Clea

by Lawrence Durrell, Jan Morris (introduction)

289 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 12, 2012

About the author

Lawrence George 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 prolific career also included the groundbreaking Avignon Quintet, whose first novel, Monsieur (1974), won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and whose third novel, Constance (1982), was nominated for the Booker Prize. He also penned the celebrated travel memoir Bitter Lemons of Cyprus (1957), which won the Duff Cooper Prize. Durrell corresponded with author Henry Miller for forty-five years, and Miller influenced much of his early work, including a provocative and controversial novel, The Black Book (1938). Durrell died in France in 1990.

The time Lawrence spent with his family, mother Louisa, siblings Leslie, Margaret Durrell, and Gerald Durrell, on the island of Corfu were the subject of Gerald's memoirs and have been filmed numerous times for TV.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lawrence Durrell's Clea is the fourth and last volume of the author's Alexandria Quartet. I first red the Quartet in the late 1960s, soon after I came to live in Los Angeles. Re-readng the series after over half a century has re-confirmed my appreciation of its quality, but even more it has made me realize how much I have changed over the years.

In this volume, the narrator, Darley, tells of his relationship with the artist Clea (no last name), a relationship that frays just as his relationships with Melissa and Justine frayed. We also meet the blind sister (and lover) of the writer Pursewarden, who has committed suicide -- although we learn a lot more about him. We see a lot of the Jewish mystagogue Balthazar and discover that the dead cross-dresser cop Scobie is now venerated as the Islamic saint El Scob, with his own holiday. Nessim and Justine, on the other hand, almost disappear into the background.

It is well worth reading the Quartet -- and even re-reading it.