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Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence Durrell
Born February 27, 1912 (1912-02-27)
Jalandhar, India
Died November 7, 1990 (aged 78)
Sommières, France
Occupation Biographist; poet; playwright; novelist
Nationality British
Writing period 1931 - 1990
Notable work(s) The Alexandria Quartet
Influences
Influenced
Official website

Lawrence George Durrell (February 27, 1912 – November 7, 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan. Events 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation Year 1912 ( MCMXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Jalandhar (ਜਲੰਧਰ Hindi:) previously known as Jullundur, is an ancient India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Sommières is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. Nationality is a relationship between a Person and their State of Origin, Culture, association Affiliation and/or Loyalty The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The year 1935 in literature involved some significant events and new books The year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books The Alexandria Quartet is a Tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960 Henry Valentine Miller (December 26 1891 &ndash June 7 1980 was an American writer and painter. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900 was an Irish Playwright, Novelist, poet and Author of Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924 was a Polish-born English novelist Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist Constantine P Cavafy, also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes (Greek Κωνσταντίνος Π Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic. Giorgos Seferis (Γιώργος Σεφέρης ( March 13, 1900, or February 29 according to the Julian calendar then in use September 20 Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar ( August 26, 1914 &ndash February 12, 1984) was an Argentine Author Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr (born May 8 1937 is an American writer based in New York City, noted for his dense and complex works of Fiction. Susan Swan (born June 9, 1945) is a Canadian Author. Born in Midland, Ontario, she studied at McGill University David Gascoyne ( October 10, 1916 - November 25, 2001) was a British poet associated with Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953 was a Welsh poet who wrote exclusively in English Moyez Gulamhussein Vassanji, CM (born 30 May 1950) is a Canadian Novelist and editor. Events 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation Year 1912 ( MCMXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story A poet is a person who writes Poetry. Etymology From the Ancient greek: ποιέω, poieō: "I make or compose" A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. Travel literature is Travel writing considered to have value as Literature. World citizen is a term with a variety of meanings often referring to a person who disapproves of traditional Geopolitical divisions derived from national Citizenship It has been posthumously suggested that Durrell never had British citizenship,[1] though more accurately, he became defined as a non-patrial in 1968 due to the amendment to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962. British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom concerning Citizenship and other categories of British Nationality. The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Hence, he was denied the right to enter or settle in Britain under new laws and had to apply for a visa for each entry. His most famous work is the tetralogy The Alexandria Quartet. A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four ( Numerical prefix tetra-) distinct works The Alexandria Quartet is a Tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960

Contents

Life and work

Durrell was born in Jalandhar, India, the son of Indian-born British colonials Lawrence Samuel Durrell and his wife Louisa. WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Jalandhar (ਜਲੰਧਰ Hindi:) previously known as Jullundur, is an ancient India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Lawrence Samuel Durrell ( September 23, 1884 - April 16, 1928) was a British Indian subject and engineer and is best remembered as Before going to England, he pursued schooling at St Joseph's College, North Point, Darjeeling. St Joseph's College is a Government aided Christian Minoritypermanent urban co-educational college in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. North Point is a mixed-use urban area located at Eastern District Hong Kong. Darjeeling ( Nepali:) is a town in the Indian state of West Bengal. In England he attended St Edmund's School Canterbury. St Edmund’s School is Independent school (ages 3-18 in Canterbury, Kent, England. At the age of eleven, he was sent to attend school in England — a country in which he was never happy, and which he left as soon as possible. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Although his formal education was unsuccessful and he failed his university entrance examinations, Durrell had started writing poetry at the age of fifteen: his first collection, Quaint Fragment, was published in 1931. Year 1931 ( MCMXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.

On January 22, 1935, Durrell married Nancy Isobel Myers, the first of his four marriages. Events 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus. Year 1935 ( MCMXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [2] In March that year Durrell, Nancy, his mother, and his siblings (including brother Gerald Durrell, later to be a major British wildlife conservationist and popular writer) moved to the Greek island of Corfu. Gerald ('Gerry' Malcolm Durrell OBE ( January 7, 1925 &ndash January 30, 1995) was a naturalist, Zookeeper Corfu (Κέρκυρα Kérkyra, ˈkʲe̞ɾkʲiɾa Κέρκυρα or Κόρκυρα Corcyra Corfù is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea

In the same year his first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers, was published by Cassell; he also wrote to Henry Miller expressing intense admiration for his novel Tropic of Cancer, which sparked an enduring friendship and mutually critical relationship. Henry Valentine Miller (December 26 1891 &ndash June 7 1980 was an American writer and painter. Tropic of Cancer is a Novel by Henry Miller, first published in 1934 by Obelisk Press in Paris and still in print The two got on well as they had similar subjects at the time: Durrell's The Black Book abounded with "four-letter words. . . grotesques,. . . [and] its mood equally as apocalyptic" as Tropic.

In Corfu, Lawrence and Nancy lived together in bohemian style in a number of large houses, notably the 'White House' on the coast at Kalami. Henry Miller was a guest at the house in 1939. Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The period is somewhat fictionalised in Durrell's lyrical account of it in Prospero's Cell. It is interesting to compare it with the accounts by his brother Gerald, most notably in My Family and Other Animals , which describes the same period. My Family and Other Animals is an autobiographical work by naturalist Gerald Durrell, telling of his childhood spent on the Greek island In Gerald's accounts of the period, Lawrence is described as living with the rest of his family, and Nancy is not mentioned at all. Lawrence's account makes few references to the fact that his mother and three siblings were also resident on Corfu. The accounts do cover overlapping topics, for example both Gerald and Lawrence describe the role played by the Greek doctor, scientist and poet Theodore Stephanides in their life on Corfu. Theodore Stephanides ( 1896 - 13 April 1983) was a Greek poet author doctor and naturalist

In August 1937 Lawrence Durrell and Nancy travelled to the Villa Seurat in Paris, to meet Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin. Year 1937 ( MCMXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Georges-Pierre Seurat ( December 2, 1859  &ndash March 29, 1891) was a French painter and Draftsman. Henry Valentine Miller (December 26 1891 &ndash June 7 1980 was an American writer and painter. Anaïs Nin ana'iːs nin (born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell) ( February 21 1903 - January 14 1977) was Together with Alfred Perles, Nin, Miller and Durrell "began a collaboration aimed at founding their own literary movement. Alfred Perlès (1897 - 1990 was an Austrian writer (in later life a British citizen who was most famous for his associations with Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell Their projects included 'The Shame of the Morning' and the 'Booster', a country club house organ the Villa Seurat group appropriated for their own artistic. . . ends. "[3] They also started the Villa Seurat Series in order to publish Durrell's Black Book, Miller's Max and the White Phagocytes, and Nin's Winter of Artifice, with Jack Kahane of the Obelisk Press as publisher. Jack Kahane (1887-1939 was a Manchester -born Writer and Publisher who founded the Obelisk Press in Paris in 1929 Obelisk Press was an English language press based in Paris France, which was founded by Jack Kahane in 1929

Durrell's first novel of note, "The Black Book: An Agon", was heavily influenced by Miller and was published in Paris in 1938. The mildly pornographic work only appeared in Britain in 1973. In the story, Lawrence Lucifer struggles to escape the spiritual sterility of dying England, and finds Greece's warmth and fertility.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, his mother and siblings returned to England, while Durrell and Nancy remained on Corfu. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In 1940 he and his wife had a daughter, Penelope Berengaria. Year 1940 ( MCMXL) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. After the fall of Greece, Lawrence escaped via Crete to Alexandria in Egypt, where he wrote about Corfu and their life on "this brilliant little speck of an island in the Ionian" in the poetic Prospero's Cell. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Crete ( Greek: Κρήτη transliteration: Krētē, modern transliteration Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the Alexandria ( Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya; Standard Arabic: ar الإسكندرية Al-Iskandariyya; Ἀλεξάνδρεια This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics.

During the war, Durrell served as a press attaché to the British Embassies, first in Cairo and then Alexandria. Cairo () which means "the Vanquisher" or "the Triumphant" is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Alexandria ( Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya; Standard Arabic: ar الإسكندرية Al-Iskandariyya; Ἀλεξάνδρεια After the war he held various diplomatic and teaching jobs. It was in Alexandria that he met Eve (Yvette) Cohen, who was to become the model for the character Justine in the Alexandria Quartet. The Alexandria Quartet is a Tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1957 and 1960

Durrell separated from Nancy in 1942. Year 1942 ( MCMXLII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In 1947 he married Yvette Cohen and in 1951 they had a daughter, Sappho Jane, named after the legendary Ancient Greek poetess Sappho. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1951 ( MCMLI) was a Common year starting on Monday. Events of 1951 January The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c A poetess, in the simplest sense is a Female Poet. Also in the 1600-1700s in Ireland, the word poetess was used to describe a Mistress Sappho (ˈsæfoʊ in English Attic Greek el Σαπφώ sapːʰɔː Aeolic Greek el Ψάπφω) was an Ancient Greek lyric Sappho Durrell committed suicide in 1985, leaving behind writings that pointed accusingly at her father.

Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence Durrell

In 1947 he was appointed director of the British Council Institute in Córdoba, Argentina, where for the next eighteen months he gave lectures on cultural topics. Year 1947 ( MCMXLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Córdoba, abbreviated as CBA, is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas mountains on the [4] He returned to London in the summer of 1948, around the time that Marshal Tito broke ties with Stalin's Cominform, and Durrell was posted to Belgrade,[5] where he was to remain until 1952. Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Cominform ( Com munist Inform ation Bureau) is the common name for what was officially referred to as the Information Bureau of the Communist Belgrade (Београд Beograd is the Capital and largest city of Serbia. This sojourn gave him material for his book White Eagles over Serbia (1957). In 1952 he moved to Cyprus, buying a house and taking a position teaching English literature at the Pancyprian Gymnasium to support his writing, followed by public relations work for the British government there during agitation for union with Greece. Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía The Pancyprian Gymnasium (Παγκύπριο Γυμνάσιο was founded in 1812 by Archbishop Kyprianos at a time when Cyprus was still under Ottoman Prominent issues in Greek foreign policy include the enduring Cyprus problem Greek-Turkish differences over the Aegean, a dispute over the name of the Former Yugoslav He wrote about his time in Cyprus in Bitter Lemons, which won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1957. The Duff Cooper Prize is a prize which goes to the best work of History, Biography, or Political science published in English or French In 1954, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

In 1957, he published "Justine", the first part of what was to become his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet. The year 1957 in literature involved some significant events and new books Justine, published in 1957 is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell 's Alexandria Quartet. "Justine", "Balthazar" (1958), "Mountolive" (1959) and "Clea" (1960) deal with events before and during the Second World War in Alexandria. The first three books tell essentially the same story but from different perspectives, a technique Durrell described in his introductory note to "Balthazar" as "relativistic". Only in the final part, "Clea", does the story advance in time and reach a conclusion.

The Quartet impressed critics by the richness of its style, the variety and vividness of its characters, its movement between the personal and the political, and its exotic locations in and around the city which Durrell portrays as the chief protagonist: ". . . the city which used us as its flora - precipitated in us conflicts which were hers and which we mistook for our own: beloved Alexandria!" The Times Literary Supplement review of the Quartet stated: "If ever a work bore an instantly recognizable signature on every sentence, this is it. The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS, on the front page from 1969 is a weekly literary review published in London by News International " There was some suggestion that Durrell might be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature, but this did not materialize.

Given the complexity of the work, it was probably inevitable that George Cukor's 1969 attempt to film the Quartet (Justine) simplified the story to the point of melodrama, and was poorly received. George Dewey Cukor ( July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an Academy Award -winning American Film director. The year 1969 in film involved some significant events Events Cannes Film Festival opens but closes in support

Durrell separated from Eve Cohen in 1955, and was married again in 1961 to Claude-Marie Vincendon; she died of cancer in 1967.

Durrell settled in Sommières, a small village in Provence, France, where he purchased a large house standing secluded in its own extensive walled grounds on the edge of the village. Sommières is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. Provence ( Provençal Occitan: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm is a region of southeastern France Here he wrote The Revolt of Aphrodite, comprising "Tunc" (1968) and "Nunquam" (1970), and The Avignon Quintet, which attempted to replicate the success of The Alexandria Quartet and revisited many of the same motifs and styles to be found in the earlier work. Although it is frequently described as a quintet, Durrell himself referred to it as a "quincunx". For Sir Francis Galton 's machine for demonstrating the Normal distribution named "quincunx" see Bean machine. The middle book of the quincunx, "Constance, or Solitary Practices", which portrays France under the German occupation, was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1982 and the opening novel, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness, received the 1974 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length Novel Founded in 1919 the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English Language and are Britain's In 1974, Durrell was the Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at the California Institute of Technology. [6]

Durrell's poetry has been overshadowed by his novels. Peter Porter, in his introduction to a Selected Poems,[7] writes of Durrell as a poet: "one of the best of the past hundred years. Peter Neville Frederick Porter (born 16 February 1929) is an Australian born British Poet. And one of the most enjoyable. " He goes on to describe Durrell's poetry as "always beautiful as sound and syntax. Its innovation lies in its refusal to be more high-minded than the things it records, together with its handling of the whole lexicon of language. "[8]

Durrell also spent several years in the service of the Foreign Office. He was senior Press Press Officer to the British Embassies in Athens and Cairo, Press Attache in Alexandria and Belgrade, Director of the British Institutes in Kalamata, Greece, and Cordoba, Argentina. He was also Director of Public Relations in the Dodecanese Islands and on Cyprus.

His fourth and final marriage was in 1973 to Ghislaine de Boysson, whom he divorced in 1979. Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. Year 1979 ( MCMLXXIX) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1979 Gregorian calendar)

Durrell suffered from emphysema for many years. Emphysema is a chronic obstructive Pulmonary disease ( COPD) formerly termed a chronic obstructive Lung disease (COLD He died of a stroke at his house in Sommières in November 1990. A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar)

Major works

Novels

Travel

Poetry

Drama

Humor

Letters and essays

Editing and translating

Notes

  1. ^ Ezard, John. Giorgos Seferis (Γιώργος Σεφέρης ( March 13, 1900, or February 29 according to the Julian calendar then in use September 20 Charles Bernard Spencer (1909 – 1963 was an English poet He was born in Madras, India and educated at Marlborough College and Corpus Christi Nanos Valaoritis (born 1921 is one of the most distinguished writers in Greece today "Durrell Fell Foul of Migrant Law", The Guardian, 2002-04-29. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1429 - Joan of Arc arrives to relieve the Siege of Orleans. Retrieved on 2007-01-30. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster is signed ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain  . }}
  2. ^ MacNiven, Ian S. (1998). Lawrence Durrell: A Biography. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-17248-2.   p. xiii.
  3. ^ Dearborn, Mary V. (1992). The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller. Touchstone Books. ISBN 0-671-77982-6.   p. 192 and picture insert captions.
  4. ^ Interview with Marc Alyn, published in Paris in 1972, translated by Francine Barker in 1974; reprinted in Earl G. Ingersoll, Lawrence Durrell: Conversations, Associated University Presses, 1998. ISBN 0-8386-3723-X. p. 138.
  5. ^ Alyn, op. cit. Ingersoll, page 139.
  6. ^ (1991) in Andrews, Deborah. (ed). : The Annual Obituary 1990. Gale.   p. 678.
  7. ^ (2006) in Porter, P. (ed). : Lawrence Durrell: Selected Poems. Faber and Faber.  
  8. ^ Porter, op. cit. , p. xxi.

Further reading

Biography and Interviews

Book-length Criticism


Bibliography


Cultural references

External links


Persondata
NAME Durrell, Lawrence
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Durrell, Lawrence George
SHORT DESCRIPTION Biographer; poet; playwright; novelist
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Jalandhar, India
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1990
PLACE OF DEATH Sommières, France
Events 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation Year 1912 ( MCMXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Jalandhar (ਜਲੰਧਰ Hindi:) previously known as Jullundur, is an ancient India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) Sommières is a commune in the Gard department in southern France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.
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