The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea

Read this book for the first time when I was 18. Reread it for the 3rd time! Each time I read it I find new treasures of insight into the human psyche.

I'm immersed in the first book, Justine, and feel as if I'm drowning. It's remotely pleasant, delightfully overwritten and so very self-indulgent - both in the case of the writer and the reader too. If it doesn't add several layers to your vocabulary you're not paying attention.

The book was in excellent condition for a second hand book. I liked the way the book had been sealed in a protective covering.Prompt delivery. Very happy with my purchase.

I have read the first book 'Justine'. The style reminded me a little of Somerset Maugham but with less pace. Lawrence Durell has a painterly eye for setting and detail. There are tragic & comic characters. Like many deliberately literary novels it is introspective, indulgent and self regarding. This may seem harsh but these are character traits which I recognise in myself and which I suspect many self aware confident inteliigent people have. There are many passages which I highlighted and marked on my kindle as being very perceptive and beautifully phrased. A very polished writer will many good insights into the human condition.

I found this book to be fascinating, although difficult to read. The style is rather turgid and the themes skip around. However, the characters are unusual and interesting and the descriptions of Alexandria and other parts of Egypt are beautiful and evocative. Having been to a Paul Klee exhibition immediately after finishing the book, I was stuck by the similarity between the colours used by the artist, which were inspired by his visit to Tunisia, and the colours used by Durrell in this book. He loved violet and used it frequently in his descriptions. Fascinatingly Durrell seemed to like one-eyed people. Perhaps a psychologist could explain this tendency. Clearly, Alexandria has changed tremendously between the time in which it is set (late 1930s early 1940s) and the present day, so the book is of historical relevance. The stories and characters all have a rather mystic quality, even the weird and very funny ones. Yes, the book, though intense, is far from devoid of humour. It is well worth reading. I thouight it great.

There is always a good reason to return to fine literature. This quartet echoes to the Egyptian heat in the early part of last century and the scenes seem so thoroughly of that time it highlights how much has been lost, especially in the last few years. Durrell's minutely observed work is so well crafted that it is possible to stop reading mid chapter and pick it up after several days to be drawn right back into the story; the mark of a good book. The complexities of the characters woven into a rich tapestry, plucked from an age when people were allowed to grow as flamboyant personalities and cities were not sanitized for tourists, might not be so well created were it not for the brilliant sweep of Durrell's pen. Sad that Alexandria of that age is no more, wonderful that the genius of Durrell could capture it. Read it slowly savouring the poetry of each word.

Read this when it first came out and I was a great deal more impressionable then than I am now. Still a beautiful 'read' because of the language and, even if it is vastly over-written, the prose is still a pleasure and well worth the effort. The descriptions of Alexandria, alone, are breathtaking and one is inevitably drawn to the sad conclusion that many modern best sellers are popular because of the journalistic style in which they are written. If you don't like adverbs, don't waste your angst on reading this but if you are happy to be transported to another world in another time,make the effort, it's worth it.

I remember my mother reading this book and saying that it was one of the best books she had read and would be one of the great classics and now after all these years I have also read it and have to say she is right. At first it is a bit daunting with all the strange pre war characters and their somewhat bizaar lifestyles but as you get drawn in and book by book you unfold the different perspectives of events you can only marvel at Lawrence Durrell's literary skill, the extraordinarily beautiful descriptions of places and events and the masterly prose of a truly fascinating series of novels that make up this quartet.

Adoro este cuarteto de Alejandría

Tetralogy constructed on Einsteinian principles with first three novels giving three spatial dimensions of the story & the fourth novel the time dimension. Exquisite use of similes & metaphors.

Gran libro.

This is, without doubt, one of the finest quartet of novels ever written. An absorbing tale told from different views by characters in the first novel (Justine). For those interested, Justine was also made into a less than absorbing movie with Dirk Bogarde playing the part of the English schoolteacher narrator. Buy the book, don't buy the movie!

Quelques réserves sur l'édition: une préface hasardeuse, et presque dilettante; une impression minuscule, mais inévitable au vu de la volonté d'ailleurs louable de publier ensemble les quatre "tomes" du Quartet. Les notes sont très utiles, notamment les extraits des carnets de Durrell, fascinants, quoiqu'à trop dévoiler le cheminement de l'auteur ils risquent, comme toujours, de dévaluer l'objet fini en révélant sa structure interne. Dernière remarque sur l'édition: un système de notes groupées en fin de volume serait beaucoup plus pratique que la stratégie adoptée ici, de mettre à la fin de chacun des quatre tomes les notes afférentes.Sur le fond, que dire... Il faut s'attendre à griffonner sur chaque page de ce malheureux bouquin; à recevoir des claques qu'on oublie aussitôt. Alors, bien sûr, les penchants de Durrell sont un peu "faciles". De l'exceptionnel à foison, du baroque jusqu'à plus soif; d'interminables rondes introspectives, d'inlassables tentatives d'approcher les objets de l'intrigue (les protagonistes, les sentiments, l'enchaînement des circonstances) par tous les côtés possibles et imaginables - mais ceux qui seront amenés à lire ce livre auront, d'une façon ou d'une autre, un goût déjà fait pour ce genre de choses. Quel qu'en soit son objet - Alexandrie, Justine, l'égo du narrateur-, ce livre vise surtout à prouver que, dans la réalité véritable qu'il revient à un auteur de savoir approcher, les angles d'attaque sont infinis, et tous valables chacun à leur façon.Aussi, ce penchant un peu trop "facile" qui dérive vite en onanisme abstrait, en une jungle invivable de ruminations, Durrell l'emprunte avec une ampleur, une impudeur, une effronterie et une vanité telles que le résultat n'est pas autre chose qu'une démonstration. Même les maladresses y contribuent. Ce livre est une mer sans fin dont l'objet premier est d'affirmer qu'elle peut exister, être publiée, sans avoir besoin, justement, de fin.