The Middle Parts of Fortune - Softcover

Manning, Frederic

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452252024 ISBN 13: 9780452252028

Publisher: Plume, 1979

Synopsis

"It is the finest and noblest book of men in war that I have ever read. I read it over once each year to remember how things really were so that I will never lie to myself nor to anyone else about them."  —Ernest Hemingway

They can say what they bloody well like, but we're a fuckin' fine mob.

Deep in the mud, in the stench of the Somme, Bourne is trying his best to stay alive. There he finds the intense fraternity of war and fear unlike anything he has ever known. Frederick Manning's novel was first published anonymously in 1929. The honesty with which he wrote about the horror, the boredom, and the futility of war is unmatched. This grim, sardonic tale led William Boyd to say "this is the finest novel to come out of the First World War."

About this title

About the Author:

Frederick Manning (1882-1935) was an Australian poet and novelist. In 1929 he published The Middle Parts of Fortune under the pseudonym Private 19022, due to the book's shocking content. The book was highly praised by his contemporaries.

From AudioFile:

Stanley McGeagh's low-key, dispassionate narration may at first seem unsuited to a novel set on the horrific Western Front of WWI. But Manning's novel is nothing if not matter-of-fact in its depiction of the lives of ordinary British infantry soldiers who are called upon to fight and die in the cause. Manning is concerned with the ordinariness of life even in the extraordinary situation of war. He details the drudgery, the camaraderie, the animosities, and the longings of soldiers, interspersed, of course, with moments of profound terror and dread. McGeagh's sober, measured reading gets across the notion that even when violence and destruction are the norms, the most mundane and fundamental aspects of living persist. M.O. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0452252024
• ISBN 13: 9780452252028
• Binding: Paperback