Declare Out Of Books The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
| Title | : | The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4) |
| Author | : | Lawrence Durrell |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 884 pages |
| Published | : | December 1st 1991 by Penguin Books (first published 1960) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Historical. Historical Fiction. Literature. Northern Africa. Egypt |
Lawrence Durrell
Paperback | Pages: 884 pages Rating: 4.17 | 11007 Users | 423 Reviews
Representaion During Books The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
Lawrence Durrell's series of four novels set in Alexandria, Egypt during the 1940s. The lush and sensuous series consists of Justine(1957) Balthazar(1958) Mountolive(1958) Clea(1960). Justine, Balthazar and Mountolive use varied viewpoints to relate a series of events in Alexandria before World War II. In Clea, the story continues into the years during the war.One L.G. Darley is the primary observer of the events, which include events in the lives of those he loves, and those he knows. In Justine, Darley attempts to recover from and put into perspective his recently ended affair with a woman. Balthazar reinterprets the romantic perspective he placed on the affair and its aftermath in Justine, in more philosophical and intellectual terms.
Mountolive tells a story minus interpretation, and Clea reveals Darley's healing, and coming to love another woman.
List Books As The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
| Original Title: | The Alexandria Quartet |
| ISBN: | 0140153179 (ISBN13: 9780140153170) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Alexandria Quartet #1-4 |
| Setting: | Alexandria(Egypt) Egypt |
Rating Out Of Books The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
Ratings: 4.17 From 11007 Users | 423 ReviewsNotice Out Of Books The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
Finished "Justine" -- the first novel. The language is the star, hypnotic, insightful, poetic, abstracted, stupefying, sublime, ridiculously overwritten 73% of the time (with two similes packed into a metaphorical sentence etc). Struck me as exactly the sort of supreme Euro literary tradition that Knausgaard wanted to throw off. Clear characters, although they all seem caught in the Alexandrine amber of the language. Sexy, subtly sensationalist (not much happens except for really dramatic stuffThe oranges were more plentiful than usual that year. They glowed in their arbors of burnished green leaf like lanterns flickering up there among the sunny woods. These are the first two sentences in the last volume (Clea) of The Alexandria Quartet. It has to be in the top ten or top five greatest books I have ever read. I knew one day I would have to read it but I had no idea what an amazing read it would be. At first, one almost thinks that Durrell is just showing off: great sentences
My high rating may be rank nostalgia. In keeping with the old cliché, I didn't read this book when I discovered it in my callow youth I devoured it like a gnostic eucharist. Set in Alexandria during the last days of decadent European glory, Durrell's ensemble of conflicted characters etch themselves upon the imagination. Durrell is guilty of over-writing everything; still the secret center holds. Connoisseurs may prefer his Avignon Quintet but I never made it past Monsieur. I left my heart in
Lawrence Durrell, to me, has to be the most celebrated English novelist of the 20th century. Ive read all of his books but "The Alexandria Quartet" is unquestionably his most brilliant work in the period just before the Second World War in Alexandria.It was originally four novels: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea and they have been combined into this work. I read this book about twenty years ago and I look at it from time to time just to read the exquisite style. I still love it. I think
Nov. 2019: This book deserved and required a second reading on which the threads could be more fully appreciated and understood. The book is too weird for a single reading. The peculiar genius and the somewhat strange and disappointing limitations of Durrell were likewise thrown into relief. A very strange modernist, yet rococo meditation on life and the decadence of modern civilization. Certainly over-ripe. Durrell lived a generation or two too late, perhaps.My sense is that Durrell is a
While I was reading Les Trois Mousquetaires last week, I wondered a couple of times if it had served as partial inspiration for The Alexandria Quartet. One of the cleverest things about the Dumas novel is the way he reinterprets early 17th century French history as really being about the romantic lives of Anne of Austria, on the large scene, and D'Artagnan, on the small one - a sort of Sherlock Holmes/Basil the Great Mouse Detective deal. Here, Durrell takes the idea a step further. The first
The number of speared, maimed and otherwise mutilated women in the Alexandria Quartet should not surprise anyone who notices that each of the four books begin with a quote from the writings of the Marquis de Sade. Fortunately most readers will be too overwhelmed by the sea of purple prose to notice. Durrell's four part novel is depraved but rollicking great fun.Quand j'étais au premier cycle à une université anglo-saxonne pendant les années soixante-dix on considérait "Le quatuor d'Alexandrie"
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