Lawrence Durrell’s Woven Web of Guesses (Durrell Studies 2)

Richard Pine

Feb 2021 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing

About this eBook

This volume presents a number of original essays on aspects of Lawrence Durrell which have not previously been discussed. Durrell (1912-1990) was the ground-breaking author of The Alexandria Quartet, Tunc-Nunquam (The Revolt of Aphrodite) and The Avignon Quintet and of many plays, volumes of poetry and essays. This volume, by one of the world’s foremost experts on Durrell’s life and work, explores his early literary connections with Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Alfred Perlès and David Gascoyne in topics such as surrealism and psychology. It features new insights into Durrell’s approach to popular literature, Greek politics and sexual orientation, and establishes Durrell’s mental states from an examination of his private notebooks. It presents a composite portrait of a writer obsessed with the themes of identity, creativity, sexuality and freedom.

About the author

Richard Pine is Director of the Durrell Library of Corfu, which he founded in 2001, after long service with the Irish national broadcaster. His Lawrence Durrell: The Mindscape (1994/2005) is regarded as the most comprehensive and authoritative survey of the work of Durrell. His many other books include The Thief of Reason: Oscar Wilde and Modern Ireland (1995); The Diviner: The art of Brian Friel (1999); The Disappointed Bridge: Ireland and the Post-Colonial World (2014); and Minor Mythologies as Popular Literature: A Student’s Guide to Texts and Films (2018). He has edited Lawrence Durrell’s novels Judith and The Placebo and two volumes of Endpapers and Inklings – Uncollected Prose 1933-1988. He is editor of the online C.20 – an international journal and a columnist on Greek affairs for The Irish Times.