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A review by clairewords
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
3.0
I've been aware if this trilogy for a while and curious to discover it because of its international setting (Romania in the months leading up to the 2nd World War) though equally wary, because of its English ex-pat protagonists living a life of privilege among a population that's suffering economic hardship and the threat of their being positioned between two untrustworthy powers (Russia and Germany).
The story is chiefly about a young couple and their first year of marriage in Romania on the eve of war. Guy, a young English literature professor returns to Bucharest after a summer in England, with his new wife Harriet, a woman he met and married within a month. We know nothing about that month, or their romance, or why/how they came together so impulsively.
Over the course if the novel we get to know through Harriet's perceptive observations and self awareness of her own flaws and Guy's, what their characters are, why they act in the way they do, and the effect they have on each other, due to their differences. These aspects of personality are reflected through the way they interact and respond to others around them.
It took a little while initially to overcome my semi-reluctance to be among such a crowd, (being somewhat averse to novels where purposeless woman follow their husbands around and wonder why they are unhappy with life) and admittedly most of the characters and their behaviours in the setting up stage of the novel, are often tiresome, but the ability of Harriet to see through each of them, in an effort to better know her husband, after a while becomes more and more engaging.
Harriet lacks purpose and so it's no surprise that her energy and focus turns towards analysing and judging others. In a way she reminded me of Hadley Richardson in Paula McLain's [b:The Paris Wife|8683812|The Paris Wife|Paula McLain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320545874l/8683812._SX50_.jpg|13556031] and Zelda Fitzgerald in [b:Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald|15994634|Z A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald|Therese Anne Fowler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1396815892l/15994634._SX50_.jpg|21763986] by Therese Anne Fowler, women with aspirations, who find themselves in the shadows of the larger player, their husband's lives, men whom other people are drawn too and seek attention from, leaving the wife as a companion and bedwarmer for those few hours he finds himself solitary.
They too, are stories of the lives of young internationals, professors, diplomats, journalists, the locals they fall in with, the cafes, restaurants and hotels they frequent, the political background constantly a source of conversation, the lack of family and a rootlessness that drives them to seek each other out in this environment that throws people together, who wouldn't otherwise cross paths.
It also reminded me a little of [b:She Came to Stay|21121|She Came to Stay|Simone de Beauvoir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1332001480l/21121._SY75_.jpg|2246322] by Simone de Beauvoir, though that was a book I was unable to finish.
The novel does become even more interesting and ironic when Guy decides to produce an amateur production of the Shakespearean play Troilus and Cressida, diverting the attention of his fans and followers, young and old, at a time when war is creeping ever closer and everyone else not involved in his amateur dramatics is frantic with worry. The play itself is the tragic story of lovers set against the backdrop of war.
Dropped as one of the players, Harriet is upstaged by local Sophie, a woman whose affection for Guy and history that precedes her, adds to the tension of their new marriage, the novel ends leaving us wondering what will happen next, as Europe itself is a bed of tension and danger, depending on where one's loyalties lie.
The story is chiefly about a young couple and their first year of marriage in Romania on the eve of war. Guy, a young English literature professor returns to Bucharest after a summer in England, with his new wife Harriet, a woman he met and married within a month. We know nothing about that month, or their romance, or why/how they came together so impulsively.
Over the course if the novel we get to know through Harriet's perceptive observations and self awareness of her own flaws and Guy's, what their characters are, why they act in the way they do, and the effect they have on each other, due to their differences. These aspects of personality are reflected through the way they interact and respond to others around them.
It took a little while initially to overcome my semi-reluctance to be among such a crowd, (being somewhat averse to novels where purposeless woman follow their husbands around and wonder why they are unhappy with life) and admittedly most of the characters and their behaviours in the setting up stage of the novel, are often tiresome, but the ability of Harriet to see through each of them, in an effort to better know her husband, after a while becomes more and more engaging.
Harriet lacks purpose and so it's no surprise that her energy and focus turns towards analysing and judging others. In a way she reminded me of Hadley Richardson in Paula McLain's [b:The Paris Wife|8683812|The Paris Wife|Paula McLain|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320545874l/8683812._SX50_.jpg|13556031] and Zelda Fitzgerald in [b:Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald|15994634|Z A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald|Therese Anne Fowler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1396815892l/15994634._SX50_.jpg|21763986] by Therese Anne Fowler, women with aspirations, who find themselves in the shadows of the larger player, their husband's lives, men whom other people are drawn too and seek attention from, leaving the wife as a companion and bedwarmer for those few hours he finds himself solitary.
They too, are stories of the lives of young internationals, professors, diplomats, journalists, the locals they fall in with, the cafes, restaurants and hotels they frequent, the political background constantly a source of conversation, the lack of family and a rootlessness that drives them to seek each other out in this environment that throws people together, who wouldn't otherwise cross paths.
It also reminded me a little of [b:She Came to Stay|21121|She Came to Stay|Simone de Beauvoir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1332001480l/21121._SY75_.jpg|2246322] by Simone de Beauvoir, though that was a book I was unable to finish.
The novel does become even more interesting and ironic when Guy decides to produce an amateur production of the Shakespearean play Troilus and Cressida, diverting the attention of his fans and followers, young and old, at a time when war is creeping ever closer and everyone else not involved in his amateur dramatics is frantic with worry. The play itself is the tragic story of lovers set against the backdrop of war.
Dropped as one of the players, Harriet is upstaged by local Sophie, a woman whose affection for Guy and history that precedes her, adds to the tension of their new marriage, the novel ends leaving us wondering what will happen next, as Europe itself is a bed of tension and danger, depending on where one's loyalties lie.