The Alexandria Quartet

Durrell is a marvelous writer. He can do comedy, melodrama, and magnificent action scenes, though he waits till the very end of his Alexandria Quartet to write the book's most exciting life-or-death rescue episode. The Quartet is full of surprises and great plot twists, and its characters get more interesting as the book goes along. Of course it's famous for its descriptiveness, and there is passage after passage of good prose-poetry. Much of that is in the service of a kind of occultism I happen not to like -- the suggestion that Alexandria itself MAKES the characters do everything they do, even when they think they're doing what they want, is one example of that occultism. But after all that kind of thing is a defect to me, a virtue to many, and in any case no harder to accept that what you have to believe to get into a good ghost story. The Alexandria Quartet is a ghost story in many ways, come to think of it. The book is in the tradition, too, of Norman Douglas's SOUTH WIND, a book about how not Alexandria, but Capri, makes its characters lose their moral bearings, and how losing their morality is actually the best thing that could happen to the characters. Douglas was gay, and he was hinting at how pleasant being gay could be, if only people would stop being judgmental about it. Durrell is doing similar things with Alexandria. He hasn't gone a page before he starts talking about Alexandria's "five sexes," and he says over and over again that his promiscuous characters are that way because Alexandria is where they live. But Durrell is straight, not gay, and in fact plenty sexist. His male narrator, the narrator's roommate, and almost every man we encounter has sex with different women all the time, yet Justine, who has four or five lovers in her entire lifetime, is called the W. word and "nymphomaniac" -- and in fact, in the fifties, it was this wild W. and nymphomaniac who made JUSTINE, the first book of the Quartet, so popular. I could quote passage after passage illustrating the Quartet's fifties sexism, the kind that gave direct birth to sixties feminism, but one short sentence might do: "He was sorry for Drusilla Banubula because she was so clever that she hardly seemed to be a woman at all." The fifties racism in the book is even more pervasive and much less sympathetic. Other reviewers have mentioned it, but since they didn't give examples they may have seemed like soreheads. If you use your Kindle word-search feature to look up the N. word, you will discover that jazz is N. word "music: the white man's solace." There are also passages like this: "The air smelt of wet ashes and that unmistakable odour of black flesh when it is sweating. It is quite different from white flesh." That passage goes on and gets worse. Some people will not want to read a book that has such things in it, and I don't blame them a bit. But for the viewpoint of a British ruling class diplomat from the thirties to the fifties (and that is what Durrell was), you cannot do better than The Alexandria Quartet. I've already hinted that it's more of an action novel than most people say. Jan Morris, who introduces the Kindle version, thinks this is true. It even resembles some of Le Carre's spy novels. MOUNTOLIVE is about a British diplomat's attempt to prevent an anti-British political conspiracy and still save the lives of a family he loves, even though the family is leading the same conspiracy he is fighting. This novel, too, like the Quartet itself, ends with parts of a beautiful action scene, with a great lead-up and then a cutaway, so we get the scene's before and after, but not the bloody parts. After that, we're almost certain Durrell will always cut away from bloody action -- and then at the end of the book we get even blood in ten of the tensest pages I've ever read. There's a lot of talk about how this is a new way to write a novel. It is and it isn't. Each book gives us a new perspective on the Quartet's characters, yes. But the book is not ROSHOMON. We learn new things, and they change what we thought before -- and that's NOT the same thing as seeing things in three different ways, each of which is equally valid. Durrell talks as if his is a new kind of novel, when it's really a new kind of melodrama, a way which increases the Quartet's ability to surprise you at every turn. If you can read through (so to speak) the poetry, you get ten times more surprises than you get in a typical mystery novel, and the surprises bite harder too. Yet it is, after all, nothing more than a great mystery novel -- perhaps the greatest mystery novel ever written. It's a smarter version of fifties James Bond stuff, with, hard to believe as this may be, even more racism and sexism than the early Bonds had. Like Bond, it's a guilty pleasure, and if there's more pleasure, there's also more guilt. Read it if you dare.

I would have to be a far better writer than I am to do justice to a work like this, and it seems distinctly odd to be writing only the second review of this classic for Amazon. I first read it as a teen and missed nearly everything there was to delight me as a grownup. This is not a book for those who like linear literature or concise prose. Durrell's prose is some of the lushest in my acquaintance. Almost every chapter begins with a word-picture that sucked me in and seduced me with a strong sense of place. Throughout the work, there are phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that jump off the page and insist on being read aloud to whoever is nearby. His characters are colorful and deep, but their depths are not accessible at a glance any more than with real people. Durrell used a fascinating technique that reminds me of Pointilism and Cubism combined. He puts thousands of dots of color on the canvas until you begin to see a picture in depth. But just when you think you've got it, he shifts perspective and you see new dimensions in the characters that were unsuspected by narrator and reader alike. The adjective "painterly" occurs to me in connection with Durrell, as in 'This is a writerly book!' It connects with literature as diverse as Cavafy, Forster, Parachelsus, de Sade, Freud, and traditional Arab folklore, and echoes of Durrell are heard in works by the generations of writers who followed him. Also it is a book for writers and for artists of all stripes, as many of its characters are aspiring, successful, or failed artists. This is also a study of "love" in all its forms. Of sexual entanglements there are plenty: incest, rape, prostitution, May-December romance, and adultery by the carload... but also loves of place, of friends, of service, of status, of ideals and traditions... and all the frustrations and tragedies that attend these loves. I strongly recommend the Alexandria Quartet to those who have the vocabulary, patience, and love of elegant language necessary to the appreciation of a literary masterpiece.

In the first of this four-volume series, Justine, it is the author's evocative and symbolic language that kept me going as opposed to the story. The story unfolds ever so slowly and not always clearly. The characters make seemingly profound statements, quote obscure one-liners from famous literati, and have exaggerated traits and behaviors. But it's that complexity and intensity of the characters that is one strength of the book, along with the beautiful, evocative language and the presentation of love in its many manifestations. I found that I couldn't read more than 10 or so pages at a time, the language was that dense. It was strangely compelling. By the second volume, Balthazar, the story began to draw me in, as new layers of perspective were added. I'm almost finished with Balthazar, and am hoping and expecting the next two volumes to add more layers, more perspective. I'm reminded with this novel of one by Elliot Perlman, Seven Types of Ambiguity. If you've read that and liked it, you'll likely enjoy The Alexandria Quartet, though it's more subtle and slower-moving.

Lawrence Durrell has to be one of the most naturally gifted writers ever, though for me, the brilliance of this series peters out a bit in the last volume (Clea). To me, Mountolive is far and away the finest of the bunch. As a descriptive writer, Durrell has almost no peer; indeed, there is some small, aphoristic remark or breathtaking turn of phrase on nearly ever page. However, using his own words to skewer him a bit, sometimes his characters seem a bit more like thoughts in the writer’s head than actual, living, breathing human beings; I also felt the work didn’t cohere quite as much in the end quite as I’d have hoped (I know, it’s supposed to be a kind of patchwork, but…). The work is also, it must be said, casually racist, sexist and even imperialist in places, and it’s sad that a work so magnificent should be so marred. However, as a piece of writing (especially for those who revel in the glories of pure literary “writerliness,” I can’t think of a lot of other works that are its equal. I’m very glad I read it, and – despite the length – will almost certainly embark upon The Avignon Quintet. Here are just a few of the passages I find remarkable: He recognized now that hate is only unachieved love. * A diary is the last place to go if you seek the truth about a person. [ This one makes me smile]. * When you pluck a flower, the branch springs back into place. This is not true of the heart’s affections. * No one can go on being a rebel too long without turning into an autocrat. * And, perhaps my very favorite: “One learns nothing from those who return our love.”

new edition combining 4 books of Alexandria Quartet. Hoped for 4 individuals as this is heavy for travelling. In addition, too much margin on left side of pages causing the book to be too tightly bound; Therefore hard to hold book open.

Alexandria Quartet is, simply, the best novel I have yet read in modern English. Durrell's masterpiece achieves its greatness first by its construction. He has examined a set of characters in a defined time period from different views, thereby allowing him to develop a large number of characters with great clarity. He also uses the language masterfully to paint his images and people with a completeness unequalled in any other books I have read. If you liked losing yourself in Melville's "Moby Dick" or Mishima's "Sea of Fertility", I think you will especially appreciate Durrell's unique approach to recording his history of Alexandria, Egypt--its unique qualities, how they affect his cast of characters and how he makes you feel like you are there.

It is hard to read after sixty years , when i and my friends belonged to a Alexandrian passionate cult. So much has been written and said about the Levant and Egypt, so many sexual taboos have been set a aside. I am no longer 20. The writing is exquisite. Durrell is a poet and so is always worth the effort. nevertheless is a fascinating puzzle even today.

I had read "The Avignon Quintet" oh so many years ago and remembered that I had loved it, and so in the mood for something old, I decided to try this quartet. "Justine" was wonderful and interesting and beautifully written. I found parts of "Balthazar" to be wonderful as well, especially the premise behind the book, although parts of it were tedious. I am not a great fan of books that revolve around the angst of love. Then "Mountolive" was different, interesting and a new take on the familiar characters. "Clea" is closure for these characters and at times is really thrilling and at other times, I again found it to be tedious. If you enjoy very well-written books about people and a place, and don't mind their constant discussions about love, you'll love this.

Aunque se suponía que era el primero. El cuarteto es algo que todos deberían leer, algo farragoso y amplios, pero una estupenda obra

I found this book to be fascinating, although difficult to read. The style is rather turgid and the themes skip around. However, the characters are unusual and interesting and the descriptions of Alexandria and other parts of Egypt are beautiful and evocative. Having been to a Paul Klee exhibition immediately after finishing the book, I was stuck by the similarity between the colours used by the artist, which were inspired by his visit to Tunisia, and the colours used by Durrell in this book. He loved violet and used it frequently in his descriptions. Fascinatingly Durrell seemed to like one-eyed people. Perhaps a psychologist could explain this tendency. Clearly, Alexandria has changed tremendously between the time in which it is set (late 1930s early 1940s) and the present day, so the book is of historical relevance. The stories and characters all have a rather mystic quality, even the weird and very funny ones. Yes, the book, though intense, is far from devoid of humour. It is well worth reading. I thouight it great.

Gran libro.

This was ordered by my sister so cannot give a review. According to friends it's a super book.

紙の本のように、かさばらなくて良い