Frederick Manning – The Middle Parts of Fortune (1929)
Novel – 250 pages – my edition (Penguin paperback; 1990) scooped from the Plymouth MDEC “library” sometime in 2004
- 4 nods out of 5 -
For all Worms out there, reading and hoarding books, there are those few volumes we grapple at with the view to devour one day, in the not so distance future. Yet, there are some of those books that slip through the net: perhaps that new Bill Bryson is out on sale, perhaps the book has managed to find itself in wrongful storage. But that aim lingers on, that some day it shall be read.
This is the story of Frederick Manning’s The Middle Parts of Fortune. The Worm scooped this book as a “freebie” from his workplace many years ago; impressed with the Penguin edition’s promise it was amongst the canon of ‘twentieth century classics’. Yet, for a modern classic, not much is known about either the book or its author.
For the record, The Middle Parts of Fortune is a story set in the First World War, principally following the life of Private Bourne. Reluctant to take a place amongst the commanding elite, yet obviously too brilliant amongst the lower ranks, Bourne is a friend to all and fiend to life in the trenches. It is loosely based upon Manning’s own time in the Great War. An Australian by birth, he fought in the war and this book – his only known novel – was written in reaction to it. Originally published anonymously (it became notorious for its use of foul – yet realistic – language), it was hailed by the likes of Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, T.E. Lawrence and scores of critics ever since. An impressive array of supporters, indeed!
This novel is a difficult read. Not only is it dense in military terminology, it also quotes widely from Shakespeare. At its core is the pursuit of honesty. Manning’s novel is at home in the naturalistic stream of literature; although Bourne is at odds with his surroundings, he can never escape his inevitable fate.
‘And then, one by one, they realized that each must go alone, and that each of them already was alone with himself, helping the others perhaps, but looking at them with strange eyes, while the world became unreal and empty, and they moved in a mystery, where no help was.’ (p.209-210).
The Middle Parts of Fortune follows in the tradition of Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage; the same road later authors would trample down, including Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. And true to life, throughout much of the book’s pages nothing much of particular note happens. It is the usual routine, with Bourne and his two fellow friends trying to make the best of their situation. Admittedly, the story lags; yet Manning has an ace up his sleeve…
Hemingway is quoted as having read Manning’s novel once a year, regarding it as ‘the finest and noblest book of men in war that I have ever read’. And such a statement is justified and compounded in Chapter Sixteen; perhaps the most striking and evocative war writing the Worm has had the pleasure to feast upon. A chapter in which Bourne is flung into the horrors of the frontline, ‘struggling through the mud like flies through treacle’ (p.215). It is the chapter that defines The Middle Parts of Fortune, taking its place as a modern classic. The only misfortune on the Worm’s behalf was the time it took to finally open the book’s pages.
Novel – 250 pages – my edition (Penguin paperback; 1990) scooped from the Plymouth MDEC “library” sometime in 2004
- 4 nods out of 5 -
For all Worms out there, reading and hoarding books, there are those few volumes we grapple at with the view to devour one day, in the not so distance future. Yet, there are some of those books that slip through the net: perhaps that new Bill Bryson is out on sale, perhaps the book has managed to find itself in wrongful storage. But that aim lingers on, that some day it shall be read.
This is the story of Frederick Manning’s The Middle Parts of Fortune. The Worm scooped this book as a “freebie” from his workplace many years ago; impressed with the Penguin edition’s promise it was amongst the canon of ‘twentieth century classics’. Yet, for a modern classic, not much is known about either the book or its author.
For the record, The Middle Parts of Fortune is a story set in the First World War, principally following the life of Private Bourne. Reluctant to take a place amongst the commanding elite, yet obviously too brilliant amongst the lower ranks, Bourne is a friend to all and fiend to life in the trenches. It is loosely based upon Manning’s own time in the Great War. An Australian by birth, he fought in the war and this book – his only known novel – was written in reaction to it. Originally published anonymously (it became notorious for its use of foul – yet realistic – language), it was hailed by the likes of Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, T.E. Lawrence and scores of critics ever since. An impressive array of supporters, indeed!
This novel is a difficult read. Not only is it dense in military terminology, it also quotes widely from Shakespeare. At its core is the pursuit of honesty. Manning’s novel is at home in the naturalistic stream of literature; although Bourne is at odds with his surroundings, he can never escape his inevitable fate.
‘And then, one by one, they realized that each must go alone, and that each of them already was alone with himself, helping the others perhaps, but looking at them with strange eyes, while the world became unreal and empty, and they moved in a mystery, where no help was.’ (p.209-210).
The Middle Parts of Fortune follows in the tradition of Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage; the same road later authors would trample down, including Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. And true to life, throughout much of the book’s pages nothing much of particular note happens. It is the usual routine, with Bourne and his two fellow friends trying to make the best of their situation. Admittedly, the story lags; yet Manning has an ace up his sleeve…
Hemingway is quoted as having read Manning’s novel once a year, regarding it as ‘the finest and noblest book of men in war that I have ever read’. And such a statement is justified and compounded in Chapter Sixteen; perhaps the most striking and evocative war writing the Worm has had the pleasure to feast upon. A chapter in which Bourne is flung into the horrors of the frontline, ‘struggling through the mud like flies through treacle’ (p.215). It is the chapter that defines The Middle Parts of Fortune, taking its place as a modern classic. The only misfortune on the Worm’s behalf was the time it took to finally open the book’s pages.
