The Alexandria Quartet
Encyclopedia
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 explains in his preface to Balthazar, the four novels are an exploration of relativity and the notions of continuum and subject–object relation, with modern love as the subject. The Quartet offers the same sequence of events through several points of view, allowing individual perspectives to change over time.
The four novels are:
In a 1959 Paris Review
interview, Durrell described the ideas behind the Quartet in terms of a convergence of Eastern and Western metaphysics, based on Einstein's overturning of the old view of the material universe, and Freud's doing the same for the concept of stable personalities, yielding a new concept of reality.
In 1998, the Modern Library
ranked The Alexandria Quartet #70 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
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....
of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence Durrell
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...
, 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
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...
, Egypt, before and during World War II.
As Durrell explains in his preface to Balthazar, the four novels are an exploration of relativity and the notions of continuum and subject–object relation, with modern love as the subject. The Quartet offers the same sequence of events through several points of view, allowing individual perspectives to change over time.
The four novels are:
- 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)
In a 1959 Paris Review
Paris Review
The Paris Review is a literary quarterly founded in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen and George Plimpton. Plimpton edited the Review from its founding until his death in 2003. In its first five years, The Paris Review published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip Larkin, V. S...
interview, Durrell described the ideas behind the Quartet in terms of a convergence of Eastern and Western metaphysics, based on Einstein's overturning of the old view of the material universe, and Freud's doing the same for the concept of stable personalities, yielding a new concept of reality.
In 1998, the Modern Library
Modern Library
The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
ranked The Alexandria Quartet #70 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Further reading
- Haag, Michael. Alexandria: City of Memory. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
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