Details Books During 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 |
Lawrence Durrell
Paperback | Pages: 884 pages Rating: 4.17 | 11007 Users | 423 Reviews
Define Appertaining To Books The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
| Title | : | The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4) |
| Author | : | Lawrence Durrell |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special 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 |
Narrative To 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.
Rating Appertaining To Books The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
Ratings: 4.17 From 11007 Users | 423 ReviewsCriticize Appertaining To Books The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)
"I suppose...that if you wished somehow to incorporate all I am telling you into your own Justine manuscript now, that you would find yourself with a curious sort of book - the story would be told, so to speak, in layers...a series of novels with 'sliding panels'"Balthazar, p. 338JustineA rhythmic, rolling book, without too much plot to speak of. However as a novel it works brilliantly as a sort of literary expose` about human relationships and love. If there is one thing you can take away fromLooking over the Goodreads reviews of this tetralogy, I find almost everyone gave it either five stars with the note that it's the greatest work they have ever read and that it changed their lives, to one or two stars marked by utter impatience. I can identify with both. There are breathtakingly beautiful descriptions of every aspect of nature, light, desert, sea, wildlife; and repeated descriptions of the lovely, decadent, and deadly city of Alexandria. Durrell makes you feel the heat, smell
Star RatingI read "Justine" many years ago and have just read the whole "Quartet".I've reviewed the individual works separately at the links below. I rated "Mountolive" five stars and the others four.I rated "Mountolive" higher, because of the roundabout journey it took me on. I've rated the "Quartet" as a whole five stars. My rationale is that the sum is greater than its parts (which could almost be one of its themes).However, there is a good chance that I will some day increase the four star
A stunning tour de force of a book which is even better than the book I remember 30 years ago when I first read it. This is without doubt a meisterwerk in the canon of western literature and one which contributes immensely to the fabric of literature as well as just being a bloody good book and a great read. Durrell uses the four book style to construct a story through layers of time and differences of view and the depth and breadth of that view are quite stunning. Justine, the first book
Probably one of the most spectacular things I've read in a long time. The writing is exquisite: ornate and sweeping. The characters are cast from all corners of Egyptian society, bringing high and low together in a sensuous jumble. The shifting narrative means that as you go through the series you get more and more perspective on the characters and essential plot points. Initial impressions are upended and all wrong. More and more illusions are shattered and you're left with something painful,
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 stuff
I realized then the truth about all love: that it is an absolute which takes all or forfeits all. The other feelings, compassion, tenderness and so on, exist only on the periphery and belong on the constructions of society and habit.My gratitude for M.J. Nicholls remains at the fore of this celebration. It wasn't he that steered me to this massive work. I am honestly unable to gather any of MJNs inferences in the direction of Durrell. It was more Nicholls' esprit, that laudable expansion on what
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