Lassner, Phyllis (1998), British Women Writers of World War II: Battlegrounds of Their Own, Basingstoke: Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-333-72195-7, OCLC 231719380 .

Patten, Eve (2012), Imperial Refugee: Olivia Manning's fictions of war, Cork University Press, ISBN 978-1-85918-482-0, OCLC 766340331 . a b c Bostridge, Mark (21 November 2004), "Just say how much you admire me", Independent on Sunday, p.31 , retrieved 23 May 2009 During her time in Egypt, Manning became a contributor to two Middle East-based literary magazines, "Desert Poets" and "Personal Landscapes", founded by Bernard Spencer, Lawrence Durrell and Robin Fedden. [84] [85] The last sought to explore the "personal landscapes" of writers experiencing exile during the war. The founders, like Manning, maintained a strong attachment to Greece rather than an artistic and intellectual engagement with Egypt. In remembering the departure from Greece Manning wrote "We faced the sea / Knowing until the day of our return we would be / Exiles from a country not our own." [86] [87] During their time in Egypt and Palestine Manning and her husband maintained close links with refugee Greek writers, including translating and editing the work of George Seferis and Elie Papadimitriou. [87] Manning described her impressions of the Cairo poetry scene in "Poets in Exile" in Cyril Connolly's magazine Horizon. She defended the writers from the claim of a London reviewer that they were "out of touch", suggesting that their work was strengthened by their access to other cultures, languages and writers. [87] [88] Her review was much critiqued by those featured, including Durrell, who objected to Spencer's poetry being praised at his expense. [88] [89]

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Despite the trilogy's name, the main focus is not on the Balkan & its citizens, but more on Harriet and Guy's circle of friends -- most of them British or dignitaries from other countries and hence have diplomatic immunity in the event of war, and so they are likely to have some sort of escape plan, unlike the citizens of the countries which were invaded. The fact that this story is told through the lens of these privileged people (except for "poor" Yakimov, who depends on others to keep a roof above his head and provide his meals) makes it feel a bit more removed from the action. Instead of a detailed account of the historical portion of WW2, we get peeks into the events looming in the distance while the characters try to either ignore the danger or discuss how to escape said danger. Manning adored her womanising father, who entertained others by singing Gilbert and Sullivan and reciting poetry he had memorised during long sea voyages. [5] In contrast, her mother was bossy and domineering, with a "mind as rigid as cast-iron", [6] and there were constant marital disputes. [3] [7] The initially warm relationship between mother and daughter became strained after the birth of Manning's brother Oliver in 1913; delicate and frequently ill, he was the centre of his mother's attention, much to the displeasure of Manning, who made several childish attempts to harm him. [8] This unhappy, insecure childhood left a lasting mark on her work and personality. [3] [9]

This is unjust. Fortunes is a triumph, fusing fiction with diligently researched fact to portray a disparate group of expatriates surviving under threat of invasion: their stoicism, heroism and cowardice; their fleeting romances and petty intrigues. The prose is economical and the gaze sceptical and unsentimental. Added to this tapestry is a rich evocation of contemporary society, place and manners. Anthony Burgess called the sequence the ‘finest fictional record of the war produced by a British writer’. 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 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, for a time believes her to be dead, but they are eventually reunited. In October 1941, Smith was offered a post as lecturer at Farouk University in Alexandria. The couple moved from Cairo to share a flat with fellow teacher Robert Liddell. The Germans regularly bombed the city, and the raids terrified Manning, who irritated Smith and Liddell by insisting that all three descend to the air raid shelter whenever the sirens wailed. [68] [78] Almost immediately after her arrival in Alexandria came devastating news of her brother Oliver's death in a plane crash. [69] [79] The emotional upset this caused prevented her from writing novels for several years. [3] The authenticity of Manning’s writing is beyond dispute, skilfully telling the story of these men at war, as richly evocative of the life in the desert in the sporadic skirmishes as she is at depicting life in the capital among the expatriates. Only towards the very end does it feels like she was over it, having written the two trilogies for a long period of time. Guy generally fails to distinguish himself in the "Levant Trilogy". He neglects Harriet spending too much his sycophants. His worst blunder is to hire two teachers who are Arab nationalists and who assassinate a British Lord when he is delivering a public lecture.Opportunity to escape was offered and he would not be restricted by the disapprobation of other men."

Better than the Balkan Trilogy, Manning writes with searing honesty about Guy and Harriet Pringle -- the thinly fictionalized version of her own marriage. Unlike the first three books that comprise the Balkan Trilogy, the focus here is almost entirely on Harriet. Especially in the middle book (the fifth of the six total books in the Fortunes of War), she is relentlessly self-examining. And, in the course of the fifth and sixth book, she learns something about herself. Theodore Steinberg argues for the Fortunes of War to be seen as an epic novel, noting its broad scope and the large cast of interesting characters set at a pivotal point of history. As with other epic novels, the books examine intertwined personal and national themes. There are frequent references to the Fall of Troy, including Guy Pringle's production of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida in which British expatriates play themselves while Romania and Europe mirror the doomed Troy. [173] [178] [179] In Steinberg's perspective, the books also challenge the typically male genre conventions of the epic novel by viewing the war principally through the eyes of a female character "who frequently contrasts her perceptions with those of the men who surround her". [178] In contrast, Adam Piette views the novel sequence as a failed epic, the product of a Cold War desire to repress change as illustrated by "Harriet's self-pityingly dogged focus on their marriage" without dealing with the radicalism of the war, and fate of its victims as represented by Guy and his political engagement. [180] Other works [ edit ] a b Bowker, Gordon (2 December 2004), "Bringing a reputation in from the cold", The Independent, p.37 A major theme of Manning's works is the British empire in decline. [167] Her fiction contrasts deterministic, imperialistic views of history with one that accepts the possibility of change for those displaced by colonialism. [167] Manning's works take a strong stance against British imperialism, [166] and are harshly critical of racism, anti-Semitism and oppression at the end of the British colonial era. [197] [198] "British imperialism is shown to be a corrupt and self-serving system, which not only deserves to be dismantled but which is actually on the verge of being dismantled", writes Steinberg. [199] The British characters in Manning's novels almost all assume the legitimacy of British superiority and imperialism and struggle with their position as oppressors who are unwelcome in countries they have been brought up to believe welcome their colonising influence. [174] [200] In this view, Harriet's character, marginalised as an exile and a woman, is both oppressor and oppressed, [201] while characters such as Guy, Prince Yakimov and Sophie seek to exert various forms of power and authority over others, reflecting in microcosm the national conflicts and imperialism of the British Empire. [40] [202] [203] Phyllis Lassner, who has written extensively on Manning's writing from a colonial and post-colonial perspective, notes how even sympathetic characters are not excused their complicity as colonisers; the responses of the Pringles assert "the vexed relationship between their own status as colonial exiles and that of the colonised" and native Egyptians, though given very little direct voice in The Levant Trilogy, nevertheless assert subjectivity for their country. [204] McNiven, Ian (1998), Lawrence Durrell: A Biography, London: Faber & Faber, p.280, ISBN 978-0-571-17248-1The Great Fortune ( The Balkan Trilogy; UK: 1960, 1961, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1995 2000; US: 1961)

Sometimes she's not that subtle though. An example here, where a British soldier helps Harriet find accommodations in Syria: She is again outraged when Guy has an affair with Edwina another glamorous trollop. Being English Edwina unlike Sophie already has a British passport. Edwina's prime goal is to marry a rich Lord who can give her a title. When Guy urges Harriet to return to England to prevent her from interfering in his romance life, she agrees and then departs instead without telling him for the Holy Land. There she will discover and emancipate herself. She travels with Lady Angela Hooped a rich divorcee and an impoverished poet who is financially supported by Angela. Fortunes is unashamedly autobiographical, a creative reconstruction of actual people and events, with the fictionalized emotional battleground of Manning’s marriage to the ebullient Reggie Smith mirroring the wider conflict.

Collected as Fortunes of War: the Balkan Trilogy (UK: 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2004; US: 1988, 2005, 2010) Two years on, the settings of the second trilogy have changed with the progress of Harriet’s war. But the themes are constant wherever she pitches up: her husband’s complete self-absorption, the resulting neglect, the loneliness, and the worthlessness of whatever corner of wartime she’s become a refugee in. The Spoilt City (The Balkan Trilogy; UK: 1962, 1963, 1967, 1968, 1974, 1980, 1988, 1994, 2000; US: 1962)