The Greek Islands

by Lawrence Durrell

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

Genres: Travel, Greece, Nonfiction, History, British Literature, Mythology, Essays

326 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 1978

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

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lawrence Durrell nasceu em 1912 na Índia. Aos 11 anos foi estudar para a Inglaterra, onde começou a escrever poesia. Em 1935 casou-se e mudou-se com a mulher para a ilha grega de Corfu, no mar Jónico, entre a Grécia e a Itália, onde viveu até à invasão da Grécia pela Itália fascista em 1940. Em 1945 regressou a Rodes com uma segunda mulher, onde residiu mais dois anos. Durante esses anos fez várias viagens pelas ilhas gregas, que mais tarde serviram de matéria para a escrita d'As Ilhas Gregas, que foi publicado em 1978.

Comecei a ler este livro como preparação para uma viagem à Grécia, e li muitas partes a navegar pelo mar Egeu, saltando de capítulo para capítulo, de ilha para ilha, à imagem do meu próprio caminho. Às tantas as minhas palavras e impressões começaram a acrescentar-se às de Durrell, quando se tornou prático usar o exemplar que levava como diário de viagem além de guia. A lombada ficou gasta, as páginas ficaram marcadas com o sal do mediterrâneo e as lágrimas de olhos lusos. Se o abrir, creio que consigo sentir todos esses aromas, mais o das mesas onde me sentei a comer e a beber, e talvez irradiem até dos capítulos respectivos os últimos raios de Sol que recebemos em cada ilha que visitámos, que o Sol nas ilhas do Egeu não é sempre o mesmo, ou soprem fragmentos do Zéfiro e do Bóreas. Deixar-me guiar por Durrell foi um deleite, um viajante solitário não poderia desejar melhor companhia. Abri-lo-ei para novas leituras quando tornar a navegar pelos mares da Grécia, ou se a saudade se tornar tão grande que o aumento exponencial que a leitura antecipada me causasse pouco acrescentasse em comparação. Que felicidade haver escritores assim!

[Milan Trpkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sjajna knjiga da u mislima obiđete Grčka ostrva, sve dok se ne pripremite za jednu veliku avanturu i redom ih obilazite :)

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dijelom putopis, dijelom memoarska proza, prožeta citatima i crticama iz povijesti, s bilješkama iz etnologije, botanike, pomorstva. zanimljiva knjiga za lagano čitanje, svakako ne nešto što se može progutati u dahu. Nostalgično prisjećanje na vrijeme kojeg više nema.

[Julian Worker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book covers all the islands of Greece, however I don't like the book.

The book weaves together myth, history, and personal reminiscences, but it's too uneven for my liking.

Having been to some of these islands, I can say that Folegandros is worth more of a mention than "Folegandros is another which would appeal only to solitaries."

and that Amorgos is not a sinister island with little to commend it.

Of course, Durrell has plenty to say about Corfu where he lived and other larger islands such as Crete and Rhodes, but a skilled writer should be able to manufacture some meaningful stories about all the islands included in the book, otherwise why include them? For inclusiveness of course, to say this book covers all the islands, of course, supported by the critiques on the back cover, saying Durrell had been 'everywhere'.

I'd be ashamed if I visited a place and all I could write was that it was sinister or I'd wilt like a geranium if I was forced to stay there for any length of time.

Lawrence Durrell joins Joseph Conrad and Virginia Woolf on my authors to avoid list.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*

'Nobody knows the Greek islands like Durrell.' NYT - ... are you SUURE about that?
'Invades the reader's every sense... Remarkable' V. Hislop - VH, I trusted you. Did we read a different book?

I feel like my recent reviews have all been ranty, even when I did like the book, so I want to try to avoid that here. Even though...

The good things ->

LD's writing is really easy to read, with some really good descriptions of nature in particular. He visits/mentions most of the inhabited islands, rather than sticking to a few big ones and devotes a couple of paragraphs atl to each of them. Furthermore, considering the time period this book was written, you get glimpses of an older Greece, before big touristic developments really started, as well as some insight into the tourists/travellers of those days.

The... not-so-good things ->

Slight warning, my reading experience may have been colored by my impression of the writer himself. That impression is: he really likes himself and the sound of his own voice/opinions.

At the start of the book, LD describes this book as a personal guide, with information about things you would have wanted to know while there/you would have been sad to miss. While it's certainly a personal guide, I can't say I found the rest of that description in the book. For a big part, this book reads like one of St. Fry's books on Greek Mythology, constantly going back to talk about some mythological/historical tidbit that can go on for several pages.

In general, it felt like most of the information and/or locations that were worth a visit to LD, were related to archeology. Very little was said in general about more recent history, though occasionally churches in particular were named. This could be an indication that a lot of current sites (e.g. Venetian castles) were not restored at the time and therefore not open to visitors. His language when mentioning that a place might not be of interest to a visitor, was really dismissive. This def made the book feel even more like a tourist guide rather than a more general book on the islands.

My main issue with this book was LD's way of talking about the Greeks. It seemed to me that Greeks fall in three categories for him: the few intellectuals that he has great admiration for (funnily enough, most of those live in Athens or Corfu, LD's favorite island), the noble Greek people that to him are the descendants of the Ancient Greeks and... the peasants. Oh boy, does he love to use that term, in some cases while describing them (either in general or a specific 'funny' case he interacted with) in less-than-savory terms.

In general, whatever he says about the people of Greece, even when it seems positive, it feels condescending and definitely reeks of the 'noble savage' stereotype. His occasional 'compliments' are highly misogynistic. He speaks of Schliemann and Evans, while completely ignoring Minos Kalokairinos: he was a Cretan and the man who ACTUALLY found Knossos, Evans continued his excavations. And for a man who spend so much time and lived in Greece, to admit that he speaks very little decent Greek while regaling us with tales of his exploits and occasional law-breaking, really doesn't paint a good picture.

There's also errors like:
-Aesculapion, instead of Asclypeion; for some reason he uses the Latin version
-panagyri instead of panigiri, which seems to suggest the word is related to Panagia (title of Virgin Mary) which isn't the case
-tipoty, instead of tipota for nothing
and more.

All in all, while not a terrible book that might give you a quick, though outdated, overview of the islands, I really cannot recommend it.

[Duško · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dreamy nostalgic reminiscence of Greece before the arrival of tourism en masse. Durrell, for the most part, manages to find a perfect balance between the informational and the descriptional value he presents to the reader. Partly an autobiographical novel, partly a tourist guide and partly a pop-anthropology, this book makes a perfect read for anyone vacationing on any of the islands covered in the book (but especially Crete or Rhodes), or longing to be there. Once finished with reading, one feels less like a tourist and more like a distant cousin from far away revisiting the land of his forefathers, which he knows only from stories - quite familiar but still fairly unknown and waiting to be intimately explored, which makes a great call to adventure.

[Danielle Aleixo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Livro que atinge o fim proposto: um tour escrito bem humorado, poético e cultural pelas ilhas gregas. Escrito por Lawrence Durrell, escritor inglês aclamado por seu famoso livro "Quarteto de Alexandria", este livro é um ótimo guia, mesmo nos dias de hoje, para quem ruma em direção a este fantástico país que é a Grécia.

[Karin · Rating 1 out of 5]

things i learned from this book:
1. women are only good for holding up men's pants.
2. archaeologists distort the truth.
3. peasants are ignoramuses.
4. lawrence durrell and i would not be friends.

[Cheryl Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written with English words that are seldom read; cyclopean, lustration, sacerdotal, tergiversations...marmorealized! Keep a dictionary handy, but even so you will feel as if you are actually touring the many Greek islands, the descriptions are so vibrant.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written with fine description throughout of landscape, people and culture. He comprehensively covers the surprisingly wide variety of the islands and the breadth of history, ancient and modern, that permeates the archipelagos from the Ionian Sea to the mouth of the Dardanelles. Durrell brings his personal knowledge to nearly every corner and links his stories and description together in a magical tapestry while remaining surprisingly down to earth and honest in his appraisals. Have a list of places I now want to visit!!!

[Rhode PVD · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it must be beautifully written, it's Durrell after all. But when I open this oversized paperback (sort of the love child of a coffee table book and a regular Penguin), my eyes are caught by the photos, and there I go drifting away, unable to read a thing.

Although this is terrifically dated by now, Durrell lived in Greece in the 1939s and 40s I think, it's also completely undated because it's about ruins, landscapes, hills, graveyards, olive trees, and elderly people who still do things the old fashioned way. What we all dream of when we think of rural Greece.

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging read with perspectives on the Greek Islands from a writer/sailor point of view. Written in the 1970s after Durrell's many years in the Mediterranean, the book has a bit of nostalgia even then and is, of course, totally out of date today. It is, however, a travel guide I'd take along if I were lucky enough to be setting out on a tour of the Greek Islands.

[Simone Maletta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book as a Greek-Maniac.
Very interesting at start, but Durrell became boring after 5 chapter.
When he leaves his remembrance and he starts talking as a travel guide what make you starts sleepling!
Everything you loved in Prospero's cell is absent here.

[Sidney אוֹר · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of few books that are useful from beginning to end! Dip in anywhere and there is poetry! But this is far too terse! I'm distracted by all his Mediterranean writings at the moment, a thrice-in-a-decade situation for me.

[Howard Cracknell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I waited some time to be able to read this, but it ended up being incredibly disappointing.

The content is of course outdated which I won’t hold against it here. There is an element of charm to this old world view and to see how the islands have progressed, albeit I’m not sure the Greek ‘peasants’ as they are so oft referred would agree!

Nevertheless, what I hoped would be a delightfully insightful peregrination around some of my favourite places has turned out to be something cruelly missold. The author is clearly extremely knowledgable but this book ends up being everything and nothing at the same time. What I hoped would be the go to resource for Greek travel writing ends up being a meandering and unsettling amalgamation of notes on history and Mythology, personal experiences and afterthoughts that lacks any real clear focal narrative with which to tie it together. It was an experience I can only liken to sitting opposite the rambling uncle who hasn’t had enough water in his Ouzo!

[José Simões · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isto não é um livro de viagens; é, sim, uma visita guiada com Durrell como guia e, por isso, um animado monólogo sobre a mitologia, os lugares, os lugares da mitologia e a história de vida do próprio, sobre muitas pessoas que foi conhecendo e espaços da sua memória. Mas viajar também pode ser isto, visitar os lugares sem lá ir, pelas palavras dos outros.

[Aleksandar Sarkic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greek Islands from Lawrence Durrell is a great read if you are interested in Greece and its culture. This book by Durrell covers the Greek islands and archipelagos, it is really nice written by Durrell, it is not just ordinary travel book, he covers history of every island, recent or ancient history, and goes deep into customs of local peoples and even covers a lot of ancient Greek mythology. Greek islands are very specific and every island is like an organism for itself, i can tell you by myself, i have been to a few Greek islands, and every one is different and has something specific. This is really nice read if you are planning to visit some of the islands, yes it was written in the 70s but it can give you great insight in some of the places.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent some time in Greece before I read this book and would turn twice more. if you need a good guide to Greece, Laurence Durrell is your guide. loquent, witty and full of stories that will make you to want to head to the Greek isles.

[Payton Tag · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is advertised as a ‘dazzling travelogue’, but for a book titled The Greek Islands, Lawrence Durrell spends far too many pages with negative superlatives on many of the islands.

While obviously well travelled, his tunnel-visioned love affair with Corfu taints the bulk of the book and makes it difficult to read at times. A whole chapter is dedicated to Corfu which is fair enough. It’s his favourite island. But he then proceeds to patronise a large majority of other islands with Corfu as a reference. It made me think that he should’ve just wrote a book on Corfu.

Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to have something written on the Greek Islands, but in my opinion, it should’ve been authored by someone with a broader and more considered perspective of the islands.

As a Greek-Australian, there were also a few Greek words which he had possibly misheard or interpreted. And the constant reference to ‘peasants’ seemed a little condescending.

Lastly, I didn’t expect to have so much ancient history intermingled into the chapters which at times seemed off track. I only recently read Mythos and didn’t particularly fancy another deep history lesson in quick succession.

[Robert Zoltan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful travelogue that will have you imagining you are actually there, or wishing you were.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Não obstante ter sido escrito nos anos 70, “As Ilhas Gregas” mantêm-se intemporal, pois Lawrence Durrell fala do que permanece – a História, a Mitologia, a Cultura, mas também a geografia, a gastronomia e as crenças religiosas. Ao misturar o saber enciclopédico com a sua própria experiência pessoal nas Ilhas Gregas, o autor oferece uma leitura agradável, que nos deixa com vontade de voar até lá!

[~Tania~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great guide! A bit confusing at times though.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favourite type of travel writing and a bit of a dissapointment after Bitter Lemons of Crypus. Still some beautiful prose though.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t let the modern cover or kiosk placement fool you, I would recommend the book to any traveler no matter whether you are the “beach grilled tourist”, the full fledged academic reader of Greek history, or anything inbetween.

Just be cautious that as it is written in the 70s, by a British author who himself lived through historical events and grew up in Greece, one must either be prepared to not understand all the facets of the book and be okay with that or do some-to-a lot of googling on the side.

Either way it is an excellent read!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun escapism, dreaming back to our Cyprus holiday. Travel notes interspersed with anecdotes and history of the greek isles from antique times to Durells experiences as a WW2 refugee and correspondent, and again travelling the islands in the 1970s. I especially love the stories he collected of local characters, and local legends. The mythologies of each place.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful way to travel and re-visit the Greek Islands, most of which I’d either stayed on or visited except the smaller Cyclades islands but from the comfort of a chair. Interesting that some of his observations matched my own. Wonderful guide bearing in mind it was written in the late 1970s so it’s also interesting to see how some things have changed.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Lawrence Durrell knows a lot about many specific areas of Greece. He’s a master of descriptive narration and the reader feels as if she is accompanying him on his travels. He is very heavy-handed with the classical antiquity and mythology and after I while I had to skip past those parts. Nice photos too.

[Paul Mnich · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intelligent read, full of history and Durrell’s extensive personal experiences on the islands. The broad spectrum of his writing provides the reader with a compelling and comprehensive background for visitors planning to travel to the islands themselves.

[Dovofthegalilee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. I bring it with me on each excursion I make to the isles.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won’t lavish too much time on this generally very pleasing armchair excursion around all the major Greek islands with Lawrence Durrell. If you’re familiar with Durrell’s books that specifically cover Corfu, Rhodes, Cyprus and Sicily, you’ll find here what you’d expect: history; landscape; anecdote a-plenty; flora, fauna and agriculture; culture and atmosphere, all presented in Durrell’s beguilingly lyrical prose.

There are extended chapters on Corfu, Crete, Rhodes and on Delos, Mykonos and Tinos, as one might expect. But even when he covers islands which he considers of little interest, such as Syros, Kythnos, and Kea, Durrell will find something of interest: of Syros, for example, ‘the compass was invented here by the philosopher who taught Pythagoras mathematics’; of Kythnos, ‘If it were not surrounded by such glorious islands it might manage to insinuate some of its charm (it has real charm) into the minds of those travellers who would compare it with Naxos or Santorini…’; and Kea he recommends to ‘ardent campers and walkers [who] would find the abandoned convent of St Marina a tempting spot to spend a weekend’ (but presumably no longer). He cannot, however, bring himself either to omit a confession of realism about Kea or to allow himself wholly to betray his love of Greece by that very confession! – ‘Fly-blown villages, flea-tormented and silent; dogs and cats scratching themselves to death in the dust. And that terrible ennui that comes with such blazing isolation in the noonday sun. Yet the windmills turn and turn throughout these islands and their message is one of silent content.’

A word of advice, perhaps? If you know Durrell’s other travel writing as mentioned above, you’ll be used to a series of narratives that read like short stories or extended articles for travel journals. Don’t expect this book to have the same kind of focus. I found it disconcerting at first, and felt he was spending more time getting from A to B or discussing the vicissitudes of the sea and tides and currents than relating the pleasures or otherwise of A and B. For me it was not a book to read for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time. Once I’d realised that, I enjoyed it, and was able to allow myself to enter into what I increasingly found was a kind of BBC4 prose documentary, Durrell’s writing being a combination of panoramic views and particularised images in combination with a learned script by a knowledgeable amateur of the islands he is moving through and amongst.

And, of course, we should expect a few rare or obscure words (which I love) from Durrell: I noted gonfalon, hypomania, mystagogue, garrigue, caprine, plangence, monoecious, strabismus, alveolate, alembicate, villegiature, telamon, and squinch. The dictionary definition of the last is mystifyingly unintelligible, but at least the word sounds great!