Customer Reviews

The Balkan Trilogy (The Great Fortune / The Spoilt City / Friends and Heroes)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This series of novels (consisting of The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy) focus on the lives of Guy and Harriet Pringle through the years of the second world war. Guy is a lecturer for the British Council and spends the war teaching in Bucharest, Athens and Cairo. The real war action is always close and threatening, never actually centre stage. The novel works well to provide a "ground up" view of war as it effects those civilians on its borders. However, the beauty of the work lies in the day -to -day portrait of a developing relationship. From newly weds to disaffection, through to quiet resignation Harriet and Guy are compelling and real, familiar and challenging. No other novel builds its characters in such detail, no other novel offers such profound insights into the killing familiarity of a marriage. The canvas is large, but the focus of events is on the daily monotony that drains the magic out of relationships but, silently, replaces it with the threads of shared experience and intimate knowledge that can prove a more effective cement . As well as a relationship, this is a catalogue of vivid characters. The prickly intelligent Harriet. The frustratingly socially promiscous Guy -a man you learn to despise and then, over the course of the novels, like a member of your family, to love as well. With them are a collection of secondary characters that are believable and fascinating in their own right as well as catalysts for the main protagonists. A book to read, and re-read and eventually to become part of the fabric of your life.

I read this trilogy, in the Penguin edition, as the first volume of Olivia Manning's "Fortunes of War". Composed of three novels, it narrates the evolution and growth of Harriet Pringle, from a young, unworldly and hopeful newlywed, to self aware, disillusioned, but profoundly humane cosmopolitan who wearily flees the German advance against the backdrop of WWII in southern Europe.

We meet the main character (Harriet, from whose point of view we see everyting)as she has recently married and is travelling, in the company of her husband, Guy, to Bucharest. WWII has just begun, and the young British couple finds many alarming signs of this in their way to the country where they intend to spend some time, since Guy has a teaching post there.

As we get to know them while they settle in Bucharest, we can see how Harriet and Guy are totally different in personality: while Guy is idealistic, open and gregarious, Harriet is reserved, not very talkative and even suspicious. These differences become apparent for them, as well as for those who know them, creating tension and misunderstandings in their married life. Harriet doesn't understand why Guy seems to love to be with everybody, and have a good time on top of that, and spends so little time with her. He also cares about everybody's problems except her own (she doesn't bother to give a clue about them, but anyway expects him to at least look interested).

All this would seem ordinary, boring, married life stuff,..... except that the setting is the very troubled Europe of the war.I also think Harriet's thinking and feeling processes are quite likely and credible: we tend to see ourselves, in the middle of our misfortune and unhappiness, as the centre of the world, even when shattering, but vague and general, events sorround us. Harriet does indeed seem more interested in the obnoxiousness of her husband's behaviour than in the real tragic and dangerous situation they are in. For, even though Romanian people assure them that they are in a safe country,allied of the Germans, events begin to tell otherwise. Harriet, however, is not as much interested in historic events as in her discovery of the very real differences in character and disposition that seem to distance her from her husband or, even more surprising for her, the sudden realization of how interesting and worth of affection some of the people she meets in Bucharest are. This latter, the fact that she can feel authentic, deep affection for total strangers with whom she doesn't share anything (culture, language, age, background...) makes her worry more about the real possibilities of success her marriage has....while it also teaches her how there is a human core in herself and others, even in the middle of chaos and tragedy, that makes human connectedness possible. On the other hand, this device makes us acquainted with truly fascinatig characters, tridimensional, charming and lovable with flaws and all.

But she has to leave Bucharest in a hurry, as well as her new friends, for Greece. The Germans are sweeping over Europe. And this is the greatest charm of the trilogy: the depiction of the very last days, the agony throes one could say, of a whole world and view of life; the decadence of the old European society, torn between two visions of the world that will ultimately destroy it: fascism and comunism. Harriet's husband, Guy, likes this latter vision and, sadly and ironically, is devoted to spreading the greatest works of European culture, just in the eve of this culture's destruction through the attrocities of war.

It is a great triumph of the author that, in spite of the highly tragical, chaotic and emotional times the story is set in, she manages to convey the story in a very emotionally-controlled, sometimes even detached, way. This must be really difficult when writing about a young British couple, far from home and family, who flees the German advance in Europe. But the point of view chosen -that of a character who is really in the middle of the important, life-affirming process, of learning about herself and the world: how she can care and feel affection for other people, all kinds of people (learning to love), and who is getting to lower her expectations of what she should get in return for her affection- , diffuses the impact of the times and, through the very personal vision of the character, makes us have some hope and faith in the humanity of people.

There is a sequel to this trilogy, although not so long, that tells about Harriet and Guy after they have to leave Greece for Egypt: The Levant Trilogy. I recomend both. They convey a very good idea of the world and way of life that died with WWII.

I was very disappointed to see that this collection is out of print. I have read the trilogy several times and always found something new to admire. Ms. Manning is very adept at illuminating the communications and mis-communications of marriage and politics. These novels balance emotional life and political effect very well and they work on many levels. I hope it is back in print soon so I can continue to press it on friends without relinquishing my worn copy.

This is a very long read, which I personally found pleasant. Manning's writing, particularly her descriptive writing, is superb and after so many descriptions of the characters in different moods, situations and places one comes to feel one knows them extremely well. The effect of the writing style is, oddly, something like that of a Monet painting - it's just pleasant thumbing through the pages and smiling at the foibles, quarrels and antics one has come to know so well.

But, wait a minute, there's a war on here! Should one be finding such a work "pleasant" given its historical context? This question is the one I've been asking myself since about the middle of the trilogy, and I don't have a pat answer. In Romania, Harriet (Olivia Manning's stand-in) turns up her nose at beggars, develops semi-maternal relationships with two young men and remains as oblivious as she can to the country's dissolution, even when she meets a friend under a newly-raised swastika. Both she and her husband Guy, equally oblivious due to left-wing political idealism, barely make it out before the Jerries march in. The scenario is repeated in Greece. Like another reviewer here, I simply didn't feel the emotional impact of any of the events due to the gauze of descriptive writing of the exquisite landscapes and, more often, Harriet and Guy's numerous social quandaries. One gets the feeling one is reading Jane Austen plucked out of Regency England and plopped down in the middle of the greatest armed conflict the world has yet to see. It doesn't sit well.

The writing, while generally very good, and as I say, pleasant, has its shortcomings. It's filled with out-of-date English slang and, for some reason, a great deal of French. If you don't know, say, what "tickety-boo," "pongo," "tapis vert" and "eclaircissement" mean, as examples, you'll be at something of a loss here. Also, the descriptive passages can be a bit hit and miss. Here is one description of Greece:

"They were alone on the shore. The air was moist but there was no wind, and the cold, instead of blowing into their faces, seeped down from the yellowish holds of cloud above their heads."

Splendid. But here is another, of Athens, just a few pages before the above quote:

"...the city became limp in anti-climax"

Er, not so splendid. The city as phallus just doesn't work for me, and I suspect it doesn't for other readers as well.

Also, of course, there are the marital problems between Guy and Harriet which so many take to be the centre of the book. Perhaps they are. But, again, they don't truly grip one either. Harriet comes across as maternal and, at times, bitchy. Guy comes across as too large-hearted for his own, and his marriage's, good. That about sums up all the differences we get from Harriet's/Olivia's point of view.

My favourite character is Prince Yakimov or "dear old Yaki," thrown out of Tsarist Russia to make his way in the ever so cruel modern world. Despite his many self-pitying faults, he is the character to whom I felt closest, indeed, the only character about whom I FELT much of anything.

The verdict please?

Interesting, pleasant prose without much punch.

The Balkan Trilogy is a study of marriage, an atmospheric look at the Balkans in the days before and during The Second World War, and a wonderful ride through a living and breathing cast of characters.
If you are a plot-driven reader, then this book is not for you. But for those of us who can conjure up Bucharest in our heads, know Yaki's faults and foibles as if we had shared a drink with him a hundred times, and share Harriet's privations through war-torn Europe, it is a marvellous read.

I enjoyed these three novels a lot. It was not a book that I might have selected for myself but had been recommended for me. I learnt a lot about the English character at the start of World War II and also about the reality of the encroaching war - its progress in a day-to-day basis especially in countries like Rumania and Greece had been quite obscure to me previously. The evil of the fascist States is always an approaching threat in these novels and yet its reality barely imposes on the Pringles - are they courageous or foolhardy? When a few of the many well crafted characters lose their life or disappear alarmingly, disappointingly, perhaps I realised that the extent of the characterisation had perhaps diminished the depth of characterisation - I didn't feel the pain as much as I thought I should have.

But I did feel Harriet Pringle's uncertainties as she comes to grips with how poorly she knew her new husband, Guy. How he was so honourable and sincere with everyone, but in many ways a failure as a husband. How she is attracted by friendships with others - women as well as men - and is encouraged in all those friendships by Guy. Does he see no risks in this? But mostly it is her loss of a kitten in Rumania, and the need to abandon a cat, that may have been lost anyway, in Greece that really hurt Harriet. 'The poor cat' she grieves as they have to flee at the end of the three novels.

I am sure that much of these novels is autobiographical and I trust that Olivia Manning did not distort history for dramatic reasons. That would be inexcusable for me. But I am unlikley to do the research to find out.

Olivia Manning has written a monumental work, for the first time really expressing what life was like for Romanians--and giving a sense of real history. While quite long, it is worth every word. I highly recomend it.