Product Description

As Rommel advances in wartorn Egypt, the lives of the civilian population come under threat. One such couple are Guy and Harriet Pringle, who have escaped the war in Europe only to find the conflict once more on their doorstep, providing a volatile backdrop to their own personal battles. The civilian world meets the military through the figure of Simon Boulderstone, a young army officer who will witness the tragedy and tension of war on the frontier at first hand. An outstanding author of wartime fiction, Olivia Manning brilliantly evokes here the world of the Levant - Egypt, Jerusalem and Syria - with perception and subtlety, humour and humanity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61421 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 592 pages

About the Author
Olivia Manning was the author of more than twelve novels including The Balkan Trilogy, The Doves of Venus, The Playroom and the Remarkable Expedition. She was awarded the CBE in 1976 and died in 1980.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic.Just as good as The Balkan Trilogy
If you loved Olivia Manning`s The Balkan Trilogy,then you will equally love The Levant Trilogy which takes place in Egypt.
Most of the characters from The Balkan are gone,but don`t panic cause Guy and Harriet are still here(wouldn`t be the same without)and we are also introduced to a whole new group of characters who are equally interesting and likeable.
I agree with another reviewer on here.Mrs Mannings descriptions and observations of war are staggering and beautifull and you really feel like you are climbing up the pyramids with Guy and Harriet or driving along the Sphinx.It is funnier than the Balkan Trilogy and is moving without being sentimental.
Recommended to all fans of The Balkan Trilogy.You will be sorry to finish it,i was.
Fantastic stuff

As great a masterpiece as the Balkan Trilogy
One of Olivia Manning's greatest achievements was to produce a second trilogy after the Balkan Trilogy that matches it in every way. She did not, as it were, go off the boil - something readers might have feared after the sheer triumph of the first threesome. Few authors have written better about war and its fallout. Her description of the war in the north African desert is staggeringly good, and if one did not know that she'd spent that time in Cairo, it would be hard not to conclude that she'd been out there herself with the SAS.

Memory; marriage; passage of time
Memory; marriage; passage of time. This book, and its predecessor (the Balkan Trilogy), are classics. Also worth reading: the Alexandria Quartet (L Durrell) and the biography of Elizabeth David (L Chaney).