Justine

Lawrence Durrell

Jun 2012 · The Alexandria Quartet Book 1 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

This “very remarkable novel”—first in the acclaimed Alexandria Quartet—tells a haunting story of love, desire, and deception in the Egyptian city pre-WWII (New York Herald Tribune Book Review).
 Set in Alexandria, Egypt, in the years between World Wars I and II, Justine is the first installment in the distinguished Alexandria Quartet. Here Lawrence Durrell crafts an exquisite and challenging modern novel that explores tragic love and the fluidity of recollection. Employing a fluctuating narrative and poetic prose, Durrell recounts his unnamed narrator’s all-encompassing romance with the intoxicating Justine. The result is a matchless work that confronts all we understand and believe about sexual desire, identity, place, and the certainty of time. This ebook contains a new introduction by Jan Morris.

Ratings and reviews

"Justine" by Lawrence Durrell is a story of forbidden love, secrets and memories. It takes place in Alexandria and is told retrospectively by an unnamed narrator who is also the former lover of the eponymous character Justine. The novel's strongest suit is its descriptions of Alexandria and its denizens. Despite the tumultuous backdrop that many would find unsavory, there is an overwhelming theme of love and sensuality in "Justine." Durrell's Alexandria, well anyone's Alexandria, is a hot, dusty and old place that historically lent itself to romance, but the narrator himself says that the Hellenic romances of Alexandria's past are not apparent in his version of Alexandria. The love recited in his telling is of a much less mythical Alexandria, but the stories are no less tragic. The pages of "Justine" are dotted with exclamations to the people of the narrator's past. Melissa! Justine! He frequently exclaims in the first pages of the novel. The reader gets a real sense of the man's feelings for his lost acquaintances, but the chronology of the story does not lend itself to a thorough understanding of the events taking place. The narrator does not tell the story as it happened, nor does he mention when each event takes place, so the reader must rely on imagination to put the events in some order. One could say that it is a fault of the novel, but this mechanism has been used by Durrell and other influential authors to much success. Lawrence Durrell's wordplay in "Justine" borders on the poetic. He had a magnificent grasp of English vocabulary and reading the novel is a delightful experience, if only just to experience Durrell's moving descriptions. It left me wanting to read the rest of the Alexandria quartet, of which "Justine" is the first volume.

About the author

DIVDIVBorn 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 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. /divDIV /div
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