Lawrence Durrell
Encyclopedia
Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan
. It has been posthumously suggested that Durrell never had British citizenship, though more accurately, he became defined as a non-patrial
in 1968 due to the amendment to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962
. Hence, he was denied the right to enter or settle in Britain under new laws and had to apply for a visa for each entry. His most famous work is the tetralogy
The Alexandria Quartet
.
. His first school was St Joseph's College
, North Point, Darjeeling. At the age of eleven, he was sent to England where he briefly attended St Olave's Grammar School
before being sent to St Edmund's School
, Canterbury
. His formal education was unsuccessful and he failed his university entrance examinations, but he began seriously writing poetry at the age of 15 and his first collection of poetry, Quaint Fragment, was published in 1931.
On 22 January 1935, he married Nancy Isobel Myers, the first of his four marriages. Durrell was always unhappy in England and in March of that year he persuaded his new wife, his mother, and his siblings (including brother Gerald Durrell
, later to be a major British wildlife conservationist and popular writer), to move to the Greek island of Corfu
, where they might live more economically and escape both the English weather and stultifying English culture – what Durrell called "the English death".
In the same year, Durrell's first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers
, was published by Cassell
. Around this time, he chanced upon a copy of Henry Miller
's 1934 novel Tropic of Cancer
, and wrote to Miller, expressing intense admiration for his novel. Durrell's letter sparked an enduring friendship and mutually-critical relationship that spanned 45 years. The two got on well, as they were exploring similar subjects, and Durrell's next novel, Panic Spring
, was heavily influenced by Miller's work, and after that The Black Book abounded with "four-letter word
s... grotesques,... [and] its mood equally as apocalyptic" as Tropic.
In Corfu, Lawrence and Nancy lived together in bohemian
style. For the first few months, the couple lived with the rest of the Durrell family in the Villa Anemoyanni at Kontokali. In early 1936, however, Durrell and Nancy moved to the 'White House', a fisherman's cottage on the shore of Corfu's northeastern coast at Kalami, then a tiny fishing village. Durrell's friend Theodore Stephanides
was a frequent guest, and Henry Miller stayed at the 'White House' in 1939. This period of his sojourn on Corfu is somewhat fictionalised in a lyrical account in Prospero's Cell, which may be instructively compared with the accounts of the Corfu experience published by Gerald Durrell
, notably in My Family and Other Animals
and the rest of the so-called Corfu Trilogy. Gerald describes Lawrence as living permanently with his mother and siblings—Nancy is not mentioned at all—whereas Lawrence's account makes only a few references to just one of his siblings, Leslie and does not mention that his mother and other two siblings were also resident on Corfu. The accounts do cover a few of the same topics; for example, both Gerald and Lawrence describe the roles played by the Corfiot taxi driver Spiro Amerikanos and the Greek doctor, scientist and poet Theodore Stephanides
in their lives on Corfu.
In August 1937, Lawrence and Nancy travelled to the Villa Seurat in Paris, to meet Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin
. Together with Alfred Perles
, Nin, Miller, and Durrell "began a collaboration aimed at founding their own literary movement. Their projects included 'The Shame of the Morning' and the 'Booster', a country club house organ that the Villa Seurat group appropriated for their own artistic...ends." They also started the Villa Seurat Series in order to publish Durrell's Black Book, Miller's Max and the White Phagocytes, and Nin's Winter of Artifice
, with Jack Kahane of the Obelisk Press
as publisher.
Durrell's first novel of note, The Black Book: An Agon, was heavily influenced by Miller and was published in Paris in 1938. The mildly pornographic work only appeared in Britain in 1973. In the story, the main character Lawrence Lucifer struggles to escape the spiritual sterility of dying England, and finds Greece's warmth and fertility.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Durrell's mother and brothers returned to England, while he and Nancy remained on Corfu. In 1940, he and Nancy had a daughter, Penelope Berengaria. After the fall of Greece, Lawrence and Nancy escaped via Crete
to Alexandria
in Egypt
. The marriage was already under strain, however, and Durrell and Nancy separated in 1942, with Nancy taking baby Penelope to Jerusalem.
During his years on Corfu, Durrell had made notes for a book about the island, but it was only in Egypt towards the end of the war, that he was finally able to write it. In the book, Prospero's Cell, Durrell described Corfu as "this brilliant little speck of an island in the Ionian", with waters like the heartbeat of the world itself.
During the war, Durrell served as a press attaché to the British Embassies, first in Cairo
and then Alexandria. It was in Alexandria that he met Eve (Yvette) Cohen, a Jewish woman and native Alexandrian who was to become his model for the character Justine
in the Alexandria Quartet. In 1947, after his divorce from Nancy came through, Durrell married Eve Cohen and in 1951 they had a daughter, Sappho Jane, named after the legendary Ancient Greek poet Sappho
. Sappho Durrell committed suicide by hanging
in 1985.
In May 1945 Durrell obtained a posting to Rhodes. The Dodecanese ( = 12 islands ) had been taken by Italy from the disintergrating Ottoman Empire in 1912 during the Balkan Wars. With the Italian surrender in 1943 their erstwhile German allies took over most of the islands and held onto them as besieged fortresses until the War's end. Mainland Greece was at that time locked in civil war, and so the Dodecanese came under a temporary British military government pending sovereignty being handed over to Greece in 1947 as war reparations from Italy.
Durrell set up house in the little gatekeeper's lodge of an old Turkish cemetery, just across the road from the building used by the British Administration (nowadays the Casino in Rhodes new town), where his "co-habitation" with Eve Cohen could be discreetly ignored by his employer, while remaining close enough to be within the perimeter security zone of the main building.
From this period comes his book "Reflections on a Marine Venus", a lyrical celebration of the island, in which, as with " Bitter Lemons", Durrell tends to avoid more than a passing mention of the troubled times.
In 1947, Durrell was appointed director of the British Council
Institute in Córdoba, Argentina
, where for the next eighteen months he gave lectures on cultural topics. He returned to London with Eve in the summer of 1948, around the time that Marshal Josip Broz Tito
of Yugoslavia broke ties with Joseph Stalin
's COMINFORM
, and Durrell was posted to Belgrade
, Yugoslavia
where he was to remain until 1952. This sojourn gave him material for his book White Eagles over Serbia (1957). Reacting to his experience of life under Communism
, he would sometimes claim to be a Fascist, although this was most likely said to shock people, something he always enjoyed. He claimed as well that he was an anti-Semite – although he married two Jewish women and his fiction included many sympathetic Jewish characters."
In 1952, Eve had a breakdown and was hospitalized in England. Durrell moved to Cyprus
with Sappho Jane,his baby daughter with Eve, buying a house and taking a position teaching English literature at the Pancyprian Gymnasium
to support his writing, followed by public relations work for the British government there during agitation for union with Greece. He wrote about his time in Cyprus in Bitter Lemons
, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1957. In 1954, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
. Durrell left Cyprus in August 1956 after problems on the island and his British government position led to him being made a target of assassination attempts.
In 1957, he published Justine
, the first part of what was to become his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet
. Justine
, Balthazar
(1958), Mountolive
(1958) and Clea
(1960) deal with events before and during the Second World War in the Egyptian city of Alexandria
. The first three books tell essentially the same story but from different perspectives, a technique Durrell described in his introductory note to Balthazar as "relativistic". Only in the final part, Clea, does the story advance in time and reach a conclusion.
The Quartet impressed critics by the richness of its style, the variety and vividness of its characters, its movement between the personal and the political, and its exotic locations in and around the city which Durrell portrays as the chief protagonist: "... the city which used us as its flora – precipitated in us conflicts which were hers and which we mistook for our own: beloved Alexandria!" The Times Literary Supplement
review of the Quartet stated: "If ever a work bore an instantly recognizable signature on every sentence, this is it." There was some suggestion that Durrell might be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
, but this did not materialize.
Given the complexity of the work, it was probably inevitable that George Cukor
's 1969 attempt to film the Quartet (Justine) simplified the story to the point of melodrama, and was poorly received.
Durrell separated from Eve Cohen in 1955, and was married again in 1961 to another Alexandrian Jewish woman, Claude-Marie Vincendon, whom he met on Cyprus. Durrell was devastated when Claude died of cancer in 1967. His fourth and final marriage was in 1973 to a French woman, Ghislaine de Boysson, whom he divorced in 1979.
Durrell settled in Sommières
, a small village in Languedoc, France, where he purchased a large house standing secluded in its own extensive walled grounds on the edge of the village. Here he wrote The Revolt of Aphrodite
, comprising Tunc (1968) and Nunquam (1970), and The Avignon Quintet
, which attempted to replicate the success of The Alexandria Quartet and revisited many of the same motifs and styles to be found in the earlier work. Although it is frequently described as a quintet, Durrell himself referred to it as a "quincunx". The middle book of the quincunx, Constance, or Solitary Practices
, which portrays France under the German occupation, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1982 and the opening novel, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness
, received the 1974 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
. In 1974, Durrell was the Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at the California Institute of Technology.
Other works from this period are "Sicilian Carousel", a celebration of that island, "The Greek Islands", and "Caesar's Vast Ghost", which is mainly about Provence, France.
Durrell suffered from emphysema
for many years. He died of a stroke
at his house in Sommières in November 1990. His lifelong friend Alan G. Thomas
donated a collection of books and periodicals associated with Durrell to the British Library
, which is maintained as a distinct Lawrence Durrell Collection
.
Alan Thomas also acted as editor for an anthology of additional writings, letters and poetry, " Spirit Of Place ", which contains much that supplements Durrell's own books.
, in his introduction to a Selected Poems, writes of Durrell as a poet: "one of the best of the past hundred years. And one of the most enjoyable." He goes on to describe Durrell's poetry as "always beautiful as sound and syntax. Its innovation lies in its refusal to be more high-minded than the things it records, together with its handling of the whole lexicon of language."
, Argentina. He was also Director of Public Relations in the Dodecanese Islands and on Cyprus. Durrell later refused a CMG (Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George) because he felt his "conservative, reactionary, and right-wing" political views might be a cause for embarrassment.
He later claimed to have disliked both Egypt and Argentina, although nowhere near as much as he disliked Yugoslavia.
Book-length Criticism
Bibliography
Articles
World citizen
World citizen has a variety of similar meanings, often referring to a person who disapproves of traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship....
. It has been posthumously suggested that Durrell never had British citizenship, though more accurately, he became defined as a non-patrial
Right of abode
The right of abode is an individual's freedom from immigration control in a particular country. A person who has the right of abode in a country does not need permission from the government to enter the country and can live and work there without restriction....
in 1968 due to the amendment to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962
Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962
The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.Before the Act was passed, citizens of British commonwealth countries had extensive rights to migrate to the UK...
. Hence, he was denied the right to enter or settle in Britain under new laws and had to apply for a visa for each entry. His most famous work is the tetralogy
Tetralogy
A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works, just as a trilogy is made up of three works....
The Alexandria Quartet
The Alexandria Quartet
The Alexandria Quartet is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the books present four perspectives on a single set of events and characters in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II.As Durrell...
.
Life and work
Durrell was born in Jallandhar, British India, the eldest son of Indian-born British colonials Louisa and Lawrence Samuel DurrellLawrence Samuel Durrell
Lawrence Samuel Durrell was a British Indian subject and engineer, and is best remembered as the father of novelist Lawrence Durrell and naturalist Gerald Durrell. He was an Anglo-Indian in the sense that he was an Englishman born and brought up in India.Born in Dum Dum on 23 September 1884, he...
. His first school was St Joseph's College
St Joseph's College, Darjeeling
St Joseph's College is a government-aided, Christian minority, co-educational college in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. The college campus is located about 3 km north from downtown Darjeeling. The college was established in 1888 along with the School Department and was affiliated to Calcutta...
, North Point, Darjeeling. At the age of eleven, he was sent to England where he briefly attended St Olave's Grammar School
St Olave's Grammar School
St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School is a super-selective boys' secondary school in Orpington, Greater London, England. The school is consistently one of the top achieving state schools in the UK and it was The Sunday Times State School of the Year in 2008...
before being sent to St Edmund's School
St Edmund's School
St Edmund’s School is an independent school in Canterbury, Kent, England, U.K. with over 500 pupils, including both day pupils and boarders.-History:...
, Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
. His formal education was unsuccessful and he failed his university entrance examinations, but he began seriously writing poetry at the age of 15 and his first collection of poetry, Quaint Fragment, was published in 1931.
On 22 January 1935, he married Nancy Isobel Myers, the first of his four marriages. Durrell was always unhappy in England and in March of that year he persuaded his new wife, his mother, and his siblings (including brother Gerald Durrell
Gerald Durrell
Gerald "Gerry" Malcolm Durrell, OBE was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter...
, later to be a major British wildlife conservationist and popular writer), to move to the Greek island of Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
, where they might live more economically and escape both the English weather and stultifying English culture – what Durrell called "the English death".
In the same year, Durrell's first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers
Pied Piper of Lovers
Pied Piper of Lovers, published in 1935, is Lawrence Durrell's first novel. It is followed by Panic Spring, which partly continues the actions of its characters. The novel is in large part autobiographical and focuses on the protagonist's childhood in India and maturation in London.-Plot...
, was published by Cassell
Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...
. Around this time, he chanced upon a copy of Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
's 1934 novel Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Cancer (novel)
Tropic of Cancer is a novel by Henry Miller which has been described as "notorious for its candid sexuality" and as responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature." It was first published in 1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition was banned in the...
, and wrote to Miller, expressing intense admiration for his novel. Durrell's letter sparked an enduring friendship and mutually-critical relationship that spanned 45 years. The two got on well, as they were exploring similar subjects, and Durrell's next novel, Panic Spring
Panic Spring
Panic Spring is a novel by Lawrence Durrell, published in 1937 by Covici-Friede under the pseudonym Charles Norden. It is set on a fictional Greek Island, Mavrodaphne, in the Ionian Sea somewhere between Patras, Kephalonia, and Ithaca...
, was heavily influenced by Miller's work, and after that The Black Book abounded with "four-letter word
Four-letter word
The phrase four-letter word refers to a set of English-language words written with four letters which are considered profane, including common popular or slang terms for excretory functions, sexual activity and genitalia, and sometimes also certain terms relating to Hell and damnation when used...
s... grotesques,... [and] its mood equally as apocalyptic" as Tropic.
In Corfu, Lawrence and Nancy lived together in bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
style. For the first few months, the couple lived with the rest of the Durrell family in the Villa Anemoyanni at Kontokali. In early 1936, however, Durrell and Nancy moved to the 'White House', a fisherman's cottage on the shore of Corfu's northeastern coast at Kalami, then a tiny fishing village. Durrell's friend Theodore Stephanides
Theodore Stephanides
Theodore Stephanides was a Greek poet, author, doctor and naturalist. He is best remembered as the friend and mentor of the famous naturalist Gerald Durrell, featuring in Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and Fillets of Plaice, Durrell's brother Lawrence's Prospero's Cell, and Henry Miller's...
was a frequent guest, and Henry Miller stayed at the 'White House' in 1939. This period of his sojourn on Corfu is somewhat fictionalised in a lyrical account in Prospero's Cell, which may be instructively compared with the accounts of the Corfu experience published by Gerald Durrell
Gerald Durrell
Gerald "Gerry" Malcolm Durrell, OBE was a naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter...
, notably in My Family and Other Animals
My Family and Other Animals
My Family and Other Animals is an autobiographical work by naturalist Gerald Durrell, telling of the part of his childhood he spent on the Greek island of Corfu between 1935 and 1939. It describes the life of the Durrell Family on the island in a humorous manner, and also richly discusses the fauna...
and the rest of the so-called Corfu Trilogy. Gerald describes Lawrence as living permanently with his mother and siblings—Nancy is not mentioned at all—whereas Lawrence's account makes only a few references to just one of his siblings, Leslie and does not mention that his mother and other two siblings were also resident on Corfu. The accounts do cover a few of the same topics; for example, both Gerald and Lawrence describe the roles played by the Corfiot taxi driver Spiro Amerikanos and the Greek doctor, scientist and poet Theodore Stephanides
Theodore Stephanides
Theodore Stephanides was a Greek poet, author, doctor and naturalist. He is best remembered as the friend and mentor of the famous naturalist Gerald Durrell, featuring in Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and Fillets of Plaice, Durrell's brother Lawrence's Prospero's Cell, and Henry Miller's...
in their lives on Corfu.
In August 1937, Lawrence and Nancy travelled to the Villa Seurat in Paris, to meet Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...
. Together with Alfred Perles
Alfred Perles
Alfred Perlès was an Austrian writer , who was most famous for his associations with Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, and Anaïs Nin....
, Nin, Miller, and Durrell "began a collaboration aimed at founding their own literary movement. Their projects included 'The Shame of the Morning' and the 'Booster', a country club house organ that the Villa Seurat group appropriated for their own artistic...ends." They also started the Villa Seurat Series in order to publish Durrell's Black Book, Miller's Max and the White Phagocytes, and Nin's Winter of Artifice
Winter of Artifice
Winter of Artifice, published in 1939, is Anaïs Nin's second published book, containing subsequently alternating novelettes.-1939 Edition:...
, with Jack Kahane of the Obelisk Press
Obelisk Press
Obelisk Press was an English language press based in Paris, France, which was founded by Jack Kahane in 1929.Kahane, a novelist, began the Obelisk Press after his publisher, Grant Richards, went bankrupt. Going into partnership with a printer, Kahane, as Cecil Barr, published his next novel...
as publisher.
Durrell's first novel of note, The Black Book: An Agon, was heavily influenced by Miller and was published in Paris in 1938. The mildly pornographic work only appeared in Britain in 1973. In the story, the main character Lawrence Lucifer struggles to escape the spiritual sterility of dying England, and finds Greece's warmth and fertility.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Durrell's mother and brothers returned to England, while he and Nancy remained on Corfu. In 1940, he and Nancy had a daughter, Penelope Berengaria. After the fall of Greece, Lawrence and Nancy escaped via Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. The marriage was already under strain, however, and Durrell and Nancy separated in 1942, with Nancy taking baby Penelope to Jerusalem.
During his years on Corfu, Durrell had made notes for a book about the island, but it was only in Egypt towards the end of the war, that he was finally able to write it. In the book, Prospero's Cell, Durrell described Corfu as "this brilliant little speck of an island in the Ionian", with waters like the heartbeat of the world itself.
During the war, Durrell served as a press attaché to the British Embassies, first in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
and then Alexandria. It was in Alexandria that he met Eve (Yvette) Cohen, a Jewish woman and native Alexandrian who was to become his model for the character Justine
Justine (novel)
Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Justine is one of four interlocking novels which each tell various aspects of a complex story of passion and deception from various points of view...
in the Alexandria Quartet. In 1947, after his divorce from Nancy came through, Durrell married Eve Cohen and in 1951 they had a daughter, Sappho Jane, named after the legendary Ancient Greek poet Sappho
Sappho
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...
. Sappho Durrell committed suicide by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
in 1985.
In May 1945 Durrell obtained a posting to Rhodes. The Dodecanese ( = 12 islands ) had been taken by Italy from the disintergrating Ottoman Empire in 1912 during the Balkan Wars. With the Italian surrender in 1943 their erstwhile German allies took over most of the islands and held onto them as besieged fortresses until the War's end. Mainland Greece was at that time locked in civil war, and so the Dodecanese came under a temporary British military government pending sovereignty being handed over to Greece in 1947 as war reparations from Italy.
Durrell set up house in the little gatekeeper's lodge of an old Turkish cemetery, just across the road from the building used by the British Administration (nowadays the Casino in Rhodes new town), where his "co-habitation" with Eve Cohen could be discreetly ignored by his employer, while remaining close enough to be within the perimeter security zone of the main building.
From this period comes his book "Reflections on a Marine Venus", a lyrical celebration of the island, in which, as with " Bitter Lemons", Durrell tends to avoid more than a passing mention of the troubled times.
In 1947, Durrell was appointed director of the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
Institute in Córdoba, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, where for the next eighteen months he gave lectures on cultural topics. He returned to London with Eve in the summer of 1948, around the time that Marshal Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
of Yugoslavia broke ties with Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's COMINFORM
Cominform
Founded in 1947, Cominform is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties...
, and Durrell was posted to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
where he was to remain until 1952. This sojourn gave him material for his book White Eagles over Serbia (1957). Reacting to his experience of life under Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, he would sometimes claim to be a Fascist, although this was most likely said to shock people, something he always enjoyed. He claimed as well that he was an anti-Semite – although he married two Jewish women and his fiction included many sympathetic Jewish characters."
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
with Sappho Jane,his baby daughter with Eve, buying a house and taking a position teaching English literature at the Pancyprian Gymnasium
Pancyprian Gymnasium
The Pancyprian Gymnasium was founded in 1812 by Archbishop Kyprianos at a time when Cyprus was still under Ottoman occupation. It was originally called the Hellenic School and is the oldest high school still in operation on the island...
to support his writing, followed by public relations work for the British government there during agitation for union with Greece. He wrote about his time in Cyprus in Bitter Lemons
Bitter Lemons
Bitter Lemons is an autobiographical work by writer Lawrence Durrell, describing the three years he spent on the island of Cyprus...
, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1957. In 1954, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
. Durrell left Cyprus in August 1956 after problems on the island and his British government position led to him being made a target of assassination attempts.
In 1957, he published Justine
Justine (novel)
Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Justine is one of four interlocking novels which each tell various aspects of a complex story of passion and deception from various points of view...
, the first part of what was to become his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet
The Alexandria Quartet
The Alexandria Quartet is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the books present four perspectives on a single set of events and characters in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II.As Durrell...
. Justine
Justine (novel)
Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Justine is one of four interlocking novels which each tell various aspects of a complex story of passion and deception from various points of view...
, Balthazar
Balthazar (novel)
Balthazar, published in 1958, is the second volume in the The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt around WWII, the four novels tell essentially the same story from different points of view and come to a conclusion in Clea...
(1958), Mountolive
Mountolive
Mountolive, published in 1958, is the third volume in the The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt around World War II, the four novels tell essentially the same story from different points of view and come to a conclusion in Clea. Mountolive is the...
(1958) and Clea
Clea (novel)
Clea, published in 1960, is the fourth volume in the The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt around WWII, the first three volumes tell the same story from different points of view, and Clea relates subsequent events.-Epigraphs and Citations:The...
(1960) deal with events before and during the Second World War in the Egyptian city of Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
. The first three books tell essentially the same story but from different perspectives, a technique Durrell described in his introductory note to Balthazar as "relativistic". Only in the final part, Clea, does the story advance in time and reach a conclusion.
The Quartet impressed critics by the richness of its style, the variety and vividness of its characters, its movement between the personal and the political, and its exotic locations in and around the city which Durrell portrays as the chief protagonist: "... the city which used us as its flora – precipitated in us conflicts which were hers and which we mistook for our own: beloved Alexandria!" The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
review of the Quartet stated: "If ever a work bore an instantly recognizable signature on every sentence, this is it." There was some suggestion that Durrell might be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize in Literature
Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
, but this did not materialize.
Given the complexity of the work, it was probably inevitable that George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's 1969 attempt to film the Quartet (Justine) simplified the story to the point of melodrama, and was poorly received.
Durrell separated from Eve Cohen in 1955, and was married again in 1961 to another Alexandrian Jewish woman, Claude-Marie Vincendon, whom he met on Cyprus. Durrell was devastated when Claude died of cancer in 1967. His fourth and final marriage was in 1973 to a French woman, Ghislaine de Boysson, whom he divorced in 1979.
Durrell settled in Sommières
Sommières
Sommières is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It lies from Nîmes, from Montpellier.-Geography:Sommières is to the south of the garrigues and on the edge of the Vaunage, a wine growing region. It straddles the River Vidourle.-History:...
, a small village in Languedoc, France, where he purchased a large house standing secluded in its own extensive walled grounds on the edge of the village. Here he wrote The Revolt of Aphrodite
The Revolt of Aphrodite
The Revolt of Aphrodite consists of two novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published in 1968 and 1970. The individual volumes, Tunc and Nunquam, were less successful that his earlier The Alexandria Quartet, in part because they deviate significantly from his earlier style and because they...
, comprising Tunc (1968) and Nunquam (1970), and The Avignon Quintet
The Avignon Quintet
The Avignon Quintet is a five-volume series of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1974 and 1985. The novels are openly metafictional and reflect the developments in experimental fiction following after Durrell's previous The Alexandria Quartet...
, which attempted to replicate the success of The Alexandria Quartet and revisited many of the same motifs and styles to be found in the earlier work. Although it is frequently described as a quintet, Durrell himself referred to it as a "quincunx". The middle book of the quincunx, Constance, or Solitary Practices
Constance (novel)
Constance, published in 1982 and sub-titled Solitary Practices, is the central volume of the five novels of Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet...
, which portrays France under the German occupation, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1982 and the opening novel, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness
Monsieur (novel)
Monsieur, published in 1974 and sub-titled The Prince of Darkness, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet. As a group, the five novels narrate the lives of a group of Europeans prior to and after World War II. Monsieur begins the quincunx of novels with a metafictional...
, received the 1974 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
. In 1974, Durrell was the Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at the California Institute of Technology.
Other works from this period are "Sicilian Carousel", a celebration of that island, "The Greek Islands", and "Caesar's Vast Ghost", which is mainly about Provence, France.
Durrell suffered from emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
for many years. He died of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
at his house in Sommières in November 1990. His lifelong friend Alan G. Thomas
Alan G. Thomas
Alan Gradon Thomas , was a British bibliophile and Lawrence Durrell scholar who donated a significant collection of books, journals and other materials of or pertaining to Durrell to the British Library....
donated a collection of books and periodicals associated with Durrell to the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, which is maintained as a distinct Lawrence Durrell Collection
Lawrence Durrell Collection
The Lawrence Durrell Collection is a special collection of books and periodicals by, about or associated with the novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell, donated to the British Library by Alan G. Thomas.-External links:*...
.
Alan Thomas also acted as editor for an anthology of additional writings, letters and poetry, " Spirit Of Place ", which contains much that supplements Durrell's own books.
Poetry
Durrell's poetry has been overshadowed by his novels. Peter PorterPeter Porter (poet)
Peter Neville Frederick Porter, OAM was a British-based Australian poet.-Life:Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929. His mother, Marion, died of a burst gall-bladder in 1938. He attended the Church of England Grammar School and left school at 18, and went to work as a trainee journalist...
, in his introduction to a Selected Poems, writes of Durrell as a poet: "one of the best of the past hundred years. And one of the most enjoyable." He goes on to describe Durrell's poetry as "always beautiful as sound and syntax. Its innovation lies in its refusal to be more high-minded than the things it records, together with its handling of the whole lexicon of language."
Work with the British government
Durrell also spent several years in the service of the Foreign Office. He was senior Press Officer to the British Embassies in Athens and Cairo, Press Attache in Alexandria and Belgrade, Director of the British Institutes in Kalamata, Greece, and CórdobaCórdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
, Argentina. He was also Director of Public Relations in the Dodecanese Islands and on Cyprus. Durrell later refused a CMG (Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George) because he felt his "conservative, reactionary, and right-wing" political views might be a cause for embarrassment.
He later claimed to have disliked both Egypt and Argentina, although nowhere near as much as he disliked Yugoslavia.
Novels
- Pied Piper of LoversPied Piper of LoversPied Piper of Lovers, published in 1935, is Lawrence Durrell's first novel. It is followed by Panic Spring, which partly continues the actions of its characters. The novel is in large part autobiographical and focuses on the protagonist's childhood in India and maturation in London.-Plot...
(1935) - Panic SpringPanic SpringPanic Spring is a novel by Lawrence Durrell, published in 1937 by Covici-Friede under the pseudonym Charles Norden. It is set on a fictional Greek Island, Mavrodaphne, in the Ionian Sea somewhere between Patras, Kephalonia, and Ithaca...
, under the pseudonym Charles Norden (1937) - The Black BookThe Black Book (Durrell novel)The Black Book is a novel by Lawrence Durrell, published in 1938 by the Obelisk Press. It is set with two competing narrators: Lawrence Lucifer on Corfu, in Greece, and Death Gregory in London. Faber and Faber offered to publish the novel in an expurgated edition, but on the advice of Henry Miller,...
(1938; republished in the UK on January 1, 1977 by Faber and FaberFaber and FaberFaber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
) - Cefalu (1947; republished as The Dark Labyrinth in 1958)
- White Eagles Over Serbia (1957)
- The Alexandria QuartetThe Alexandria QuartetThe Alexandria Quartet is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the books present four perspectives on a single set of events and characters in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II.As Durrell...
(1962)- JustineJustine (novel)Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Justine is one of four interlocking novels which each tell various aspects of a complex story of passion and deception from various points of view...
(1957) - BalthazarBalthazar (novel)Balthazar, published in 1958, is the second volume in the The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt around WWII, the four novels tell essentially the same story from different points of view and come to a conclusion in Clea...
(1958) - MountoliveMountoliveMountolive, published in 1958, is the third volume in the The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt around World War II, the four novels tell essentially the same story from different points of view and come to a conclusion in Clea. Mountolive is the...
(1958) - CleaClea (novel)Clea, published in 1960, is the fourth volume in the The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt around WWII, the first three volumes tell the same story from different points of view, and Clea relates subsequent events.-Epigraphs and Citations:The...
(1960)
- Justine
- The Revolt of AphroditeThe Revolt of AphroditeThe Revolt of Aphrodite consists of two novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published in 1968 and 1970. The individual volumes, Tunc and Nunquam, were less successful that his earlier The Alexandria Quartet, in part because they deviate significantly from his earlier style and because they...
(1974)- Tunc (1968)
- Nunquam (1970)
- The Avignon QuintetThe Avignon QuintetThe Avignon Quintet is a five-volume series of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1974 and 1985. The novels are openly metafictional and reflect the developments in experimental fiction following after Durrell's previous The Alexandria Quartet...
(1992)- Monsieur: or, The Prince of DarknessMonsieur (novel)Monsieur, published in 1974 and sub-titled The Prince of Darkness, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet. As a group, the five novels narrate the lives of a group of Europeans prior to and after World War II. Monsieur begins the quincunx of novels with a metafictional...
(1974) - Livia: or, Buried AliveLivia (novel)Livia, published in 1978 and sub-titled Buried Alive, is the second volume in Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet. The novel revolves around the novelist Blandford, introduced at the end of the previous novel Monsieur, and introduces us to the sisters Livia and Constance, both briefly figuring...
(1978) - Constance: or, Solitary PracticesConstance (novel)Constance, published in 1982 and sub-titled Solitary Practices, is the central volume of the five novels of Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet...
(1982) - Sebastian: or, Ruling PassionsSebastian (Durrell novel)Sebastian, published in 1983 and sub-titled Ruling Passions, is the fourth volume in The Avignon Quintet series by British author Lawrence Durrell...
(1983) - Quinx: or, The Ripper's TaleQuinx (novel)Quinx, published in 1985 and sub-titled The Ripper's Tale, is the 5th and final volume in Lawrence Durrell's "Quincunx" of novels, The Avignon Quintet, following the activities of Constance, Blanford, Sutcliffe, Lord Galen, and most of the other surviving characters as they return to Provence and...
(1985)
- Monsieur: or, The Prince of Darkness
Travel
- Prospero's Cell: A guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corcyra[Corfu] (1945; republished 2000) (ISBN 0-571-20165-2)
- Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953)
- Bitter LemonsBitter LemonsBitter Lemons is an autobiographical work by writer Lawrence Durrell, describing the three years he spent on the island of Cyprus...
(1957; republished as Bitter Lemons of Cyprus 2001) - Blue Thirst (1975)
- Sicilian Carousel (1977)
- The Greek Islands (1978)
- Caesar's Vast Ghost (1990)
Poetry
- Quaint Fragments (1931)
- Ten Poems (1932)
- Transition: Poems (1934)
- A Private Country (1943)
- Cities, Plains and People (1946)
- On Seeming to Presume (1948)
- Selected Poems: 1953–1963 Edited by Alan RossAlan RossAlan John Ross, , was a British poet, writer and editor. He was born in Calcutta, India, where he spent the first seven years of his life...
(1964) - The Ikons (1966)
- The Suchness of the Old Boy (1972)
- Collected Poems: 1931–1974 Edited by James A. Brigham (1980)
- Selected Poems of Lawrence Durrell Edited by Peter PorterPeter Porter (poet)Peter Neville Frederick Porter, OAM was a British-based Australian poet.-Life:Porter was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1929. His mother, Marion, died of a burst gall-bladder in 1938. He attended the Church of England Grammar School and left school at 18, and went to work as a trainee journalist...
(2006)
Drama
- Bromo Bombastes, under the pseudonym Gaffer Peeslake (1933)
- Sappho: A Play in Verse (1950)
- An Irish Faustus: A Morality in Nine Scenes (1963)
- Acte (1964)
Humour
- Esprit de Corps (1957)
- Stiff Upper Lip (1958)
- Sauve Qui Peut (1966)
- Antrobus Complete (1985), a collection of short stories, previously published in various magazines, about life in the diplomaticDiplomacyDiplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
corps.
Letters and essays
- A Key to Modern British Poetry (1952)
- Lawrence Durrell and Henry MillerHenry MillerHenry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
: A Private Correspondence (1962) edited by George Wickes - Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel (1969) edited by Alan G. Thomas
- Literary Lifelines: The Richard AldingtonRichard AldingtonRichard Aldington , born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet.Aldington was best known for his World War I poetry, the 1929 novel, Death of a Hero, and the controversy arising from his 1955 Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry...
—Lawrence Durrell Correspondence (1981) edited by Ian S. MacNiven and Harry T. Moore - A Smile in the Mind's Eye (1982)
- "Letters to T. S. EliotT. S. EliotThomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
." (1987) Twentieth Century Literature vol. 33 no. 3 pp. 348–358. - The Durrell-Miller Letters: 1935–80 (1988) edited by Ian S. MacNiven
- Letters to Jean Fanchette (1988) edited by Jean Fanchette
Editing and translating
- Wordsworth; Selected by Lawrence Durrell (1973) edited by Durrell
- New Poems 1963: A P.E.N. Anthology of Contemporary Poetry (1963) edited by Durrell
- The Best of Henry Miller (1960) edited by Durrell
- The Curious History of Pope JoanPope JoanPope Joan is a legendary female Pope who, it is purported, reigned for a few years some time in the Middle Ages. The story first appeared in the writings of 13th-century chroniclers, and subsequently spread through Europe...
(1954) by Emmanuel RoídesEmmanuel RhoidesEmmanuel Rhoides was a Greek writer and journalist. He is considered one of the most illustrious and reviving spirits of the Greek letters of his time.Born in Hermoupolis, the capital of the island of Syros, to a family of rich aristocrats...
, translated by Durrell - The King of Asine and Other Poems (1948) by George Seferis, translated by Durrell, Bernard SpencerBernard SpencerCharles Bernard Spencer was an English poet, translator, and editor.He was born in Madras, India and educated at Marlborough College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. At Marlborough he knew John Betjeman and Louis MacNeice; at Oxford Stephen Spender, and he also came across W. H. Auden. He...
, and Nanos ValaoritisNanos ValaoritisNanos Valaoritis is one of the most distinguished writers in Greece today. He has been widely published as a poet, novelist and playwright since 1939, and his correspondence with George Seferis has been a bestseller... - Six Poems From the Greek of Sikelianós and Seféris (1946) translated by Durrell
Cultural references
- Lawrence Durrell – song by Mick ThomasMick ThomasMichael James Thomas is an Australian singer-songwriter.Mick Thomas was born in Yallourn, 7 February 1960, the middle child of three. His father, Brian Thomas, was an electrical engineer with the old State Electricity Commission. His father's family were from Tasmania and his mother, Margaret, was...
- California SplitCalifornia SplitCalifornia Split is a 1974 film directed by Robert Altman and starring Elliott Gould and George Segal as a pair of gamblers. It was the first non-Cinerama movie to use eight-track stereo sound.-Plot:...
- Gwen Welles' character is shown reading the book. The movie has several parallels to the novel. - Stranger than Fiction – The Alexandria Quartet is briefly referred to in a scene between Dustin Hoffman and Will Ferrell in the movie Stranger Than Fiction (2006). The following is written on the chalkboard behind them: "Mountolive's ear aches, Liza's blindness, Clea's amputated hand, Leila's smallpox, Justine's stroke, Pombal's gout." This is juxtaposed against Harold Crick's (Farrell) impending, 'literary' doom.
- Flirting – A paperback copy of Durrell's Justine sits on her vanity while Thandi Newton smokes at her mirror, echoing a scene in Justine.
- Wonder BoysWonder BoysWonder Boys is a 1995 novel by the American writer Michael Chabon. It was adapted into a film in 2000.-Plot summary:Pittsburgh professor and author Grady Tripp is working on an unwieldy 2,611 page manuscript that is meant to be the follow-up to his successful, award-winning novel The Land...
– In the novel by Michael Chabon, one of the characters is said to carry a photo of Lawrence Durrell in her wallet.
Further reading
Biography and Interviews- Bowker, Gordon. Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell. New York: St. Martin's, 1997.
- Chamberlin, Brewster. A Chronology of the Life and Times of Lawrence Durrell. Corfu: The Durrell School of Corfu, 2007
- Durrell, Lawrence. The Big Supposer: An Interview with Marc Alyn. New York: Grove, 1974.
- Haag, Michael. Alexandria: City of Memory. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Intertwined biographies of Lawrence Durrell, E M Forster and Constantine Cavafy in Alexandria.
- Haag, Michael. Vintage Alexandria: Photographs of the City 1860–1960. Cairo and New York: The American University of Cairo Press, 2008. With an introduction on the historical, social and literary significance of Alexandria, and extensively captioned photographs of the cosmopolitan city and its inhabitants, including Durrell and people he knew.
- MacNiven, Ian. Lawrence Durrell – A Biography. London: Faber and Faber, 1998.
- Todd, Daniel Ray. An Annotated, Enumerative Bibliography of the Criticism of Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet and his Travel Works. Diss. Tulane University. 1984.
- Ingersoll, Earl. Lawrence Durrell: Conversations. Cranbury, New Jersey: Ashgate; 1998.
Book-length Criticism
- Alexandre-Garner, Corinne, ed. Lawrence Durrell Revisited : Lawrence Durrell Revisité. Confluences 21. Nanterre, France: Université Paris X, 2002.
- Alexandre-Garner, Corinne, ed. Lawrence Durrell: Actes Du Colloque Pour L'Inauguration De La Bibliothèque Durrell. Confluences 15. Nanterre, France: Université Paris-X, 1998.
- Alexandre-Garner, Corinne. Le Quatuor D'Alexandrie, Fragmentation Et Écriture : Étude Sur Lámour, La Femme Et L'Écriture Dans Le Roman De Lawrence Durrell. Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature 136. New York: Peter Lang, 1985.
- Begnal, Michael H., ed. On Miracle Ground: Essays on the Fiction of Lawrence Durrell. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1990.
- Cornu, Marie-Renée. La Dynamique Du Quatuor D'Alexandrie De Lawrence Durrell: Trois Études. Montréal, QU: Didier, 1979.
- Fraser, G. S. Lawrence Durrell: A Study. London: Faber and Faber, 1968.
- Friedman, Alan Warren, ed. Critical Essays on Lawrence Durrell. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987.
- Friedman, Alan Warren. Lawrence Durrell and "The Alexandria Quartet": Art for Love's Sake. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
- Herbrechter, Stefan. Lawrence Durrell, Postmodernism and the Ethics of Alterity. Postmodern Studies 26. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999.
- Hoops, Wiklef. Die Antinomie Von Theorie Und Praxis in Lawrence Durrells Alexandria Quartet: Eine Strukturuntersuchung. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1976.
- Isernhagen, Hartwig. Sensation, Vision and Imagination: The Problem of Unity in Lawrence Durrell's Novels. Bamberg: Bamberger Fotodruck, 1969.
- Kaczvinsky, Donald P. Lawrence Durrell's Major Novels, or The Kingdom of the Imagination. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna UP, 1997.
- Lampert, Gunther. Symbolik Und Leitmotivik in Lawrence Durrells Alexandria Quartet. Bamberg: Rodenbusch, 1974.
- Lillios, Anna, ed. Lawrence Durrell and the Greek World. London: Associated University Presses, 2004.
- Moore, Harry T., ed. The World of Lawrence Durrell. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962.
- Morrison, Ray. A Smile in His Mind's Eye: A Study of the Early Works of Lawrence Durrell. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
- Pelletier, Jacques. Le Quatour D'Alexandrie De Lawrence Durrell Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. Paris: Hachette, 1975.
- Pine, Richard. Lawrence Durrell: The Mindscape. Corfu: The Durrell School of Corfu, revised edition 2005.
- Pine, Richard. The Dandy and the Herald: Manners, Mind and Morals From Brummell to Durrell. New York: St. Martin's, 1988.
- Raper, Julius Rowan, et al., eds. Lawrence Durrell: Comprehending the Whole. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1995.
- Rashidi, Linda Stump. (Re)constructing Reality: Complexity in Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. New York: Peter Lang, 2005.
- Ruprecht, Walter Hermann. Durrells Alexandria Quartet: Struktur Als Belzugssystem. Sichtung Und Analyse. Swiss Studies in English 72. Berne: Francke Verlag, 1972.
- Sajavaara, Kari. Imagery in Lawrence Durrell's Prose. Mémoires De La Société Néophilologique De Helsinki 35. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique, 1975.
- Sertoli, Giuseppe. Lawrence Durrell. Civilta Letteraria Del Novecento: Sezione Inglese – Americana 6. Milano: Mursia, 1967.
Bibliography
- Potter, Robert A., and Brooke Whiting. Lawrence Durrell: A Checklist. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles Library, 1961.
- Thomas, Alan G., and James Brigham. Lawrence Durrell: An Illustrated Checklist. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983.
External links
- The International Lawrence Durrell Society Official website of ILDS
- Durrell 2012: The Lawrence Durrell Centenary Centenary event website and Durrell Journal
- The Durrell School of Corfu School dedicated to the works and lives Lawrence and Gerald Durrell
- Lawrence Durrell Library (Nanterre – France) Contains 2500 documents related to Durrell
- Durrell Celebration in Alexandria
- Critical Materials on Lawrence Durrell: A Bibliographic Checklist
- Lawrence Durrell Bibliography from Inventions of Spring
- Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990)
- Photos from Find a Grave
- Songs of Blue and Gold by Deborah Lawrenson – a fictional work set in Corfu loosely based on Durrell's life
Articles
- "Lawrence Durrell in the ambiguous white metropolis": an essay on the "Alexandria Quartet" from TLS, August 27, 2008.
- Lawrence Durrell collection at University of Victoria, Special Collections
- Lawrence Durrell Papers, 1933–1971 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center