Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)

4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 · rating details · 4,126 ratings · 215 reviews

Lawrence Durrell was one of the best-selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late 20th century. The Alexandria Quartet is unquestionably his most admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Alexandria. In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Ho...more

Paperback, 880 pages

Published June 2nd 2005 by Faber and Faber (first published 1961)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Complete Works by William Shakespeare

Best British Literature

127th out of 722 books — 644 voters

All kinds of classics that should be read at least once.

139th out of 300 books — 155 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 06, 2013 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jonathan by: Scribble Orca

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, classic-literature, classic-challenge-2, historical, favourites

"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. 338

Justine

A 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 from...more

like 31 likes · see review

Oct 31, 2007 John Brooks rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like books

In terms of literary achievment, I have never ever ever read any book (or, technically, four books) that surpass The Alexandria Quartet. These are my favorite books. Period.

Durrell was a master of atmosphere and voice, and if you can make it through "Justine", narrated by the story's centerpiece, the exiled Irish school teacher, Darley, you will be greatly rewarded. Darley speaks in long-winded (though often lovely) prose and is clearly self-absorbed and emotionally near-sighted. But it's fascin...more In terms of literary achievment, I have never ever ever read any book (or, technically, four books) that surpass The Alexandria Quartet. These are my favorite books. Period.

Durrell was a master of atmosphere and voice, and if you can make it through "Justine", narrated by the story's centerpiece, the exiled Irish school teacher, Darley, you will be greatly rewarded. Darley speaks in long-winded (though often lovely) prose and is clearly self-absorbed and emotionally near-sighted. But it's fascinating to be introduced to this world (Alexandria, Egypt on the eve of the second World War) and its cast of characters through the eyes of someone to whom those things are as foreign, captivating, and intimidating as they are to us. Rather than being the story of Darley, it is a story that is happening to him, and thus we have a perfect entry point.

The finest of the books are its two middle entries: Balthazar and Mountolive. Balthazar makes Justine worth reading, as it fills in all that we missed when we saw the world through Darley's naive eyes, allowing us to relive events from a very different, much darker vantage point. Reading Balthazar is a stirring, often crushing experience. We begin to identify with, and sympathize with, Darley as rest of the cast begins to become far more human than they looked through Darley's enchanted eyes.

Mountolive lets us know what all this means, on the grand scale, and suddenly the inevitable fate of all these flawed but admirable characters, the main players in their own tragedies, becomes clear. In Justine and Balthazar, Durrell paints his characters in broad strokes, especially the tragic, stoic Nassim; the complicated, fractured, and beautiful Justine; the elusive and emotionally veiled Clea; and the aristocratic soldier who finally opens himself to love, Mountolive. But by the time he hands the narrative reins over to David Mountolive, all of them, when presented on the global stage as opposed to through the selective lense of Alexandria, become small fish in a big pond, hopelessly human and hopelessly outmatched by fate. Their idyllic existence and isolationist idealism begins to show cracks as the War closes in on them.

Smartly, perhaps brilliantly, Durrell never lets us see his characters as the War ravages their lives and their ideals, perhaps because, in the context of these complicated characters, the war has already been fought. Ulitimately, bombs proved less destructive than their devastated innocence. But he does let us see his characters again in the aftermath and, finally, we get to see what they were really made of. The real story, it seems, isn't told until after its conclusion.

Durrell's Alexandria feels lived-in, as if you can hear the creeky sound of wind gently pushing boats tied to piers on the shore, prompting the stiff ropes tying them into place to stretch and breathe; as if you can see and smell the smoke rising from hookahs being smoked on the sidewalk cafes; as if you can feel the African wind blowing slightly in your hair and feel the stone on the beach walls. It's a wonderful, enchanting place with a dark, terrible cloud hanging over it and a menagerie of characters doing their best to ignore, or perhaps defy, that cloud.

Its revelations about war, human nature, love, betrayal, language, loyalty, friendship and, ultimately, survival of the spirit are unmatched anywhere in literature. Alexandria is a daunting and immersive read, but an absolutely essential one.(less)

like 34 likes · see review

Sep 12, 2012 Scribble Orca rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone who enjoys prose without the pacing of plot

Recommended to Scribble by: that's a secret

Shelves: adult-or-mature, historical, literary, major-impact, kept-me-up-all-night, romance, re-read, psychology

Being a serial book-adulterer I have fallen into and wandered out of love with an amoral number of books - but I remain forever in thrall to the Alexandria Quartet.

Of course, I may change my mind in ten years. Let's just wait and see.

like 10 likes · see review

view all 11 comments

Lynne King Read Jonathan's recent review on this book Dolors. I recall, but I may be wrong, that he said there was no plot. I thought the complete opposite. Ther...more
updated 11 hours, 11 min ago

Dolors Perhaps I'm a weak spirit who likes to follow. Yes at the time but definitely not now. I'm my own person!
I wouldn't use "weak" Lynne. We all have had...more
10 hours, 44 min ago

Dec 25, 2012 Lynne King rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, top-favo

Lawrence Durrell, to me, has to be the most celebrated English novelist of the 20th century. I’ve read all of his books but "The Alexandria Quartet" is unquestionably his most brilliant work in the period just before the Second World War in Alexandria.

It was originally four novels: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea and they have been combined into this work. I read this book about twenty years ago and I look at it from time to time just to read the exquisite style. I still love it. I think...more

like 7 likes · see review

Mar 23, 2013 AC rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modernism, novels-english-american-writers

A magnificent work, tightly constructed... it is impossible to consider these four volumes independently. Though published separately, they form a whole.

I had thought about reading this since I was 20, when I had read what Henry Miller had to say about Durrell. Of course, I would not have understood, nor been able to read this at that age.

The volume has flaws, to be sure... it is not easy to read. There are artifices in the plot. The language is often bizarre... and deliberately artificial... a...more

like 10 likes · see review

Mar 04, 2010 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

While I was reading Les Trois Mousquetaires last week, I wondered a couple of times if it had served as partial inspiration for The Alexandria Quartet. One of the cleverest things about the Dumas novel is the way he reinterprets early 17th century French history as really being about the romantic lives of Anne of Austria, on the large scene, and D'Artagnan, on the small one - a sort of Sherlock Holmes/Basil the Great Mouse Detective deal.

Here, Durrell takes the idea a step further. The first th...more

like 11 likes · see review

Jan 04, 2013 Marius Hancu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Multiple, very poetical at times, iterations on the relationships of a tight-knit group of people, the way they use/abuse and exploit each other.

Going at it from multiple POVs. Multiple cameras in action.

Also, dissecting the inter-community, inter-cultural relationships at the time, in Alexandria.

Revealing the truth, if there's one:-), gradually, onion-style. In
that dismissal of the absolute, very post-modernist.

I took a break after "Justine." "Balthazar" seems easier this time
around, and certai...more

like 3 likes · see review

Jun 22, 2012 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

“The oranges were more plentiful than usual that year. They glowed in their arbors of burnished green leaf like lanterns flickering up there among the sunny woods.” These are the first two sentences in the last volume (“Clea”) of “The Alexandria Quartet.” It has to be in the top ten or top five greatest books I have ever read. I knew one day I would have to read it but I had no idea what an amazing read it would be. At first, one almost thinks that Durrell is just showing off: great sentences co...more “The oranges were more plentiful than usual that year. They glowed in their arbors of burnished green leaf like lanterns flickering up there among the sunny woods.” These are the first two sentences in the last volume (“Clea”) of “The Alexandria Quartet.” It has to be in the top ten or top five greatest books I have ever read. I knew one day I would have to read it but I had no idea what an amazing read it would be. At first, one almost thinks that Durrell is just showing off: great sentences continually evolving and morphing into other great sentences; then, before you get to the end of the first volume, “Justine,” one realizes that this incredible feat of magical writing must have come naturally for Durrell. His words, the poetry of his words, are comparable to Shakespeare—deeply poignant, incredibly beautiful and very rewarding. At times, it is simply breathtaking (as when he compares dying—ripped apart by a bullwhip—bats to pieces of black umbrella in the wind). This is something beyond a masterpiece; it almost lives and breathes on its own; pulsating with life, love, death and the utterly romantic imagery of Alexandria, Egypt (a place I had never heard of before but has captured my fancy and now I long to go there to haunt the same streets that Durrell did long ago), just before the start of World World II. It belongs in every serious reader’s library. One can buy it as one complete book or in four separate volumes. I read one book at a time over a two month period with small breaks in between reading other books; and this system worked well for me because it allowed time for each story to resonate and to balance it with lighter reading which made getting through Durrell’s epic easier (it is dense at times but the rewards of wading through it are immeasurable). “The Alexandria Quartet” really is the world in 1100 beautifully written pages. There’s a reason why great books endure; and as the days and years go by, there will be new lucky readers who will discover Mr. Durrell's exotic vision of Alexandria, Egypt and they will want to carry the torch, in honor of this great writer, to convince others—any serious reader—to join the club and discover (like some beautiful terrain under a sumptuous rainbow) this incredibly poetic piece of literature filled with amazing and unforgettable characters.(less)

like 4 likes · see review

Mar 10, 2008 Reese rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are some stories to which one should return at intervals. I got my first taste of Durrell when I was twenty or so: I'd just described my view of the Manhattan skyline at night, and my (older, better-read) paramour (who may have had ulterior motives) said, "My God, you sound just like Durrell." I dove in and these books changed me. Just as our reflections on still water bear remarkable fidelity to us but break apart when the water roils, the Quartet reveals that what we know (or think we lo...more

like 5 likes · see review

Mar 12, 2008 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The word "epic" comes to mind when I think of The Alexandria Quartet. I read it several years ago when I was about 20, and I recognized then as I do now that it is largely above my head. That is not to say that it was not worth reading; I know that with each re-read I will glean more from this sweeping collection. I'm certain that everyone, no matter how well-read they are, will equally gain more from each re-read.

P.S. If only Alexandria today was the stuff of the Quartet...minus child brothels,...more

like 2 likes · see review

Feb 17, 2013 Max rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century

The Alexandria Quartet is often profound and beautiful but at times becomes boring and banal. We are treated to a unique and deep exploration of one’s perception of reality. There are also fine evocative descriptions of an ancient Middle Eastern city and the power of place and setting on ones feelings. The low points occur when Durrell’s descriptions are simply too much or over the top, for example, “Or the tired ice-cream of poems which cry themselves to sleep in the refrigerators of the mind?”...more

like 2 likes · see review

Nov 26, 2011 Psheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've loved Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet" since I was first an undergraduate. I don't recall how I heard of it, but I had all four volumes in mass amrket paperbacks with elegantly sexy and vaguely Art Nouveau covers and sat in my rooms at university just being amazed at what Durrell could do with language--- and discovering C.P. Cavafy's poetry via Durrell.
I've re-read the Quartet three of four times since then, and every time it's a new Alexandria, a new story. Part of that is that I'm older,...more

like 3 likes · see review

Mar 29, 2011 Jon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Looking 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 th...more Looking 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 the fragrances, and taste on the wind both the dust of the desert and the salt of the Mediterranean Sea. He also can let his prose run away with him--"[He found himself] a prey to gravitational forces which lie inherent in the time-spring of our acts, making them spread, ramify and distort themselves; making them spread as a stain will spread upon a white ceiling." Block that metaphor! In spite of occasional excesses like this, Durrell rendered me as helplessly enchanted as the five-star readers, but eventually as irritated as the two-stars. This work is about everything, and thus about nothing in particular. It is about memory and its illusions; about every form of love you can imagine, including brother-sister incest; about faith and betrayal, both human and religious; about art and its causes (supernatural forces? genius? luck? work?); about the inadequacy of words for accurate communication (he complains at one point that even his wonderful descriptions are only the verbal equivalent of a monochrome snapshot); about the impossibility of ever capturing truth by means of memory and expression. After a thousand pages, I was hoping for some resolution, some admission that, although the truth is not possible, we can at least make better and better approximations; but resolution would have been untrue to the fundamental claims the work was trying to make. I have a friend who has read this work three times since it came out around 1960, with a different (but always admiring) view of it each time. I can see possibly tackling it again in 10 years or so, but right now I've absorbed all I can.(less)

like 5 likes · see review

Sep 05, 2010 Sarah Magdalene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"What is the object of writing?"
"To grow a personality which in the end enables a man to transcend art".
From Laurence Durrells' Alexandrian Quartet, which is a magical and powerful book, and a great tonic for artists. Of course you can substitute any creative act for writing. Writing is the most dangerous one I think because as he points out "Words kill love". This is why I have had to stop reviewing music, because I really have no time to waste talking about music I don't love.

He is as awing as...more

like 1 like · see review

Aug 29, 2010 KeithTalent rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You could never mistake it for a happy book. The sexual provender which lies to hand is staggering in its variety and profusion. For there are more than five sexes and only Durrell seems to distinguish among them. The symbolic lovers of the free Hellenic world are replaced here by something different, something subtly androgynous, inverted upon itself. Durrell cannot rejoice in the sweet anarchy of the body - for he has outstripped the body. 'The Alexandria Quartet' is the great winepress of lov...more

like 1 like · see review

Aug 18, 2010 Russell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a set of four novels (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea) that are meant to be read together as one work. The setting is Alexandria, Egypt during the World War II years. The plot involves various European expats and native Alexandrians who weave in and out of each other's lives in a slowly evolving web of mystery, tragedy, and passion. But this novel's innovative structure is almost more important than the plot. Instead of creating a straight forward time-based narrative, Durrell o...more

like 2 likes · see review

Jan 27, 2010 Roy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is hard to imagine a novel in the English language published in the last 60 year that comes even knee high to Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet. It is at once a psychological thriller, an exploration into the human heart ("Tell me who it was who invented the human heart," Justine asks, "and show me the tree where he was hanged.") It is involving, hysterically funny, and often frightening. Though I have no patience with the so-called "occult," there are a couple of supernatural passages in Alex...more It is hard to imagine a novel in the English language published in the last 60 year that comes even knee high to Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet. It is at once a psychological thriller, an exploration into the human heart ("Tell me who it was who invented the human heart," Justine asks, "and show me the tree where he was hanged.") It is involving, hysterically funny, and often frightening. Though I have no patience with the so-called "occult," there are a couple of supernatural passages in Alexandria that scared the socks off me. And of course Durrell's prose - which verges on poetry throughout - is overwhelming.

Back in the paleolithic era - when I thought that chasing skirts might be an acceptable Major and that Jack Daniel's was a fine thirst-quencher - I was quenching my thirst with a gaggle of buddies and solving the world's ills when the issue came up that people, rather than being black or white were actually shades of gray.

I went home and pondered this.

At our next bull session, I said, no, people aren't shades of gray. We're more like gemstones. Not that we're particularly valuable, but that we're multi-faceted. Depending on where you're standing, you'll see a different side - and a different series of facets - of a person than the guy standing next to you will see. And depending on the light, the way the person you're viewing stands, and your own attitude, the other person's facets will refract or reflect light back to you that is not always the same for others. Or even the same to you, if you'll come back the next day for a new view. In fact, much of the light coming back to you may even be reflected from you as the source, so you're seeing yourself in the other. And of course, every day and every perspective create a new and different person, so that "shades of gray" are simplistic.

And thus it is with The Alexandria Quartet. As you go deeper and deeper into the novel, you realize more and more that your initial opinion was wrong, and you become more and more accepting of what at first you might have called "character flaws," but now realize are simply human attributes.

I read Alexandria when it was first published back in 1960 or so, then re-read it about two years ago. The re-read was even more stirring than my original reading, and I became convinced that this was better than anything I'd read in the ensuing years.

If you've a taste for romance, poetry, political intrigue, psychological thrillers, and the truths of the human heart, I cannot think of a book more suitable.

rh(less)

like 1 like · see review

Jan 21, 2010 Jessie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first read the Quartet almost ten years ago, while travelling in Europe. I've been thinking about them a lot lately, and the time for a re-read is near. It will be interesting to see how they hold up. Durrell's prose is fevered and lush; his Alexandria is the real protagonist of the work. Writers who can so richly and completely evoke a place with their words have always inspired me, and Durrell is no exception.

From the first few pages of Justine:

As for me I am neither happy nor unhappy; I l

...more

like 1 like · see review

Aug 11, 2009 Sean Gainford rated it 1 of 5 stars

What is he talking about?

'But there are more than five sexes and only demotic Greek seems to distinguish among them. The sexual provender which lies to hand is staggering in its variety and profusion. You would never mistake it for a happy place. The symbolic lovers of the free Hellenic world are replaced here by something different, something subtly androgynous, inverted upon itself. The Orient cannot rejoice in the sweet anarchy of the body - for it has outstripped the body [...:] Alexandria w...more What is he talking about?

'But there are more than five sexes and only demotic Greek seems to distinguish among them. The sexual provender which lies to hand is staggering in its variety and profusion. You would never mistake it for a happy place. The symbolic lovers of the free Hellenic world are replaced here by something different, something subtly androgynous, inverted upon itself. The Orient cannot rejoice in the sweet anarchy of the body - for it has outstripped the body [...:] Alexandria was the great winepress of love; those who emerged from it were the sick men, the solitaries, the prophets - I mean all who have bee deeply wounded in the sex.'

'Empty cadences of sea-water licking its own wounds, sulking along the mouths of the delta, boiling upon those deserted beaches - empty, forever empty under the gulls: white scribble on the grey, munched by clouds. If there are ever sails here they die before the land shadows them. Wreckage washed up on the pediments of islands, the last crust, eroded by the weather, stuck in the blue maw of water ... gone!'

'Our common actions in reality are simply the sackcloth covering which hides the cloth-of-gold - the meaning of the pattern. For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to invade destiny, as the ordinary people try to do, but to fulfil it in its true potential - the imagination.'

'Days became simply the spaces between dreams, spaces between the shifting floors of time, of acting, of living out the topical ... a tide of meaningless affairs nosing along the dead level of things, entering no climate, leading us nowhere, demanding of us nothing save the impossible - that we should be. Justine would say that we had been trapped in the projection of a will too powerful and too deliberate to be human - the gravitational field which Alexandria threw down about those it had chosen as its exemplars ...'

This book goes on and on like this. Supposedly this Lawrence Durrell fellow was not a very good poet. So it seems like he wrote a novel instead, however this was only a disguise, for he has infiltrated his bad poetry into his novel. Then readers would be tricked, thinking they were reading a novel but really they were just reading his bad poetry again. I'm not fooled though. I see his bad poetry, and now see his bad prose.

I refuse to read more then twenty pages of this book, and even that was too much.

A pretentious piece of work.
(less)

like 1 like · see review

Apr 02, 2009 Keith Miller rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alexandria, egypt, favorites

With its non-linear structure, sensuous prose, and cast of characters buffeted and beleaguered by love, this tetralogy is one of the masterworks of the twentieth century, and remains the finest work of literature to emerge from Alexandria.

Durrell jotted notes toward his "Alexandria novel" in the tower of the Ambron Villa, but began writing Justine, which he initially called his "Book of the Dead," in Cyprus in 1953. Soon after their arrival in Cyprus, Eve Cohen, Durrell's second wife, became dep...more With its non-linear structure, sensuous prose, and cast of characters buffeted and beleaguered by love, this tetralogy is one of the masterworks of the twentieth century, and remains the finest work of literature to emerge from Alexandria.

Durrell jotted notes toward his "Alexandria novel" in the tower of the Ambron Villa, but began writing Justine, which he initially called his "Book of the Dead," in Cyprus in 1953. Soon after their arrival in Cyprus, Eve Cohen, Durrell's second wife, became depressed, then psychotic. Durrell had her confined in a hospital in Germany, and brought his mother to Cyprus to help him with Sappho, his daughter with Eve. Rising at four-thirty am, he wrote in longhand so as not to wake Sappho, before leaving to start teaching at seven. He typed out his week's work on weekends. In a letter to Henry Miller, he noted "never have I worked under such adverse conditions," but commented also: "I have never felt in better writing form."

Justine investigates its characters by laying down scenes and moments with little concern for chronology; instead, like a mosaic, the pieces link up to form a whole. This broken, cluttered style echoes the love lives of the characters, who are continually floundering within relationships: deceitful, forlorn, exhausted, cynical. Justine, the central character, is based on Eve, to whom the book is dedicated, and it is her portrait that emerges most fully, though there are no caricatures in the Quartet. The prose is miraculous, the metaphors always fresh, ideas and images crushed together to form an angular beauty.

Eve left Durrell before he had finished Justine, but he shortly thereafter met Claude Vincendon, who had grown up in Alexandria. Inspired by her love and memories, he completed Justine, and conceived the idea of a series of books "using the same people in different combinations." Balthazar is the equal of Justine in its imagery and investigation of character; of the tetralogy, these two are closest in spirit. Mountolive, more traditional in its storytelling, relates the love affair between David Mountolive, a British civil servant, and Leila, a married Copt. Clea, an homage to Claude, and dedicated to her, moves forward in time. Darley, the narrator of Justine, returns to Alexandria after the war, where he falls in love with Clea Montis, and they reminisce about their acquaintances. Less successful than the previous three in some ways, it nevertheless contains some vivid scenes, and the writing remains delicious.

Justine was an instant critical and popular success upon its publication. The Quartet cemented Durrell's reputation and made him a perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize.(less)

like 1 like · see review

Oct 24, 2011 Veronica rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Veronica by: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels

I was somewhat taken aback by the volume of this tetralogy, but as I’ve taken on such challenges before and managed to survive, I wasn’t overly concerned…I should have been. Needless to say, I only got through the 1st of 4 and have no intention of returning to the remainders.

A new understanding came to me while I slogged through this tome. I could never understand anyone who didn’t enjoy reading and truly pitied those who struggle to get through a few pages. Reading for me is something I must do...more

like · see review

Apr 04, 2011 Daryl rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first novel in this series, Justine, sets the stage for the rest of the quartet. Durrell was a poet and the language is quite beautiful and sometimes overwhelming. Unfortunately, the language makes the events hard to understand, follow, or frankly care much about. Durrell seems more interested in his writing style than in actually telling the story clearly. The second novel, Balthazar, covers the same time frame and many of the same events (though given Durrell's style, it’s hard to tell oft...more

like · see review

Jan 22, 2008 Adrienne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have no idea what these books are about, but that's exactly the kind of books I like. The emphasis is on the beauty of every single sentence and the imagery that results, not on plot. These books are truly beautiful and would definitely choose them if I were stranded on a desert island as I could read them over a million times.

like 2 likes · see review

Aug 12, 2011 Kevin Tole rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, britlit, contemporary-novels, favourites

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 concer...more

like · see review

Jan 13, 2013 Cynthia Karl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

High marks for superb writing, excellent vocabulary - this is no dumbed down book for the masses although it was a best seller at the time it was published. Not so high marks for the story line although reviews say it was considered experimental writing in that the four books that comprise the "Quartet" are written from different points of view - the characters in all of the books are the same. The books were published in the 1950's and no doubt the sex and the interchangeable sex partners were...more

like · see review

Apr 17, 2009 Claire S marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Recommended to Claire by: CCLaP, GR Reviews

Shelves: a-4-gathering-info, cclap-100, classics, fictionalized-history, f_interpretations, form_complexia, global, historical, novel, philosophy, pol-historical, war-mltry-conflt-occ

from wikipedia:
The Alexandria Quartet is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the books present four perspectives on a single set of events and characters in Alexandria, Egypt, before and during World War II.

As Durrell explains in his preface to Balthazar, the four novels are an exploration of relativity and the notions of continuum and subject-object relation, with modern love as the subject. The Quartet of...more

like · see review

Oct 11, 2009 Phae rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A four-book series—Justine, Mountolive, Clea and Balthazar—which revolves around characters both in power and on the peripheries of power in post-WWII Alexandria. Justine and Mountolive deal most directly with political espionage and betrayal, and various factions are unveiled from the British Consul to Israelites to Coptic Christians to Muslims. Clea and Balthazar are more about Le Beau Monde, the artists and writers who are pawns in vaster political machinations, rather than direct actors. Non...more

like 1 like · see review

Apr 09, 2009 Ariel Evans rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Alexandria Quartet is so well-written that for me to write about Durrell's tetrology seems sacrilege; I feel as the proverbial bull in the china shop must've. But the reviews here on Goodreads--at least the ones I've read so far--don't say much about what I love about this series, so I throw my hat in the ring anyway:

The amazing thing about Durrell's masterpiece is that it comes as close to collage as I've ever seen in a novel. Narrated by a self-exiled writer living on a small island in the...more The Alexandria Quartet is so well-written that for me to write about Durrell's tetrology seems sacrilege; I feel as the proverbial bull in the china shop must've. But the reviews here on Goodreads--at least the ones I've read so far--don't say much about what I love about this series, so I throw my hat in the ring anyway:

The amazing thing about Durrell's masterpiece is that it comes as close to collage as I've ever seen in a novel. Narrated by a self-exiled writer living on a small island in the Aegean, Justine (the first book in the series), is the writer's manuscript and meditation on his former life in Alexandria and the events that led up to his current seclusion. The writer's name, which I will use for clarity, is Darley, but this is not revealed until at least the third book in the quartet, which I have not gotten to reread yet. Balthazar (book 2), begins when Darley's Alexandrine friend Balthazar returns with his own interlinear of Darley's manuscript, which reveals more complicated perspectives and relationships than Darley had been privy to: it is the story began in Justine retold through the memories of two people.

As I said, I haven't read Mountolive (book 3) or Clea yet. I understand, however, that Mountolive again retells the same events; it is only in Clea that the narrative moves forward in time. On wikipedia--and this is a well-accepted interpretation of the series--it says:

As Durrell explains in his preface to Balthazar, the four novels are an exploration of relativity and the notions of continuum and subject-object relation, with modern love as the subject. ... In a 1959 Paris Review interview[1:], Durrell described the ideas behind the Quartet in terms of a convergence of Eastern and Western metaphysics, based on Einstein's overturning of the old view of the material universe, and Freud's doing the same for the concept of stable personalities, yielding a new concept of reality.

The multilayeredness of The Alexandria Quartet comes out of the winding and unwinding of the narratives, but also out of the depth Durrell gives to his characters and their setting. Telling their lives through multiple viewpoints, each person and place feels more real--it is a book that extends into the life of its readers. At the same time, every attempt to grasp the book and hold it in the mind eludes me; just at its most "real, it is at its most illusory. , just as Durrell describes his titular city, is a mirage.

Addendum: getting to the end of the book, I am becoming annoyed by Durrell's orientalism and sexism.
(less)

like · see review

Sep 23, 2012 Jess Kogel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read this books shortly after traveling to Egypt prior to HS. During my travels I read On the Road by Kerouac, many short stores by Bukowski, and then the Motorcycle diaries and Easy Rider. The great detail in which these authors went into describing the landscape and their travels pulled me to want to travel more but also relive which I just came back from. The quartet did that for me. It brought me back to Egypt with it's vivid descriptions but also details story.

I could throw this in with the...more

like · see review

Oct 03, 2012 Ursula rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is daunting to write a review about 'The Alexander Quartet', it's rather like photographing a sunset, you have to be there.

At the beginning of 2000 I was given a copy of the Waterstone's top 100 Books of the century list. At that point I had read 20 something of the books on the list and set a goal to read them all. Some books have introduced me to now loved authors like Nick Hornby, some I just didn't get and 2 I found utterly unreadable namely Ulysses and A Brief History of Time.

I started '...more It is daunting to write a review about 'The Alexander Quartet', it's rather like photographing a sunset, you have to be there.

At the beginning of 2000 I was given a copy of the Waterstone's top 100 Books of the century list. At that point I had read 20 something of the books on the list and set a goal to read them all. Some books have introduced me to now loved authors like Nick Hornby, some I just didn't get and 2 I found utterly unreadable namely Ulysses and A Brief History of Time.

I started 'The Alexander Quartet' a year ago but soon put it aside. Three months ago I hauled it out again to take on the challenge.

I really struggled with the dense writing and found the 1st and 2nd books very hard to get through. For a period I set myself the task to get through at least 10 pages a day. Toward the end of the 3rd book 'Mountolive' I became truly aware of the brilliance of the work. It felt like being in an opticians chair with those owl frames in front of my eyes, as the book progressed new lenses fell into the frame giving clarity of vision.

Reading most books is rather like scanning a picture from one side to the other. Reading 'The Alexander Quartet' is like watching an artist at work from start to finish, seeing layer upon layer of paint being applied and colours balancing each other. It's an arduous process, at times boring but ultimately a privilege to witness.

I did get a sense that like Virginia Woolfe Lawrence Durrell is a bit smug about his skill but you don't have to like him to respect him.

The 1st 3 books deal with the same characters and time frame seen from different angles and perspectives. The last moves forward in time. His character development can only be bettered by John Irving in 'A Prayer for Owen Meany'. I can't say that I really cared for any of the characters but they were perfectly drawn.

If the book did not take 3 months to read and I didn't have a month old e reader waiting for attention from me I would be tempted to turn straight back to the 1st page and start it over again. The only other book I've ever done that with was 'The God of Small Things'.

It would make a perfect desert island book but right now I am behind on my reading and 'too many books, too little time.' Now I'm off to download the lightest fluffiest chick lit book I can find and play with my waiting e reader(less)

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (22)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

29 users

Historical Fiction

24 users

Novels

15 users

Cultural > Egypt

15 users

Literature

11 users

Literary Fiction

8 users

Cultural > Africa

8 users

European Literature > British Literature

6 users

Modern

5 users

Classics > Classic Literature

3 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Lawrence Durrell

Born in Jalandhar, British India, in 1912 to Indian-born British colonials, Lawrence Durrell was a critically hailed and beloved novelist, poet, humorist, and travel writer best known for the Alexandria Quartet novels, which were ranked by the Modern Library as among the greatest works of English literature in the twentieth century. A passionate and dedicated writer from an early age, Durrell’s pr...more

More about Lawrence Durrell...

Books by Lawrence Durrell

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Alexandria Qu...

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Alexandria Quartet

“Gamblers and lovers really play to lose.” — 18 people liked it

“Science is the poetry of the intellect and poetry the science of the heart's affections.” — 15 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Alexandria Quartet
avg rating	preview: The Alexandria Quartet Goodreads rating: 4.21 (4126 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/856439.The_Alexandria_Quartet?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348367769l/856439.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/856439.The_Alexandria_Quartet?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell[/url]

The Alexandria Quartet (Alexandria Quartet #1-4)

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website