Lawrence Durrell

Story of the modern Egyptian city of Alexandria, in which an Irish schoolmaster, a passionate, tormented Jewess, a Greek cabaret dancer, and a Coptic financier play out their destinies amid decadent surroundings symbolic of an erotic world.

British Ambassador David Mountolive enters the intrigues of the interwoven community of characters.

A scientist discovers that his famous invention leads to a dangerous outcome. Felix Charlock's scientific genius is unrivaled, and so is his very special invention. So special, in fact, that a shadowy and enigmatic international firm, called Merlin, recruits Felix and marries him into the family. He is betrothed to the erratic Merlin heiress, Benedicta, and given access to an inexhaustible fortune. Yet he longs to be free of the psychological and...

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 native land. With family in tow, he departed for Greece, and spent the rest of his life wandering the world. He traveled not to sightsee but to live, and made...

With the Second World War over, a weary Durrell seeks peace on an ancient isle. Islomania is a disease not yet classified by Western science, but to those afflicted its symptoms are all too recognizable. Men like Lawrence Durrell are struck by a powerful need to live on the ancient islands of the Mediterranean, where the clear blue Aegean is always within reach. After four tortuous wartime years in Egypt, Durrell finds a post on the island of Rhodes,...

Who will survive the Labyrinth of Crete? A group of English cruise-ship tourists debark to visit the isle of Crete's famed labyrinth, the City in the Rock. The motley gathering includes a painter, a poet, a soldier, an elderly married couple, a medium, a convalescent girl, and the mysterious Lord Gracean. The group is prepared for a trifling day of sightseeing and maybe even a glimpse of the legendary Minotaur, but instead is suddenly stuck in a nightmare...

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...

Durrell's remarkable memoir of his spiritual journey with famed Taoist philosopher Jolan Chang. Beginning with their first meeting over lunch at Lawrence Durrell's Provencal home, Durrell and Jolan Chang, renowned Taoist philosopher and expert on Eastern sexuality, developed an enduring relationship based on mutual spiritual exploration. Durrell's autobiographical rumination on their friendship and on Taoism recounts the author's existential ponderings,...

Lawrence Durrell's complete Alexandria Quartet, a story of passion and betrayal that stands as one of the most acclaimed and beloved works of twentieth-century fiction. The Alexandria Quartet is a striking and sensuous masterpiece, breathing vivid life into each of its unforgettable characters and the dusty Mediterranean city in which they live. Set in Alexandria, Egypt, in the years before, during, and after World War II, the books follow the lives...

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,...