The Sum of Things – Olivia Manning (1980)

The Sum of Things is the third book in Olivia Manning’s Levant trilogy – therefore it is the sixth and final volume in the epic Fortunes of War series. I have read most of the series on my kindle as I find it easier to handle than the large unwieldy omnibus volumes that seem more available these days than the original single volumes.

I couldn’t help but think what a labour of love these books must have been for Olivia Manning to write. Based on some of the experiences of Olivia Manning and her husband during the Second World War. The first volume of The Balkan Trilogy; The Great Fortune was first published in 1960, this final volume published twenty years later. In Harriet and Guy Pringle – the characters at the heart of this series – we can’t help but see a young Olivia Manning, and her husband to whom she was married for many years.

“In an imperfect world, marriage was a matter of making do with what one had chosen. As this thought came into her head, she pressed Guy’s knee and he patted her hand again.”

It is always difficult to review a book that is part of a series – there is a danger of spoilers when talking about the previous books, and I do try my best not to include spoilers, however there will be slight spoilers for book five below.

This novel opens where the last novel left off. We have followed Guy and Harriet Pringle throughout their marriage and the war from their days in Romania to Greece and on to Egypt. It is still only 1942, the Pringles both still in their twenties – yet so much has happened. We have watched as Guy Pringle – a lecturer for an educational organisation, throws himself into one enthusiasm after another. Popular and busy, Guy and his activities have left Harriet by herself on numerous occasions, she has frequently felt lonely and frustrated by Guy’s distractions.

At the end of the last book; The Battle Lost and Won, Harriet exhausted and ill from the unrelenting heat, has reluctantly caved into Guy’s badgering and accepted a berth on board a ship headed for England. However, what we know, but Guy and his Cairo friends and acquaintances don’t know is that at the last moment Harriet doesn’t board the ship – but decided to go off by herself to Damascus.

As The Sum of Things opens, Simon Boulderstone a young officer who was befriended by Harriet and Guy Pringle after his brother’s death wakes up in a military hospital with a potentially devastating injury. We last saw Simon engaged in operations out in the desert, having faced dangerous combat situations, a bomb blast and the devastating loss of his older brother, Simon is initially elated to find himself alive. On a ward nicknamed, rather darkly ‘plegics’, Simon is made quite comfortable, and looks forward to re-joining his unit. It is a while before he is able to face up to the real nature of his injury and what it might mean.

“The wonder of his escape kept him, during those first days, in a state of euphoria. He wanted to talk to people, not to be shut away at the end of the ward. He asked for the curtains to be opened and when he looked down the long hutment, its walls bare in the harsh Egyptian sunlight, he was surprised to see men in wheel-chairs propelling themselves up and down the aisle. He pitied them, but for himself – he’d simply suffered a blow in the back.”

Simon is visited by Edwina, one of the residents of Dobson’s embassy flat where Guy and Harriet Pringle live too. Edwina was Simon’s brother’s girlfriend – though she is ambitious in her conquests, used to the approval of men, and getting what she wants. Simon is delighted with her visits and starts to imagine she could be a part of his future. Edwina however has other ideas, especially when she hears how bad his injury could be. Edwina enlists Guy’s help – and Guy becomes a frequent visitor – helping Simon on his long road to recovery and distracting himself from his own sadness.

Harriet meanwhile is in Damascus – where she tries hard to survive by herself – meeting colourful characters along the way, even taking on some secretarial work to try and boost her diminishing funds.

“She had left Egypt and was in another country. In Egypt the sun shone every day in a cloudless sky. Here the sky was blotted over with patches of cloud and the wind had an unfamiliar smell, the smell of rain. Because of the rain, grass was coming up, a thin shadow of green over the pinkish hills. In Egypt there had been rain only once during her time there: a freak storm that hit Cairo like a portent and turned the roads to rivers. Winter in Egypt was like a fine English summer but here it was really winter, wet and cold. Revived by the freshness of the air, she stood up, stretched her stiff muscles, then jumped down to the road. She had been ill but now she felt well, and free in a new world.”

Unknown to Harriet though, The Queen of Sparta on which she was booked to sail for England was torpedoed and sunk, with only three survivors. The loss of the vessel was widely reported in the newspapers that are taken by the ex-pats in Cairo. So, Guy and everyone else back in Cairo believes with good reason that Harriet is dead.

While Harriet remains in ignorance of the grief her death has unleashed – slowly recovering her health and having her own peculiar adventures – Guy has come to the wandering attention of Edwina.  

This was a great conclusion to both trilogies – and I was inevitably left feeling quite bereft, I shall really miss these characters. Olivia Manning writes so well, her characters are brilliantly drawn and her depiction of people living and working under the most extraordinary conditions is both compelling and realistic. Thankfully I do have a couple more Olivia Manning books tbr – I enjoy her writing so much.