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The Great Fortune

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The Great Fortune

By: Olivia Manning
Narrated by: Harriet Walter
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Summary

 It was a strange, uncertain world that Harriet entered when she married Guy Pringle. Guy taught English at the university at Bucharest, a city of vivid contrasts, where professional beggars exist alongside the excesses of mid-European royalty and expatriate journalists with a taste for truffles and quails in aspic. Underlying this is a fitful awareness of the proximity of the Nazi threat to a Romania, which is enjoying an uneasy peace.

In this exotic landscape Harriet gets to know her new husband and to wonder at the complexity of the apparently simple man she had married.

©1960 The Estate of Olivia Manning (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Fiction Historical Fiction Imperialism
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A fantastic narration - completely brought to life by Harriet Walter. I would thoroughly recommend.

brilliant!

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An original perspective of the developing World War 2 from British Council employed ex pats based in Bucharest.
In a time where the Right is gaining sway across the world this book offers a reminder of how easily human nature happily continues normal life, almost careless that greater forces are about to overshadow normality, culture, pleasure and privilege.
The portrayal of Harriet and Guy’s marriage is full of feeling without melodrama, and subtlety without restraint.
Harriet Walter’s performance is impeccable. Her attention to pronunciation peerless.
I can’t wait for my credit to drop for the next volume!

Stunning exploration of the personal and political

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Having both read Olivia Manning’s great trilogy and watched the TV adaptation (twice) I was somewhat wary of embarking on this reading, fearing that it might not accord with my own interpretation of the characters or those of the actors who portrayed them so well on the screen.

I need not have worried. As soon as she got into her stride Harriet Walter’s reading was quite brilliant and revealed many different aspects of the characters that I had not thought about.

Having finished the first volume it was with great impatience that I awaited my next monthly allocation. I have now listened to all three books and have no hesitation in recommending them either to new listeners or any of Miss Manning’s existing fans.

Excellent Reading of a Fascinating Book

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What did you like most about The Great Fortune?

I recently finished reading Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy, of which this is the first volume and found it to be absorbing and increasingly gripping as the story went on, a real page turner.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Great Fortune?

Apart from the many very well drawn characters, prime amongst them being Guy Pringle, what I found most interesting were the vivid and memorable descriptions of the political and physical backdrop - you really get a feel for the time and place and the tremendous uncertainties which people must have experienced living in a foreign country close to the onset of war.

Which character – as performed by Harriet Walter – was your favourite?

Harriet Walter narrates all three volumes superbly. Her pace and timing are nigh-on perfect and she draws the characters - men and women - with a sure touch, particularly Guy Pringle, his long-suffering wife, Harriet, and the incomparable Prince Yakimov..

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

As I said a real page turner. Indeed, listening to the trilogy inspired me to buy Olivia Manning's continuation of the tale of Guy and Harriet in the "Levant Trilogy" - alas book version - and I thoroughly enjoyed that too. She is a much under-rated writer.

Any additional comments?

Strongly recommended, particularly if you are interested in novels set in Europe just before the outbreak of the second world war.

Absorbing and superbly narrated

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This is an interesting book made wonderful by Harriet Walters reading of it she is perfect for all the difficult voices I would never have enjoyed it as much from the written page

Harriet Walter is amazing

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