Vespers in Vienna

Vespers in Vienna is a 1947 novel by Scottish writer Bruce Marshall.

AuthorBruce Marshall
CountryScotland
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Published1947
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages280
Preceded byGeorge Brown's Schooldays (1946) 
Followed byTo Every Man a Penny (1949) 

Plot summary

Shortly after the end of World War II, British Colonel Michael 'Hooky' Nicobar is assigned to the Displaced Persons Division in the British Zone of Vienna, Austria. Like the author himself, Nicobar has had a limb amputated. Marshall also served in the Displaced Persons Division in Austria.[1]

Nicobar's duty is to aid Soviet authorities repatriate citizens of the Soviet Union. Billeted in the convent run by Mother Auxilia, Nicobar, and his military aides Major John 'Twingo' McPhimister and Audrey Quail, become involved in the plight of Maria, a young ballerina, who is trying to avoid being returned to Moscow, as she, like many others, fears imprisonment or execution on returning to her home country. Nicobar's sense of duty is tested as he sees first hand the plight of the people he is forcing to return to the Soviet Union; his lack of religious faith is also shaken by his contact with the Mother Superior.[2]

The novel was the basis of the 1949 film The Red Danube starring Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh. George Sidney directed.

After the movie was released the novel was re-issued as The Red Danube.

The Red Danube
gollark: Isn't that... still bad, then?
gollark: What cars?
gollark: I suppose they may get around this by not storing locations, but I'm not sure what they do and don't gather.
gollark: I figure that if you have a big set of locations plus pictures including other cars' license plates, that could allow tracking of cars.
gollark: Yes.

References
  1. Marshall, B: The Accounting Endnote Houghton Mifflin Company 1958.
  2. Marshall, B: Vespers in Vienna Houghton Mifflin Company Boston 1947.


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