Lawrence Durrell

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Lose yourself in this vivid travelogue evoking the historic Mediterranean island of Sicily by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. 'A magician.' The Times Despite decades spent poetically chronicling Mediterranean life in Rhodes, Cyprus and Corfu, celebrated travel writer Lawrence Durrell had never set foot on the largest island: Sicily. For years, his friend Martine begged him to visit her on this sun-kissed paradise, but it took her sudden death to finally bring him to its shores - and he is not disappointed. Joining an eccentric tour group, Durrell immerses himself in the island's spectacular archaeological remains, and becomes dizzy with Sicily's rich history: its mysterious myths and meanings. Featuring unpublished poems and illustrated with elegant engravings. Sicilian Carousel is a gem that ranks with Durrell's finest work.'Readers who have been to Sicily will love this book. Readers who have not been to Sicily will love this book.' Paul Fussell 'Like long letters from a civilized and very funny friend - the prose as luminous as the Mediterranean air he loves.' Time

Lose yourself in this classic travelogue evoking the Greek island of Rhodes after World War II by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. 'A magician ... Durrell enchants.' The Times 'A lovely book ... Makes people feel happy ... [So] pleasurable.' Observer 'A poet's intoxication with landscape, a humanist's appetite for history, and an eye for character worthy of a novelist . He excites a longing to leave for Rhodes at once.' Sunday TimesWorld War II is finally over, and after four torturous years serving the Crown in Egypt, Lawerence Durrell seeks peace in the landscapes he has loved ever since his youth in Corfu: Mediterranean islands. He is posted to the Greek island of Rhodes, and from his first dip in the dazzling blue Aegean - which jolts his soul awake for the first time in years - he immerses himself in the rhythms and moods of local life, befriending eccentric villagers and quaffing ouzo as through the war was a distant dream. With his dazzling poet's eye and passion for excavating ancient history, Durrell recaptures the mythic Rhodes of legend, of knights and crusades, that lies beneath its war-ravaged surface. It is a place that you will never forget. 'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' Richard Holmes 'Masterly ... Casts a spell.' Jan Morris 'Incandescent.' André Aciman 'Invades the reader's every sense ... Remarkable.' Victoria Hislop 'Like long letters from a civilized and very funny friend - the prose as luminous as the Mediterranean air he loves.' Time

Lose yourself in this classic prize-winning memoir of life in 1950s Cyprus on the brink of revolution by the legendary king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. 'Stunning.' André Aciman 'Masterly ... Casts a spell.' Jan Morris'Invades the reader's every sense ... Remarkable.' Victoria Hislop'These days I am admiring and re-admiring Lawrence Durrell.' Elif Shafak'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' Richard Holmes'Exceptional ... Revelatory ... A master.' Observer'He writes as an artist, as well as a poet . Profoundly beautiful.' New StatesmanCyprus, 1953. As the island fights for independence from British colonial rule, ancient conflicts between Turkish and Greek Cypriots trouble the glittering Mediterranean waters. Into the brewing political storm enters Lawrence Durrell, yearning for the idyllic island lifestyle of his youth in Corfu.He settles into a dilapidated villa, and with his poet's eye for beauty - and passable Greek - vividly captures the moods and atmospheres of island life in a changing world. Whether collecting folklore or wild flowers, describing the brewing revolution or eccentric local characters, Durrell is a magician with words: and the result is not only a classic travel memoir, but an intimate portrait of a community lost forever.WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE'Brilliant ... Never for a moment does Durrell lose the poet's touch.' New York Times

Lose yourself in this classic travelogue evoking the idyllic South of France by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. 'Full of stories, landscapes, comedy, history, heresies, animals, food, drink, and songs of the Midi.' Patrick Leigh Fermor 'A richly characteristic bouillabaisse by our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean, our old Prospero of the south.' Richard Holmes Provence, Southern France. Celebrated writer and poet Lawrence Durrell made the Midi his home for more than thirty years: and in his final book, he shares his most evocative, dazzling memories of life as a local. A seductive blend of travelogue, poet's notebook, and intimate autobiography, Durrell guides us through the rich layers of human history that lie beneath the region's legendary landscapes. From stories of magic and mythology infusing the rolling vineyards and vivid lavender fields to tales of Roman conquest, bull-worship, and courtly love beneath the wounded blue skies, Caesar's Vast Ghost is a classic memoir to be treasured.'Casts a spell ... Masterly.' Jan Morris'A virtuoso.' New York Times

Lose yourself in this dazzling travelogue of the idyllic Greek Islands by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. 'Incandescent.' André Aciman'A magician.' The Times'Invades the reader's every sense ... Remarkable.' Victoria Hislop 'Nobody knows the Greek islands like Durrell.' New York Times White-washed houses drenched in pink bougainvillea; dazzling seascapes and rugged coastlines; colourful harbours in quaint fishing villages; shady olive and cypress groves; terraces bathed in the Aegean sun ... The Greek islands conjure up a treasure-chest of images - but nobody brings them to life as vividly as the legendary travel writer Lawrence Durrell. It was during his youth in Corfu - which his brother Gerald fictionalised in My Family and Other Animals, later filmed as The Durrells In Corfu - that his love affair with the Mediterranean began. Now, in this glorious tour of the Greek islands, he weaves evocative descriptions of these idyllic landscapes with insights into their ancient history, and shares luminous personal memories of his time in the local communities. No traveller to Greece or admirer of Durrell's magic should miss it.'Masterly ... Casts a spell.' Jan Morris'Charming ... Delightful.' Sunday Times 'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' Richard Holmes'Like long letters from a civilized and very funny friend - the prose as luminous as the Mediterranean air he loves.' Time

Lose yourself in this glorious memoir of the island jewel of Corfu by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu.'In its gem-like miniature quality, among the best books ever written.' New York TimesIn his youth, before he became a celebrated writer and poet, Lawrence Durrell spent four transformative years on the island jewel of Corfu, fascinated by the idyllic natural beauty and blood-stained ancient history within its rocky shores.While his brother Gerald collected animals as a budding naturalist - later fictionalised in My Family and Other Animals and filmed as The Durrells in Corfu - Lawrence fished, drank and befriended the local villagers.After World War II catapulted him back into a turmoiled world, Durrell never forgot the wonders of Corfu. Prospero's Cell is his magical evocation of the blazing Aegean landscape, brimming with memories of the places and people that changed him forever.'Cannot be bettered ... A classic ... His words still evoke the magical qualities of the island.' Telegraph'Some writers reinvent their language; others the world. Durrell did both.' André Aciman 'Invades the reader's every sense ... Remarkable.' Victoria Hislop 'These days I am admiring and re-admiring Lawrence Durrell.' Elif Shafak'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' Richard Holmes 'Corfu could not have found a fitter chronicler.' Daily Telegraph'A charming idyll ... Delightful.' Sunday Times

When a genius inventor is seduced by a mysterious firm to create a robot, technology may save him - or be his undoing ... Lose yourself in this dystopian novel by the bestselling author of The Alexandria Quartet.'A superb craftsman and stylist.' New York TimesFelix Charlock is a world-famous inventor. His scientific genius draws him into the web of a sinister multinational corporation called Merlin who recruit him for their own ends. When Felix is married into this wealthy family, 'The Firm' sets him an impossible project, demanding that he reinvents his former lover as a living, breathing replica. But creating this perfect robot facsimile heralds a new era of destruction, threatening not only Felix's sanity, but his very existence ...Consisting of two novels - Tunc and its sequel, Numquam - The Revolt of Aphrodite is a dystopian novel of ideas, rich in mystery and drama, with an epic global sweep and dazzling cast. Showing literary master Lawrence Durrell at his most conceptually ambitious, this tale of a modern Frankenstein will revolutionise the way you view technology forever.'Scenes of wild and deliberate fantasy ... [of] peculiar and disturbing poignancy.' New Statesman 'Such readability ... Few writers can tell a story better.' Observer

'The most exhilarating surge of language, style and sordid English manners [in] literature.' DBC Pierre 'A wild, passionate, brilliantly gaudy and flamboyant extravaganza ... Richly obscene, energetically morbid, very often very funny ... Above all, stylistically and verbally inventive.' ObserverDeath Gregory has disappeared, abandoning his diaries in a seedy London hotel. Discovered by Lawrence Lucifer, they depict a clique of intellectuals living a life of squalid debauchery: struggling writers and artists consumed by loves, lusts, and a quest for innovation. But as they satisfy violent appetites of the flesh - and mind - their descent into darkness accelerates ... Written when he was only 24, Lawrence Durrell described his controversial third novel as 'a two-fisted attack on literature by an angry young man of the thirties' in which he 'first heard the sound of my own voice.' First published in Paris in 1938, it was banned in Britain for nearly four decades due to its 'obscenity' (influenced by Durrell's friend Henry Miller). Vivid, surrealist, and haunting, The Black Book peers into the recesses of our souls: and establishes Durrell as a trailblazing stylist.'Stygian prose ... Words like stones, throwing, rockerying, mossing, churning, sharpening, bloodsucking, melting, and a hard firewater flows and rolls through them.' Dylan Thomas'Genuine art ... Lavishly displays Durrell's gift of language ... Verbal brilliance.' New York Times 'The first piece of work by a new English writer to give me any hope for the future of prose fiction.' T.S. Eliot'Durrell's first major work ... Its showy brilliance is certainly that of a born writer ... Savage and obscene.'Guardian'Brilliantly strange ... It will astonish.' Independent on Sunday

Lose yourself in bestselling author Lawrence Durrell's sublime novel about a group of English tourists trapped in the minotaur's labyrinth on Crete ... 'Spellbinding ... A fine storyteller.' Guardian'Superb ... Quite simply a lovely work of art.' New York TimesA group of English tourists have come ashore from their cruise ship to explore the island of Crete. This motley crew - including a painter, spiritualist, spinster, soldier, convalescent, and elderly couple - are holidaying to seek respite from a broken post-war world. But their journey reaches a disastrous climax when they visit a cave reputed to be the legendary labyrinth of the minotaur, and become trapped within ...Set in the glorious Mediterranean landscapes which Lawrence Durrell so famously evoked in his travel writing and novels, The Dark Labyrinth is a morality tale unlike any other. Artfully blending horror and humour, comedy and tragedy, witty allegory and profound philosophy, it is a sublime novel, as refreshing today as it was decades ago. 'Superb, not only in the great passages of poetical description but also [the] casual wit and the brilliance of comment.' Observer'Will amuse those who enjoy satires on English manners and morals, engage readers who like a build-up of suspense and delight lovers of the sensuous world of the Greek islands.' New York Times

Three successive drafts of what became the novel TUNC, edited and published for the first time: "The Village of Turtle-doves", "The Placebo: An Attic Comedy" and "Dactyl".

In the first book of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, the story of the mysterious and charismatic Justine is told by her lover, an impoverished Irish teacher who has sought refuge across the Mediterranean in Greece. It is a love story, but the real heroine of the book is its setting: the city of Alexandria, with a sky of 'hot nude pearl' and a thousand streets below, crowded, sensual and exotic; a complex and heady mix of elegance and poverty.

“…the proverb says that whoever sees the world from the back of an elephant learns the secrets of the jungle and becomes a seer. I had to be content to become a poet.” —Lawrence Durrell Best known for his novels and travel writing, Lawrence Durrell defied easy classification within twentieth-century Modernism. His anti-authoritarian tendencies put him at odds with many contemporaries—aesthetically and politically. However, thanks to a compelling recontextualization by editor James Gifford, these thirty-eight previously unpublished and out-of-print essays and letters reveal that Durrell’s maturation as an artist was rich, complex, and subtle. Durrell fans will treasure this selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, Modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford’s fine editorial work. Foreword by Peter Baldwin. “Gifford’s scholarly command of the archives shows—especially his working intimacy with the unpublished archived words of Durrell’s editors, publishers, and collaborators. I have no doubt that this collection will serve as a starting point for any number of new critical ventures into the life and writing of Lawrence Durrell.” —Charles Sligh, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

A breathtaking novel of passion and politics, set in the hotbed of Palestine in the 1940s, by a master of twentieth-century fiction It is the eve of Britain’s withdrawal from Palestine in 1948, a moment that will mark the beginning of a new Israel. But the course of history is uncertain, and Israel’s territorial enemies plan to smother the new country at its birth. Judith Roth has escaped the concentration camps in Germany only to be plunged into the new conflict, one with stakes just as high for her as they are for her people. Initially conceived as a screenplay for the 1966 film starring Sophia Loren, Lawrence Durrell’s previously unpublished novel offers a thrilling portrayal of a place and time when ancient history crashed against the fragile bulwarks of the modernizing world. This book features an introduction by editor Richard Pine, which puts Judith in context with Durrell’s body of work and traces the fascinating development of the novel. Also included is an illustrated biography of Lawrence Durrell containing rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate and the British Library’s modern manuscripts collection.

Prospero's Cell: And Reflections On A Marine Venus is a travelogue written by Lawrence Durrell. The book is divided into two parts: the first part is about Durrell's time spent on the Greek island of Corfu during the 1930s, and the second part is about his experiences on the island of Rhodes during the 1940s.In the first part of the book, Durrell describes the natural beauty of Corfu and his interactions with the local people. He also writes about his efforts to learn the Greek language and his fascination with the island's history and mythology.The second part of the book focuses on Durrell's time on Rhodes during World War II. He describes the island's strategic importance during the war and the impact it had on the local population. He also writes about his own experiences as a member of the British intelligence service stationed on the island.Throughout the book, Durrell reflects on the relationship between humans and the natural world. He also explores themes of identity, culture, and the impact of history on contemporary society.Overall, Prospero's Cell: And Reflections On A Marine Venus is a beautifully written and insightful travelogue that offers a unique perspective on two Mediterranean islands and the people who call them home.Two Volumes In One.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.