There is so much to dislike about these books.

They are overwritten to an extreme. The vocabulary used seems to have been needlessly dug up from the dustiest corners of a forgotten thesaurus, making the text overly complex and difficult to follow. The set piece descriptions are nothing more than a writer showing off, with no real substance or meaning. The self-centered, self-important, and slightly repulsive characters engage in endless self-analysis and analysis of others in "conversations" that are really just page-long monologues of sententious and portentous verbiage. They nag at the meaning of love, life, and art, as well as the nature of "women" and "men," in a tiresome and uninteresting way.

There is also the spectacle of the writerly fantasy in which a man with no apparent qualities manages to attract a string of beautiful, passionate, and mysterious women who seemingly throw themselves at him. It's a tired and unoriginal trope that adds little to the story.

After "Justine" and "Balthazar," the magic trick has already been performed. We know that there are many different ways of interpreting an action, event, or personality. For the remaining two books in the Quartet, we wait, watching the magician repeat the same trick, wondering if the finale will be any different. How many possible reasons can there be for Pursewarden's suicide? Does it really matter? And why do his friends keep quoting his words as though they were memorable aphorisms when they clearly aren't?

Ironically, all of these faults are also the books' strengths. As a production, the Quartet is compulsively readable, and at times, Durrell's attempts at "style" result in some truly impressive passages. The characters and their interactions may be unrealistic, but they don't have to be. A story doesn't have to have a thumping plot line that leads to a tidy conclusion, nor does a writer have to justify the inclusion of every event, speech, and description. Durrell wrote a fascinating book, and sometimes it feels like he's thumbing his nose at the reader's expectations of what a novel is and should be.

In the book, the characters often go for a ride in a wide variety of vehicles, whether it's driving, being driven, or sailing. Perhaps the best way to think of the Quartet is that the reader is being taken for a ride in many different ways. The only thing to do is to settle in and enjoy the journey. On to Avignon...

The "Alexandria Quartet" had long been a series awaited with anticipation. While the new edition by Can Yayınları was announced with very beautiful covers, I decided to share my thoughts on the book.

The book examines the relationships among a group of people in Alexandria before World War II, their impacts on the political environment of the time, and the secrets they held within each other. We follow the narrative of Darley, who has relationships with two female characters throughout this whole process and decides to isolate himself on Cyprus with the daughter of one of them and write about the events. Over four volumes, you can see how the same reality - like relativity - is from the perspectives of different characters. Therefore, it is not one of those series that can be read independently or set aside because the secret cannot be solved in one or two books. Especially in the first three books, the concept of time is completely lost. You can only follow which events come first and which cause the others if you pay attention to the details. The fourth book, on the other hand, is like the key to solving the sequence and history of all the events. This is one of the details that makes the series so special. Throughout your reading, you are never on safe ground. You feel like there is always a fog among the events presented to you, without a consistent story and with no clearly defined characters. Sometimes - and I think unnecessarily - it is compared a lot with the "Remembrance of Things Past" series and seems similar, but in my opinion, they are very far from each other. Because although the relationships among such a small group are so intertwined, the way it is told - with a layer that is reopened in each volume - is in a very different position in terms of being so mysterious. The language can be a bit sexist - unfortunately - and also a bit flowery and full of descriptions like a classic reader of the period. However, it is also this language choice that, after reading, makes you want to read it again and elevates it to the masterpiece level in the category of an ordinary love story during the war period. Because although I read it in winter, I could feel the plain, sandy, hazy warmth - the climate - of Alexandria, and the smell of its streets. If you want to read a powerful text that can even change your climate, definitely get this series. My only advice is to read it over time, otherwise it can be a burdensome reading with the details getting lost.

The last thing I will say about this quartet is that whichever book you read becomes your favorite in the series, but when the whole story is completed, Justine and Clea were the most beautiful for me.

Aleksandrijski kvartet is a monumental work of Irish writer Lorens Darel, a work by which he is recognizable and which stands as a synonym for the author himself. It is also known that for years it was on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize, but according to the jury's opinion, he never deserved it. The first nomination took place here in our famous Andrić's '61, when he, together with Tolstoy, remained without the Nobel. One can discuss literary preferences, tastes, give pros and cons for each of these authors, but the fact is that any of the three of them would not have been undeserving if they had received the award. Personally, since I have read all three of them, Andrić is still the most complete writer, the most studious in the context of the plot, but Tolstoy created an entire world and several languages, and Darel presented a new culture, seemingly unknown to him at first glance. Darel wrote in the quartet about what he knew, about his experiences that he gained through diplomatic service in the countries of the Mediterranean, Greece, Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, and finally Egypt. He spoke extremely negatively about Yugoslavia and the communist leaders of that time, and it can be said that he did not even enjoy diplomatic affairs at that time. In his literary work, he dealt not only with longer prose texts but also with shorter ones in the form of dramas, stage scripts, and he also wrote poetry. Besides the Aleksandrijski kvartet, the author is also known for works translated into our language such as Crna knjiga and Avinjonski kvintet. Although I think that in Andrić's year he did not deserve the Nobel, this author is better than many authors who later won the Nobel, but literary awards have often not been fair, so Nabokov, Kiš, Crnjanski, and many others do not have the Nobel either, but readers and quality always determine through historical events who is worthy and who is not, and Darel certainly deserves to be mentioned.

The work Aleksandrijski kvartet consists of four books, as the title itself says, which are titled after the names of Darel's heroes Justin, Baltazar, Mauntoliv, and Klea. The setting is Egypt with an emphasis on Alexandria, and the dominant problem is the Coptic Orthodox Egyptians. The first part, Justin, brings us a scene, in a greater or lesser extent, the entire gallery of main heroes. There are not many of them, and besides the mentioned eponymous heroes, there is also Darli, the narrator in three parts of the quartet, Nesim and Naruz, brothers, and Lejla, their mother, and Da Kapo or Kapodistria, a kind of crime boss, Pombal and Persevorden, a writer and his blind sister Liza. And that is, with minor changes, essentially a complete list of characters, but their role, their thoughts change during the quartet. There is a whole love polygon on the scene. In the part Justin, one often wonders if it is really like that in reality, that we look at one person, consider her close and think we know her, but in essence, we are deceived. One of such characters is Justin, for me the only extremely negative character in the work. She achieves her goals through fraudulent skills. She is a predator who has her role and who is set up as a victim, and she and her husband Nesim. Daril, the narrator and lover of Justin, the one who has the illusion of controlling the situation, the one who thinks that Nesim knows nothing about his wife's infidelities, is actually a small marionette who does not control even his own personal needs in his life. The time before the Second World War and Egypt itself, at the place of connection and separation and with a large presence of European diplomats and spies, is an ideal place for changing influence, borders, and gaining power, and the desert is a place where the sand, with its powerful actions, changes everything overnight. The desert has the power to lose the tracks, to give the dead a new life, and to simply swallow the disobedient. It is the time of creating influence in Palestine, the beginning of the creation of Israel, and the moment when the Copts want to return their historical influence that they had before the arrival of the Europeans at the scene. And all this happens through the illusion of a happy Alexandrian life, under the masks of the carnival, street fun, and intoxicating nights filled with easy entertainment. Through the other parts, many actions from the first part gain new meanings, the heroes become anti-heroes, the outsiders become wise chess players, and the hidden characters take shape in the form of a skillful marionette puppeteer. The third part, Mauntoliv, represents for me the peak of the quartet. The spy plans, skillfully woven in the first two parts, the illusions of love, take on real forms, the masks fall from the characters, and the game of open cards begins. For Nesim and Justin, through the prism of the outsider Naruz, who is looking for his place on the scene, but not with a mask, but with a nose bearing the ugliness of a hare's lips, with a whip in his hand and desert sand on his feet, perhaps with too many open cards. The evacuation begins, the redistribution of forces on the ground, the search for a new chance, the removal of tracks, and the elimination of unnecessary spies. Mauntoliv, as a diplomat who loves Lejla, who understands his spy role, and Mauntoliv as part of the quartet provides an incredible experience worthy of admiration. What is important to note is that Darel created a world full of freedoms, but at the same time a world in which the traces of the beginning of extremism can be seen, which are now on the ground, especially in the form of women's freedoms in the Arab world.

Overall, in the book itself, I will look at the quartet as a whole. There are several parts that bother me and that I would like to have been arranged differently, but the overall impression is very positive. The first detail is conciseness. The mass of things had to be written with fewer words, with more directness in expression, with fewer circumlocutions. Specifically, for the entire course of the story, the last part, Klea, is unclear to me, or rather its second half, and especially the misfortune in the format of the James Bond series, which is too effective and melodramatic for such a book. In that context, Baltazar is missing in the second book, although he is the author of the list that Darli receives and reads as the narrator. There is no Baltazar, who is constantly hinted at, as the leader of the uprising, as a cabalist, a mysterious figure who pulls the strings from the shadows, and Darli is simply forgotten from the role of the betrayed spy. The love and romance have somehow stifled the mysticism. As soon as he got to the heart of the matter in that fantastic third part, when he specifically decided to settle accounts with everyone, Darel created a powerful work. I read the quartet in one go, and it can only be read like that, but over time, there is saturation, you want a change, you want other characters, other cities, other crimes, and in the end, you want one of the outsiders to finally figure something out. Read Darel's Aleksandrijski kvartet. It is not in vain one of the best works written in the last century. My concerns seek more, seek perfection, but the quartet is an excellent work.

"Alexandria, princess and whore. The royal city and the anus of the world. It will not change as long as it continues to boil here like a cauldron, as long as the streets and shops are filled and bustling with various passions and vices, demons and sudden silences."

I read this book a long time ago, about half of it. At that time, it was circulated in 4 volumes. (My mother only had 2 of them).

I read it again in the new edition two years ago...

No matter what I say about this book, I believe it is a little. It's worth it!

Expanded version:

I read this book a very long time ago, approximately half of it. Back then, it was circulated in 4 volumes. (Unfortunately, my mother only had 2 of them). I vividly remember the excitement I felt when I first picked up those two volumes and delved into the captivating world within the pages.

Fast forward to two years ago, and I had the opportunity to read it again in the new edition. It was like reuniting with an old friend. As I turned the pages, the story once again unfolded before my eyes, captivating my attention and pulling me in.

No matter what words I try to use to describe this book, I feel that they are insufficient. This book is truly a gem. It is filled with rich characters, a compelling plot, and beautiful prose. It has the power to transport you to another time and place, and make you feel a whole range of emotions. It's worth every penny and every moment spent reading it.

This is not the kind of thing I typically enjoy reading. However, on occasion, it truly was brilliant.

There were two particular parts that stood out to me. The first was Narouz Hosnani brandishing his whip and striking at the bats. The image of him in action, his determination and skill on display, was truly captivating.

The second part that I loved was when Clea had her hand impaled and became trapped under water. The sense of danger and the tension that built up during this scene was palpable. It made my heart race and kept me on the edge of my seat.

Overall, although this wasn't my usual type of reading material, these two moments made the experience worthwhile. They added an element of excitement and drama that made the story come alive.

I began reading this book with a grudging sort of admiration. The prose was extravagantly beautiful, to the extent that I suspected the author was attempting to divert me in some manner, to deceive me into believing there was more to it than just an alluring turn of phrase. And while it was at times style over substance (particularly in Justine), my primary concern was that I was once again reading from the perspective of an unnamed male narrator who was fascinated, obsessed, or perhaps in love with a woman he couldn't quite fathom, never able to capture her essence on the page, rendering her elusive and inhuman in a rather uninspired way.

However, Lawrence Durrell knew precisely what he was doing, and I completely underestimated him. Nevertheless, even though manipulating perspective is one of the main things he endeavors to do here (and quite successfully, I might add), it sometimes felt like a drawback to be so deeply invested in these characters and yet always sense that much of them remained out of reach. I clearly understand that this is the point. And although the book is undoubtedly overwritten and self-indulgent at times, there is a great deal to cherish: a borderline magical city as the main character, unreliable narrators, profound meditations on life and art, and a love for humanity. Additionally, there is the fact that I am a poor man's Pursewarden, as I now realize that I haven't been able to reach my full potential.

I am currently in a state of mild daze having just completed reading The Alexandria Quartet, specifically its final book, Clea. I find it rather challenging to describe this literary gem. At least for now, Mr. Durell's magnum opus might have supplanted Nabokov's masterpiece as my new favorite novel. His style is undoubtedly as brilliant and filled with breathtaking prose as Vladimir's, yet without the latter's occasional overt pomposity and riddles for the sake of riddles. The Alexandria Quartet is truly one-of-a-kind.

The prose style requires some adjustment, but once accustomed, one can immerse oneself in its luxuriousness. Interestingly, the prose style alters during the third book, Mountolive, and then reverts in Clea. However, it is most sumptuous in the opening novel, Justine. In my initial review, I wrote: "The prose by Durrell is remarkable and poetic, unlike anything I've read before. His descriptive metaphors are wonderful, and he often writes in short phrases as if taking notes! There's hardly any dialogue either. But being an admirer of prose stylists, I am loving the gorgeous descriptions of the everyday in the Alexandria of that time. Great so far... I know I will love this... and savor the 800 odd pages to go...".

Now that I've finished it, I can assert that this is an outstanding series of books, not least because of its innovative structure. Each of the first three novels presents the same story from a different perspective, but not linearly! Durrell famously quipped that the first three books tell the story along the x-y-z axes of the three-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system, while the last book represents the fourth dimension, time, t. The word that best encapsulates it is palimpsest: each book reveals another layer of the grand narrative until the last novel transports us into the future after the events of the first three books. Obviously, what unites all four books of the quartet is his unique language and prose, his prose-poetry, and vivid descriptions of Alexandria in the 1930s and 1940s.

Ostensibly, this quartet focuses on the lives and loves of a group of European expats in Alexandria, Egypt: Justine, her husband Nessim, Clea, Melissa, Pursewurden, Scoby, Mountolive, Leyla, Pombal, and our narrator Darley, along with a plethora of secondary characters, each fully developed. However, the most significant character of all is the city itself. Never has any city (in my reading thus far) received such a love letter as Durrell's to Alexandria. It makes me eager to pack my bags and visit immediately, hoping to catch a glimpse of my own dark Alexandrian beauty.

After spending over 800 pages with these characters, I feel an intimate familiarity with them, and they seem more real to me than many people I know in "real life". Whatever that implies (yes, there is a great deal of philosophy in this book, and at times it can be tiresome)! In my mind, I am still envisioning them continuing to live on... and am concerned about their lives... surely a novelist cannot aspire to more.

This book is a genuine masterpiece, and it comes as no surprise to me that Durrell was considered for the Nobel Prize for Literature twice because of it. The surprise is that he didn't receive it! The most brilliant aspect of it is that, due to its structure, each novel completely transforms its meaning as you read the next one; this means I'll have to return and reread Justine, the first in the series, as now I'll have a completely different experience having read the subsequent novels.

Please read it!

It’s time for the classics once more, and this time it’s a work that is regarded as one of the greatest pieces of English prose in the past century. Having visited the place (albeit in the distant past), Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet held a beguiling (yet intimidating due to its size) appeal for me. The endorsement on the cover jacket, ‘An exploration of modern love’, attempts to further entice the bold reader who has decided to take on this mammoth work. Although now mostly considered as one great work, it was originally published as four separate volumes detailing life in wartime Alexandria.

It truly is an exploration – but not just of love and relationships. Certainly, love (and lust), in its various forms, weaves its mysterious path through most of the numerous strands of this book. However, it also encompasses intrigue, politics, betrayal, sadness, family, and most importantly, perspective via the unreliable narrator/s. And Durrell manipulates his prose with the skill of a master who knows he has the power of language at his fingertips – almost taunting the reader with his descriptive and metaphorical excesses at various points in the book. The writing is all very beautiful, yet there is a danger that at times it can be frustratingly difficult to keep up with. But one should persevere, as the potential rewards are manifold.

The first book, in some ways, validates the cover endorsement (the exploration of love aspect) – It is an intense, densely described account of the affair between the narrator, Englishman L.G Darley, and the inscrutably beautiful Justine Hosnani, who was the wife of his friend, Nessim. As Darley grapples with the moral ambiguities and consequences of this on both his friend and Darley’s partner, Melissa, we are also introduced to some of the other major characters in the quartet, such as Balthazar, Clea, Scobie, etc. This one was perhaps the most challenging to get through in some respects. The repeated descriptions of his love/passion for Justine and their shared guilt at times reminded me of Orhan Pamuk’s dreary Museum of Innocence, although this book is undoubtedly of a much higher caliber.

However, it is in the next book that the complex web of intricacy and deceit that this volume weaves begins to unfold. Suddenly, we (and Darley) are faced with the possibility that what we have read so far is nothing but a smokescreen constructed on Darley’s naïve longings and gullibility. And with the next story, Mountolive, which is told in a conventional linear narrative, we realize that everything we learn must be taken with the utmost suspicion. As the web of double-crossing and relationship complexities widens, political machinations (regarding the war in Palestine) come into play, and we understand that much of the heartache presented in the first two volumes was directly influenced by this. The final volume, Clea, deals with the aftermath of what happened in the previous volumes and is effectively the only true sequel in the series. The other books all provide backstory and different perspectives on the same events.

I was struggling with what rating to give this. In the end, I decided it deserved a higher rating because of its ambition, the grandeur of its plot and machinations, the sheer beauty of its prose, but mainly because of the way it challenges the reader to rise to the occasion and engage with this work. Only the dedicated reader can persevere through this work of art and truly enjoy the fruits of their labor. Additionally, the vision Durrell presents of a city that so clearly captivates him makes us long for the forgotten memories of times and places that are indelibly etched in our own psyches and consciousness, and reflect on long lost loves and people.

On second thought, I believe the endorsement is absolutely accurate – this is indeed an exploration of modern love.

I’ve been vaguely aware of this quartet of novels for some time. I picked it up for a reasonable price through BookBub.

This consists of four related novels, each titled after one of the interrelated characters in the work as a whole. The books are told from different points of view and at different times, occurring both within and among the books.

The north-African city of Alexandria has a rich history, and Mr. Durrell has said that the city itself is a character. The stories take place in the 1930s and 1940s, on the cusp of and during WWII.

“Justine” is the first book, narrated by an unnamed artist and teacher. He lives on a Greek island with the illegitimate daughter of two other characters. The story tells of his affair with Justine, who is married to Nessim.

The narrator has a mistress, Melissa, and another major player is Balthazar. Clea is an artist who makes medical paintings for Balthazar. The plot is multi-layered and speaks to themes of friendship, sex, betrayal, and death.

“Balthazar” is the second book. Balthazar appears on the Mediterranean island where the narrator lives. He brings the manuscript for “Justine” and fills in the blanks for the narrator. New characters are introduced, and there is a long chapter describing a Ball during Carnival.

“Mountolive” is a break from the previous two books, being more of a straightforward story. It tells of David Mountolive’s affair with Nessim’s mother and his career as an ambassador. The events are set within a roiling international political context.

“Clea” is the last novel. Mark Darley, the narrator, is asked to return to Alexandria to work in the Censorship department. He reunites with his friends and acquaintances and forms a romantic attachment to Clea. In the course of events, Clea is severely injured in a boating accident.

This has been a long and difficult read, but Mr. Durrell’s ability to describe complex characters and the city of Alexandria makes it worth the effort. Five stars.

Rewrite and expand:

What a journey!

The sea is once again agitated today, with gusts of wind that awaken the senses. It was necessary to come so far to understand! Living on this steep promontory, where every night Arcturus comes to dispute with me in the darkness, far from the dust and the limestone remnants of summer afternoons; I now understand that none of us is responsible for what happened. It is the city that must be judged, although it is upon us, its children, that the punishment falls.

As I stand here, looking out over the churning sea, I am filled with a sense of both wonder and melancholy. The power of nature is on full display, and yet, in the face of it, I feel so small and insignificant. But perhaps that is the point. Maybe it is only by coming to terms with our own insignificance that we can begin to understand the true nature of things.

The wind whips at my face, and I close my eyes, breathing in the salty air. I think about all that has brought me to this place, all the mistakes and missteps, all the heartaches and joys. And I realize that, in the end, it has all been worth it. Because here, on this desolate promontory, I have found a kind of peace that I have never known before.

I was rather startled by the size of this tetralogy. However, since I had faced similar challenges before and managed to persevere, I wasn't overly worried. But perhaps I should have been. Needless to say, I only managed to get through the first of the four books and have no intention of going back to the remaining ones.

As I plodded through this hefty volume, a new realization dawned on me. I could never fathom those who didn't enjoy reading and truly felt sorry for those who struggled to get through just a few pages. For me, reading is an absolute necessity. Like an addict without their fix, I become nervous if I don't have at least two items of reading material on hand. Justine made my reading experience a struggle, page by confusing page.

So, here is a breakdown of The Alexandria Quartet:

1957 - Justine

1958 - Balthazar

1958 - Mountolive

1960 - Clea

As I mentioned earlier, I will only be reviewing the first of the four, Justine.

Set in Alexandria, Egypt, over a period of years from the early 1900s through World War II, Justine is narrated by an unnamed teacher who is in love with Justine, a married woman who remains an enigma throughout the story. People are cheating, drinking, dying (some accidentally), and praying.

The narrator shares his perspective as he pursues Justine, believing that no one is the wiser. This is not a happy man, and he isn't very nice, even to the woman he supposedly loves.

Justine is said to be "suffering" from nymphomania, which I suppose explains why she sleeps with so many different characters. She too believes she is deceiving everyone, or perhaps just herself. Eventually, she gets old and fat and settles down on a kibbutz.

Melissa is a long-suffering dancer and possibly the narrator's wife or girlfriend (I never quite understood). She is aware of what is going on but seems too depressed to do anything about it. Oh, and she's also a dancer who dies, and not many people seem overly distraught about her death. She could have been an interesting character without the martyr complex.

There are many more characters that I didn't really care much for, such as Balthazar, Nessim, Capodistria, Hamid, Scobie, and so on. This book just didn't capture my interest, no matter how hard I tried.

While I'm sure I would enjoy chatting with Mr. Durrell, I would have to steer the conversation away from The Alexandria Quartet and perhaps ask about his friendship with Henry Miller. A well-traveled and prolific writer, I'm certain we wouldn't run out of things to talk about.

My rating for Justine is a 3 out of 10.

I've been in love with Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet" ever since I was a freshman in college. I can't quite remember how I first came across it, but I had all four volumes in those mass market paperbacks with their elegantly sexy and vaguely Art Nouveau covers. I would sit in my university rooms, simply astonished at what Durrell could do with language. And I also discovered C.P. Cavafy's poetry through Durrell.

Since then, I've re-read the Quartet three or four times, and each time it feels like a whole new Alexandria, a brand new story. Part of that is because I'm older now, and the subtleties of love, belief, and truth in my own life have changed. I'm still smitten with Clea, and I still long to be David Mountolive. But every time I read this, I'm amazed at the way Durrell's descriptions - of the city itself, of government, politics, religion, art, and sex - always seem to have something new to offer.

Four volumes, one story. The time frame is roughly from 1900 to 1942. Each volume tells and re-tells part of a broader tale, seen through different perspectives - Sex, Religion, Politics, Art - that reinterpret the characters' motives and fates. All these years later, the Quartet remains a favorite of mine. And it should be one of yours too.

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