Fortunes of War by Olivia Manning
Fortunes of War is the collective name given to six novels by Olivia Manning, consisting of The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy. The Balkan Trilogy comprises the books The Great Fortune, The Spoilt City and Friends And Heroes. The Levant Trilogy comprises the books The Danger Tree, The Battle Lost And Won and The Sum Of Things.
The novels describe the experiences of a young married couple, Harriet and Guy Pringle, early in World War II. A lecturer and passionate Communist, Guy is attached to a British Council educational establishment in Bucharest (Romania) when war breaks out, and the couple are forced to leave the country, passing through Athens and Palestine and ending up in Cairo, Egypt. Harriet is persuaded to return home by ship, but changes her mind at the last minute and goes to Damascus with friends. Guy, hearing that the ship has been torpedoed, believes her to be dead, but they are reunited in the end.
The cycle also chronicles the pre-war and wartime experiences of the surrounding group of English expatriates who also find themselves on the move, and the changes in Romanian society as the corrupt regime of King Carol II tries unsuccessfully to keep Romania out of the war.
Characters
The leading characters, Harriet and Guy Pringle (the latter a lecturer and a passionate communist), are based on Manning herself and her husband R.D. Smith.
Other major characters in the novel include: Prince Yakimov, Sasha Drucker, His Excellency Sir Montague, Alan Frewen, Major Cookson, Mrs. Brett, Mrs. Jay, Mr. 'Dobby' Dobson, Mr. 'Foxy' Leverett, Charles Warden, Professor Lord Pinkrose, Professor Inchcape, Clarence Lawson, Lord Bedlington, Archie Callard, Toby Lush and Mr. Dubedat.
Olivia Manning has said that the scrounging Prince Yakimov is based in the Fitzrovian novelist Julian MacLaren-Ross. (Both are distinguished by an unusual overcoat in which they are always dressed).
Anthony Burgess described Fortunes of War as ‘the finest fictional record of the war produced by a British writer’.
From 27 January 2008, the novel was adapted by Lin Coghlan in six one-hour episodes as the Classic Serial on BBC Radio 4. This version featured Khalid Abdalla as Guy and Honeysuckle Weeks as the young Harriet, with Joanna Lumley as the older Harriet, who narrates. Other cast included James Fleet (Yakimov), John Rowe (Inchcape), Alex Wyndham (Clarence), Sam Dale (Dobson), John Dougall (Galpin), Carolyn Pickles (Bella), Peter Marinker (Drucker), Joseph Arkley (Sasha), Simon Treves (Toby Lush), Ben Crowe (Dubedat), and Laura Molyneux (Despina). The adaptation was directed by Colin Guthrie and Marc Beeby.
Parts 1-3 of 6
Replies
Parts 4-6 of 6
BBC - 080217 - Fortunes of War P4.mp3
BBC - 080224 - Fortunes of War P5.mp3
BBC - 080302 - Fortunes of War P6.mp3