The Middle Parts of Fortune - Softcover

Manning, Frederic

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452252024 ISBN 13: 9780452252028

Publisher: Plume, 1979

Synopsis

First published anonymously in 1929, this book was from the start an underground classic, considered by Hemmingway, Eliot, Pound, T.E.Lawrence, and Arnold Bennett as the ultimate novel of trench warfare, evoking the horror, brutality, futility, nobility, and courage of 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

Edition details

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