tone of the story is anecdotal, like a memoir rather than a fictional account, despite the third person narrative convention used: this is a woman telling you what she did in the war (even if the fighting is offstage throughout). And Manning is an expert storyteller, putting together a series of set pieces which are amusing vignettes in themselves but which add up to a picture of a lost world - as Roumania under the monarchy in 1940 is far more different from England then or now than any European country is today. The Great Fortune climaxes with a performance of Shakespeare's [b:Troilus and Cressida|187518|Troilus and Cressida|William Shakespeare|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331563609s/187518.jpg|370310], directed by Guy, from which only Harriet is excluded (Guy deciding that wives and husbands should not work together, and casting a former girlfriend as Cressida instead). Despite the war situation, and despite Guy's rather naive Communist sympathies, the production is completely apolitical in nature. Even in the amateur dramatic field, it is today commonplace to make productions of plays comment on current affairs, and this particular play is one that lends itself to such treatment, with the very different portrayal of the Trojan and Greek characters. To me, the lack of a political theme in the production is at least as telling a political statement (in the circumstances) as the use of an obvious one would have been, and suggests a lack of involvement which underlines the outsider theme. I don't know whether this would have been Manning's intent, as a straightforward presentation of the play like Guy's would have been more common and certainly expected of a British Council production.
In some ways, The Great Fortune reminds me of [a:Anthony Powell|9947|Anthony Powell|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1331081008p2/9947.jpg]'s A Dance to the Music of Time novels, with the same satirical air; but for me Manning is more successful. The interest provided by the background is sadly lacking in Powell's novels, even the ones set during wartime, and Manning is able to solve the plotting problem Powell had with coincidence (both having a small group of characters constantly running into one another by chance) by setting her work in the small emigré community. The absurdities caused by the culture clash between the English and the Roumanians, particularly during the rehearsals for Troilus and Cressida, are to me much more felicitously reminiscent of some of my favourite humourous short stories, Lawrence Durrell's [b:Antrobus|759709|Antrobus Complete|Lawrence Durrell|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|841928] collections.
The Great Fortune lays out the ground for the rest of the series of novels in the two trilogies. Understated in a very British way, it is a rather overlooked classic and an antidote to the more melodramatic portrayals of heroism and extreme suffering in the way, though these too have a place.
Olivia Manning's two trilogies featuring Harriet Pringle make up one of my favourite reading experiences of the last couple of years. The Great Fortune is the first book of the earlier Balkan Trilogy, set in Roumania in 1940 during what was known as the Phoney War. The book covers more or less the period from the British declaration of war on Germany to the fall of Paris, during which time Roumania went from being an ally of Britain who guaranteed protection to being a rather reluctant friend of Germany. Naive English newly web Harriet travels to Bucharest with her husband Guy, who teaches English under the auspices of the British Council. She does not speak the language; she has no work; she does not yet know Guy all that well - it was a whirlwind romance. So she is a lonely outsider, standing at the fringes and observing.
Indeed, no important character in the novel is really on the inside. Roumania itself is affected by, but on the fringes of, events in Western Europe; the expatriate British community become more and more isolated as German victories lead up to Dunkirk and the fall of Paris; Guy and Harriet are not really part of the English community, which is split between the British legation and journalists; other characters, such as Prince Yakimov, are excluded by poverty. This last mirrors the condition of the chorus of the Roumanian peasantry, who appear in the guises of mobs and groups of beggars, driven to the city by hunger and exploited by the upper class. (It is the behaviour of the ruling class in the country which provides the novel's title, as they are described as having squandered the "great fortune" of Roumanian natural resources.)
The characters are none of them without faults, naturally - and in some cases, these are what have led to their exclusion from the in crowd. Yakimov is greedy and perpetually whining; Harriet is over-critical. But Guy is portrayed, through his wife's eyes, in the most unflattering way. Charming he may be (and that is a very difficult quality for a writer to portray), but self-centred to an extreme: so much that it is hard to believe that anyone would get to the point of marriage to him without perceiving it and pulling out. The picture is so strong that it quickly becomes clear that part of Harriet's character is involved as well as Guy's: she is an exasperated, bored spouse, tired of being taken for granted when there are new people for Guy to captivate, new projects for him to keep himself in the limelight. Harriet feels that she has a closer relationship with a stray kitten than with the people around her, she is so lonely.
While the theme of exclusion is a major one in The Great Fortune, and indeed flows through the whole of both trilogies, this is not a sad read. The tone of the story is anecdotal, like a memoir rather than a fictional account, despite the third person narrative convention used: this is a woman telling you what she did in the war (even if the fighting is offstage throughout). And Manning is an expert storyteller, putting together a series of set pieces which are amusing vignettes in themselves but which add up to a picture of a lost world - as Roumania under the monarchy in 1940 is far more different from England then or now than any European country is today. The Great Fortune climaxes with a performance of Shakespeare's [b:Troilus and Cressida|187518|Troilus and Cressida|William Shakespeare|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331563609s/187518.jpg|370310], directed by Guy, from which only Harriet is excluded (Guy deciding that wives and husbands should not work together, and casting a former girlfriend as Cressida instead). Despite the war situation, and despite Guy's rather naive Communist sympathies, the production is completely apolitical in nature. Even in the amateur dramatic field, it is today commonplace to make productions of plays comment on current affairs, and this particular play is one that lends itself to such treatment, with the very different portrayal of the Trojan and Greek characters. To me, the lack of a political theme in the production is at least as telling a political statement (in the circumstances) as the use of an obvious one would have been, and suggests a lack of involvement which underlines the outsider theme. I don't know whether this would have been Manning's intent, as a straightforward presentation of the play like Guy's would have been more common and certainly expected of a British Council production.
In some ways, The Great Fortune reminds me of [a:Anthony Powell|9947|Anthony Powell|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1331081008p2/9947.jpg]'s A Dance to the Music of Time novels, with the same satirical air; but for me Manning is more successful. The interest provided by the background is sadly lacking in Powell's novels, even the ones set during wartime, and Manning is able to solve the plotting problem Powell had with coincidence (both having a small group of characters constantly running into one another by chance) by setting her work in the small emigré community. The absurdities caused by the culture clash between the English and the Roumanians, particularly during the rehearsals for Troilus and Cressida, are to me much more felicitously reminiscent of some of my favourite humourous short stories, Lawrence Durrell's [b:Antrobus|759709|Antrobus Complete|Lawrence Durrell|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|841928] collections.
The Great Fortune lays out the ground for the rest of the series of novels in the two trilogies. Understated in a very British way, it is a rather overlooked classic and an antidote to the more melodramatic portrayals of heroism and extreme suffering in the way, though these too have a place.
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