The Middle Parts of Fortune (Summarized Edition)
Enriched edition. A British Soldier's Stream-of-Consciousness Journey Through Trench Warfare and the Psychological Ruins of World War IBy Frederic Manning
Length2h 55m
About this audiobook
Set among British infantry during the Somme, The Middle Parts of Fortune offers an unsparing, textured chronicle of trench warfare through the steady, observant consciousness of Private Bourne and his comrades. Manning fuses demotic barrack-room speech, retained in the unexpurgated 1929 text, with pellucid narration, creating a tonal oscillation between profanity and metaphysical poise. Episodic yet patterned, the novel's vignettes culminate in a vision of discipline, fear, and fellowship stripped of rhetoric. Its Shakespearean title (echoed in the expurgated Her Privates We) and classical poise place it within, yet distinct from, the Great War's modernist canon. Frederic Manning, an Australian-born poet and classical scholar who enlisted as a private in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, drew on his 1916 front-line service. His anomalous social position - an erudite outsider among rankers - sharpened his attention to speech, ritual, and authority, while his humane stoicism and classical training shaped the book's measured fatalism. This edition rewards close reading by scholars of war, language, and class, and by any reader seeking an unsentimental, humane novel of combat. Alongside Remarque and David Jones, Manning's work remains indispensable - lucid, exact, indelible - a touchstone for understanding courage without cant and comradeship without illusion.
Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.
Audiobook details
GenreAction and Adventure, Historical Fiction
Length2 hrs 55 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJan 10, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
5The Middle Parts of Fortune
2Introduction
6Analysis
3Synopsis
7Reflection
4Historical Context
More from Frederic Manning
An Inside JobDaniel Silva9h 28m4.4 (26.3K)$29 · $0.00
The CommodoreP. T. Deutermann11h 53m4.5 (2.4K)$20 · $0.00
A Closed and Common OrbitBecky Chambers11h 30m4.4 (140.7K)$29 · $0.00
Thud!Terry Pratchett10h 31m4.4 (112.6K)$8 · $0.00
All Quiet on the Western Front (Annotated)Erich Maria Remarque8h 34m4.4 (12.9K)$1.99 · $0.00
Exit FeeBrad Taylor3h 16m4.5 (1.9K)$18 · $0.00
The Alice NetworkKate Quinn15h 7m4.4 (887.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Ohio River Trilogy: Betty Zane, The Spirit of the Border & The Last TrailZane Grey29h 8m4.4 (1.8K)$1 · $0.00
A Darkness ReturnsRaymond E. Feist19h 29m4.4 (1.9K)$40 · $0.00
THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN (Annotated)James Oliver Curwood8h 25m4.5 (420)$2 · $0.00
The Emperor's FistJay Allan8h 37m4.5 (272)$26 · $0.00
West of the TularosaLouis L’Amour5h 53m4.4 (3.6K)$20 · $0.00
The Amazing Interlude (Annotated)Mary Roberts Rinehart8h 42m4.5 (365)$1.99 · $0.00
Hornblower and the Hotspur (Annotated)C. S. Forester14h 7m4.4 (17.3K)$2 · $0.00
Shades of WickedJeaniene Frost8h 51m4.4 (19.5K)$29 · $0.00
The Log of a Cowboy (Annotated)Andy Adams9h 47m4.4 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Everything She WantedJennifer Ryan9h 9m4.4 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Complete Huckleberry Finn & Tom Sawyer Adventures (Unabridged) (Annotated)Mark Twain26h 21m4.3 (16.7K)$2 · $0.00
Countdown to MidnightDale Brown13h 6m4.3 (4.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Nurses' WarVictoria Purman15h 8m4.4 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
Under the Light of the Italian MoonJennifer Anton12h 28m4.5 (5.3K)$23 · $0.00
Jubilee, 50th Anniversary EditionMargaret Walker15h 43m4.5 (9.5K)$25 · $0.00
Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen14h 44m4.4 (4.7M)$2 · $0.00
Flying Colours (Annotated)Cecil Louis Troughton Smith9h 26m4.4 (10.1K)$2 · $0.00
With Love from HarlemReShonda Tate13h 48m4.5 (2K)$6 · $0.00
Sweet Home Highland ChristmasMay McGoldrick, Jan Coffey2h 54m4.5 (1.4K)$7 · $0.00
Rilla of InglesideL. M. Montgomery12h 25m4.4 (67.5K)$2 · $0.00
Death Comes for the Archbishop (Annotated)Willa Cather9h 13m4.4 (4.7K)$2 · $0.00
The Alice NetworkKate Quinn15h 7m4.4 (887.1K)$33 · $0.00
The Goddess of WarsawLisa Barr13h 4m4.4 (36.4K)$33 · $0.00
The Ohio River Trilogy: Betty Zane, The Spirit of the Border & The Last TrailZane Grey29h 8m4.4 (1.8K)$1 · $0.00
The Attic ChildLola Jaye14h 46m4.4 (21K)$33 · $0.00
Martyr of the CatacombsJames De Mille3h 41m4.5 (744)$1 · $0.00
Bring Up The BodiesHilary Mantel14h 35m4.4 (150K)$33 · $0.00
By the Shores of Silver LakeLaura Ingalls Wilder7h 38m4.4 (103.7K)$1 · $0.00
Sexy/DangerousBeverly Jenkins10h 19m4.4 (2.3K)$29 · $0.00
Trustee from the ToolroomNevil Shute Norway11h 42m4.4 (10.5K)$1 · $0.00
Chasing CassandraLisa Kleypas8h 59m4.3 (108.3K)$29 · $0.00
Deeper than the OceanMirta Ojito12h 29m4.4 (927)$29 · $0.00
North and SouthElizabeth Gaskell21h 29m4.3 (201K)$2 · $0.00
You may also like
The Kamikaze HuntersWill Iredale12h 57m4.2 (2K)$23
Under Fire (Historical Novel)Henri Barbusse13h 11m4.0 (4.1K)$2 · $0.00
Under FireHenri Barbusse12h 24m4.1 (16.7K)$1.20 · $0.00
76 HoursLarry Alexander9h 49m4.5 (439)$23
Before Their TimeRobert Kotlowitz6h 6m4.1 (282)$17 · $0.00
Those Who FallJohn Muirhead10h 53m4.3 (788)$23
The AviatorCraig DiLouie5h 30m4.4 (422)$17
GruntsJohn C. McManus18h 24m4.3 (1.6K)$25
A Thousand SistersElizabeth Wein8h 41m4.2 (1.7K)$26 · $0.00
Under FireHenri Barbusse12h 27m4.1 (5.9K)$4 · $0.00
82 Days on OkinawaArt Shaw, Robert L. Wise8h 49m4.1 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Irish Guards in the Great War (Volume 1&2 - Complete Edition) (Annotated)Rudyard Kipling25h 26m4.1 (146)$2 · $0.00
The Soul of the WarPhilip Gibbs11h 13m4.4 (26)$2 · $0.00
"I was there" with the Yanks on the western front 1917-1919Cyrus Leroy Baldridge35m4.0 (51)$2.30
Four Weeks in the Trenches / The War Story of a ViolinistFritz Kreisler1h 26m$2.30
Shattered JadeLarry Alexander13h 34m4.6 (108)$27
The Middle Parts of Fortune (Annotated)Frederic Manning12h 18m$2 · $0.00
THE YOUNG GUARD – World War I Poems & Author's War Memoirs (Annotated)E. W. Hornung6h 59m$1.99 · $0.00
"I was there" with the Yanks on the western front, 1917-1919Cyrus Leroy Baldridge, Hilmar R. Baukhage38m3.7 (39)$1 · $0.00
The Irish Guards in the Great War: The First & The Second Battalion (Volume 1&2 - Complete Edition) (Annotated)Rudyard Kipling25h 23m4.6 (12)$2 · $0.00