LAWRENCE DURRELL
This book studies the works of Lawrence Durrell (February 27, 1912 - November 7, 1990), the great British writer. It explores all of Durrell's major works, including The Alexandria Quartet, The Black Book, the poetry, The Avignon Quintet and the Tunc-Nunquam books, many of lesser-known pieces, and reviews all of the Durrell criticism, and Durrell's literary friendships (with Henry Miller, T.S. Eliot, George Seferis, Richard Aldington, etc).
The response that Lawrence Durrell so often generates is negative: critics call him pretentious, baroque, overblown, high-flown, too intellectual, too metaphysical, overwritten, too rich, etc. The Avignon Quintet, his last major work, was received as 'lush', with 'fantastic characters, opulent landscapes', 'flamboyant... rich, easy style', prose that was 'ringingly evocative', 'an elaborate tapestry'.
For some critics, Durrell's books are 'accurate, moving and intensely readable' as a critic wrote of Bitter Lemons, while another critic sees Durrell's novels as 'so beautiful in surface and so uncertain below it'.
It was the 1950s novel Justine that really launched Durrell's career, for Justine was a large, complex work that promised much for the following instalments in The Alexandria Quartet. Durrell's reputation rests largely on the achievement of The Alexandria Quartet, and it is to the Quartet that critics generally refer when they discuss Durrell. And when Durrell's name appears in the index of a book of literary criticism, The Alexandria Quartet is usually being considered.
Includes illustrations, a full bibliography and notes.
Robinson, Jeremy Mark: - "JEREMY ROBINSON has published poetry, fiction, and studies of J.R.R. Tolkien, Samuel Beckett, Thomas Hardy, André Gide and D.H. Lawrence. Robinson has edited poetry books by Novalis, Ursula Le Guin, Friedrich Hölderlin, Francesco Petrarch, Dante Alighieri, Arseny Tarkovsky, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Books on film and animation include: The Akira Book - The Art of Katsuhiro Otomo - The Art of Masamune Shirow - The Ghost In the Shell Book - Fullmetal Alchemist - Cowboy Bebop: The Anime and Movie - The Cinema of Hayao Miyazaki - Hayao Miyazaki: Pocket Guide - Princess Mononoke: Pocket Movie Guide - Spirited Away: Pocket Movie Guide - Blade Runner and the Cinema of Philip K. Dick - Blade Runner: Pocket Movie Guide - The Cinema of Donald Cammell - Performance: Donald Cammell: Nic Roeg: Pocket Movie Guide - Pasolini: Il Cinema di Poesia/ The Cinema of Poetry - Salo: Pocket Movie Guide - The Trilogy of Life Movies: Pocket Movie Guide - The Gospel According To Matthew: Pocket Movie Guide - The Ecstatic Cinema of Tony Ching Siu-tung - Tsui Hark: The Dragon Master of Chinese Cinema - The Swordsman: Pocket Movie Guide - A Chinese Ghost Story: Pocket Movie Guide - Ken Russell: England's Great Visionary Film Director and Music Lover - Tommy: Ken Russell: The Who: Pocket Movie Guide - Women In Love: Ken Russell: D.H. Lawrence: Pocket Movie Guide - The Devils: Ken Russell: Pocket Movie Guide - Walerian Borowczyk: Cinema of Erotic Dreams - The Beast: Pocket Movie Guide - The Lord of the Rings Movies - The Fellowship of the Ring: Pocket Movie Guide - The Two Towers: Pocket Movie Guide - The Return of the King: Pocket Movie Guide - Jean-Luc Godard: The Passion of Cinema - The Sacred Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky - Andrei Tarkovsky: Pocket Guide."
