Lawrence Durrell

The deeply affecting second novel of the Alexandria Quartet, which boldly questions perception and the nature of contemporary love. In Alexandria, Egypt, in the years before World War II, Durrell's narrator, Darley, seeks to fully understand his sexual obsession with two women: the infamous Justine, and Melissa, a dancer. In Darley's conversations with Balthazar, a doctor and mystic, it soon becomes clear that Darley's fixation is more complex and...

The romantic quadrangle presented in Justine and Balthazar is presented from a startling new angle, and an adulterous marriage turns out to be a vehicle for the explosive passions of the modern Middle East.

Notes on travel from the Mediterranean's sharpest observer. Few men have traveled as wisely as Lawrence Durrell. Born in India, he lived in Corfu as a young man, enjoying salt air, cobalt water, and an unfettered bohemian lifestyle. Over the following decades, he rambled around the Mediterranean, making homes in Egypt, Cyprus, and Greece. Each time he moved, he asked himself why he felt compelled to travel. In this book, he gives his answer.   Durrell...

Who will survive the Labyrinth of Crete? A group of English cruise-ship tourists debark to visit the isle of Crete's famed labyrinth, the City in the Rock. The motley gathering includes a painter, a poet, a soldier, an elderly married couple, a medium, a convalescent girl, and the mysterious Lord Gracean. The group is prepared for a trifling day of sightseeing and maybe even a glimpse of the legendary Minotaur, but instead is suddenly stuck in a nightmare...

At the dawn of World War II, Livia and her sister Constance commit themselves to separate sides of a historic struggle in the second volume of the Avignon Quintet.   The second book of Durrell's inventive and inspiring Avignon Quintet, Livia follows the currents of longing and regret, and the shifting illusions of memory, that began in Monsieur. Two sisters, Livia and Constance, have already led remarkable lives as scholars, lovers of artists, and...

Lawrence Durrell's complete Alexandria Quartet, a story of passion and betrayal that stands as one of the most acclaimed and beloved works of twentieth-century fiction. The Alexandria Quartet is a striking and sensuous masterpiece, breathing vivid life into each of its unforgettable characters and the dusty Mediterranean city in which they live. Set in Alexandria, Egypt, in the years before, during, and after World War II, the books follow the lives...

Best known for his novels and travel writing, Lawrence Durrell defied easy classification within twentieth-century Modernism. His anti-authoritarian tendencies put him at odds with many contemporaries?aesthetically and politically. However, thanks to a compelling recontextualization by editor James Gifford, these thirty-eight previously unpublished and out-of-print essays and letters reveal that Durrell's maturation as an artist was rich, complex,...

With Europe reduced to rubble after the Second World War, Constance must seek knowledge beyond the modern in order to heal her patients, and herself   In Durrell's fourth installment of the Avignon Quintet, Constance returns to Europe after the end of World War II. A Freudian analyst, she treats the shell-shocked, the battle-fatigued, and other despairing survivors in Geneva. She also treats the traumatized, autistic son of her former lover, Sebastian,...

Atmospheric travelogue based in 1950s Cyprus, depicts a memorable picture of village life, and is a social and historical document of a lost community. Written during the gradual uprising of the Greek Cypriots who wanted union with Greece, Durrell observes the people's struggles on an intimate and personal level. This is not a political book, but simply a somewhat impressionistic study of the moods and atmospheres of Cyprus during the troubled years...