Lawrence Durrell: 40 books

 From the visionary author of the Alexandria Quartet comes a landmark five-part series hailed by the Sunday Times as “one of the great novels of our time.” One of the most celebrated English writers ever, Lawrence Durrell was a bestselling author whose vivid metafictions pushed the boundaries...

This “very remarkable novel”—first in the acclaimed Alexandria Quartet—tells a haunting story of love, desire, and deception in the Egyptian city pre-WWII (New York Herald Tribune Book Review).   Set in Alexandria, Egypt, in the years between World Wars I and II, Justine is the first...

The definitive collection of travel writings by one of the twentieth century’s best-loved journeyers From the moment of his birth, Lawrence Durrell was far from home. A British child in India, he was sent to England to receive an education, and by his early twenties had already tired of his...

The astounding third offering in Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, a richly detailed and extraordinary expansion of the events of Justine and Balthazar David Mountolive is a British diplomat who views love as just another everyday transaction. But as romance turns to betrayal and secret alliances...

A former member of Great Britain’s diplomatic corps, the celebrated author of the Alexandria Quartet offers eleven sketches of life in service of the crown.   After decades spent representing Britain around the globe, Antrobus has earned a shirtful of medals and the right to pass afternoons...

“The first piece of work by a new English writer to give me any hope for the future of prose fiction.” —T. S. Eliot   As over-the-top as it is inventive, Durrell’s breakthrough novel is a series of sordid vignettes drawn from the lives of decadent artists, doomed bohemians,...

The finest of Lawrence Durrell’s classic short stories of diplomatic mischief Dark is the day when culture comes to Sczbog. The capital of Vulgaria, nestled snugly behind the Iron Curtain, has long been devoid of higher thought, and that is the way the men in the British embassy like it....

At the dawn of World War II, Livia and her sister Constance commit themselves to separate sides of a historic struggle in the second volume of the Avignon Quintet.   The second book of Durrell’s inventive and inspiring Avignon Quintet, Livia follows the currents of longing and regret,...

In the final volume of a quintet, a hunt for ancient treasure in southern France lays bare the flawed philosophies that animated the Second World War.   Just after World War II, a motley assortment of treasure hunters, mystics, psychoanalysts, and former Nazis race to uncover a treasure...

A four-part story of passion and betrayal in the Mediterranean—voted one of the Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels of the twentieth century.   The Alexandria Quartet is a striking and sensuous masterpiece, breathing vivid life into each of its unforgettable characters and the dusty Mediterranean...

The deeply affecting second novel of theAlexandria Quartet, which boldly questions perception and the nature of contemporary love In Alexandria, Egypt, in the years before World War II, Durrell’s narrator, Darley, seeks to fully understand his sexual obsession with two women: the infamous...

From the olive trees of southern France to Gnostic cults in Egypt, a man and his lovers are invented and reinvented in this first volume of a great literary adventure. ** ** For British doctor Bruce Drexel, a return to Provence is bittersweet. Here, at a rustic chateau, he once fell...

The final installment of the Alexandria Quartet, hailed by the New York Times Book Review as “one of the most important works of our time” Years after his liaisons with Justine and Melissa, Darley becomes immersed in a relationship with Clea, a bisexual artist. The ensuing chain of events...

With the Second World War in full fury, Constance must explore the psyche of a mad world in order to save herself and those closest to her in the third volume of the Avignon Quintet.   Durrell’s beautiful Avignon Quintet continues with this harrowing, tumultuous installment. Here...