The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea
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Product Description
Product Description
Lawrence Durrell was one of the best-selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late 20th century. The Alexandria Quartet is unquestionably his most admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Alexandria. In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani - setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that the author himself described as 'an investigation of modern love'.
About the Author
Lawrence Durrell was born in 1912 in India. He attended the Jesuit College at Darjeeling and St Edmund's School, Canterbury. His first literary work, The Black Book, appeared in Paris in 1938. His first collection of poems, A Private Country, was published in 1943, followed by the three Island books: Prospero's Cell, Reflections on a Marine Venus, about Rhodes, and Bitter Lemons, his account of life in Cyprus. Durrell's wartime sojourn in Egypt led to his masterpiece, The Alexandria Quartet, which he completed in southern France where he settled permanently in 1957. Between the Quartet and The Avignon Quintet he wrote the two-decker Tunc and Nunquam. His oeuvre includes plays, a book of criticism, translations, travel writing, and humorous stories about the diplomatic corps. Caesar's Vast Ghost, his reflections on the history and culture of Provence, including a late flowering of poems, appeared a few days before his death in Sommières in 1990.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
77 of 78 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the major english novels of the century and it is a shame that it not read and known more widely. It is essentially the story of a group of characters living, loving and interacting in Alexandria in the late 30s and early 40s but, in a challenge to the linear narrative techniques dominant in most novels, the first three parts (originally separate books) tell of the same period of time; only in the final part is the story 'moved on' in the conventional sense. Thus, the complex web of relationships and the motivations of the characters are revealed slowly adding to the dense, rich and beautiful tapestry of the work. The novel makes the reader question the nature of reality, the truth of our perspectives and to appreciate the labrynthine nature of human life itself yet all this is done without preaching and authorial comment damaging the artistic integrity of the work. It is always the story and her characters - that one develops a real attachment to - that remain prior. The language of the novel itself is perhaps its greatest treasure. Durrell from start to finish writes with elegance and strength - with the observations of the poet and the hunger of a man who has lived through such experiences. Alexandria - the city, of course, can also lay claim to be the central figure, her presence captured so uniquely by Durrell haunts almost every page, interacting with the protagonists and providing a real 'sense of place.' It is a sublime work that all lovers of serious literature should read.
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Since I first read it,... the Alexandria Quartet has haunted me. Durrell's style is admittedly dense, but all this means is that you get to spend more time with the book, a true blessing. It's a jigsaw puzzle, stories fitting together in unlikely ways, and each of the four novels on their own would count as brilliant (with the possible exception of Mountolive, which is only 'very good'). But taken together they are mindblowing: each complements and adds to each of the other volumes. Quite amazingly good.
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The great sweep of Durrell's quartet is almost impossible to describe. His characters and the evocation of wartime Alexandria are so perfect that you can taste the perfume on Justine's neck, hear the call from the mosques and smell the blood of camels butchered in the streets. Here are poets and prostitutes, diplomats and gun runners. There are scenes of lust and love and violence and despair. The characters mutate as the story unfolds and then convolutes upon itself again. We are as confused as the characters themselves and never find ourselves in a position where we understand events before they do. Myriad scenes tumble upon each other; a bird shoot on Lake Mareotis, the masqued ball, the strange death of Pursewarden, the dreadful death of Narouz. Across four volumes Durrell seldom puts a foot wrong and while his florid prose is not to everyone's taste, nobody can deny that this is one of the the under rated classics of the twentieth century. After the grim years of the Second World War and the grey, slow grind of the 1950s, this novel must have burst upon literary Europe like a comet streaking across the sky. It is an essential book for anyone who considers themselves well-read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
One of the best books ever
I discovered AQ back in the early eighties, I forget how or why. As someone who read a lot of Sci-Fi at the time, it was itself a new world to discover, and lead me on to other... Read more
Published 20 days ago by A. Solomon
Nothing compares to great literature
Thank you AMAZON for being able to get one of the jewels of the English classics! Hardly ever is a book so appealing to all the senses. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Suecka-szubarga
Tinged with genius, but SO self-inflated
I think I knew I was in for a tough ride when I read the author's preface, in which he describes these four novels as "a word continuum". Read more
Published 8 months ago by Rusty
A little known superb narrative from an underated author
I first read this book when I was 30 I am now 67 and I am about to read it again. It haunted me at 30 and I was too busy to understand and savour it fully. Read more
Published 9 months ago by A. Stone
Beautiful and wonderful
One of my favourite books of all time. Utterly beautiful and fascinating and enriching. I must have done underlinings of fabulous descriptions and thoughts on every page. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Hally
opinion
This is one of the best contemporary pieces of fiction about the Second World War and the start of the end of Empire. It is also a love story set in, about and of Egypt. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Donald Webb
Life's too short....
Too dense. Too obscure. Too inaccessible. Too much a period piece in its style.
Confusing. Self indulgent.
I don't need all that detail. Read more
Confusing. Self indulgent.
I don't need all that detail. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Jezabel
Pretentious? Moi?
You could never mistake it for a happy book. The sexual provender which lies to hand is staggering in its variety and profusion. Read more
Published 23 months ago by D. Lowbrow
A book that you will always remember
Read the quartet many years ago and have come back to it again and again. Not easy to read but highly rewarding, They are books that you never forget and will want to keep close.
Published on 18 Feb 2010 by Miti
An absolute joy, though not an easy read
Half read, the Alexandria Quartet is already in my top five books ever. It is actually four novels that deal with the same people from different angles - I am half way through the... Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2009 by Greg Pye
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