Bøger af Lawrence Durrell

A guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corfu. 'One of Lawrence Durrell's best books - indeed, in its gem-like miniature quality, among the best books ever written.' Freya Stark'This charming idyll depicts the country life and cosmopolitan society of Corfu in the years immediately before the war .

Lawrence Durrell was one of the best-selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late 20th century. The Alexandria Quartet is unquestionably his most admired work, at heart a sensuous and brilliant evocation of wartime Alexandria. In this world of corrupt glamour, L. G. Darley attempts to reconcile himself to the end of his affair with the dark, passionate Justine Hosnani - setting alight a beguiling exploration of sexual and political intrigue that the author himself described as 'an investigation of modern love'.

In his hugely popular Prospero's Cell, Lawrence Durrell brought Corfu to life, attracting tens of thousands of visitors to the island. With Reflections on a Marine Venus, he turns to Rhodes: ranging over its past and present, touching with wit and insights on the history and myth which the landscape embodies, and presenting some real and some imagined. With the same wit, tenderness and poetic insight that characterized Prospero's Cell, Reflections on a Marine Venus is an excellent introduction the Eastern Mediterranean.'How pleasant . . . to meet Mr Durrell, gloating over his enjoyment of a Greek island! . . . He excites a longing to leave for Rhodes at once.' Raymond Mortimer

Lawrence Durrells AVIGNONKVINTETTEN (1974-1985) er et kalejdoskopisk romanværk i fem bind, hvor tid, rum og fortælleinstans opløses i et sindrigt netværk af erindringstråde, lyriske afstikkere, konspirationer og visioner. Romanerne udspiller sig i mellemkrigstidens og krigstidens Frankrig, Ægypten og Schweiz. Tidligere er det første bind, MONSIEUR, udkommet i en dansk oversættelse. Resten af romanseriens fire bind udkommer nu for første gang i en dansk oversættelse ved Torben Jahnsen, der også har nyoversat det første bind.

Prospero's Cell: And Reflections On A Marine Venus is a travelogue written by Lawrence Durrell. The book is divided into two parts: the first part is about Durrell's time spent on the Greek island of Corfu during the 1930s, and the second part is about his experiences on the island of Rhodes during the 1940s.In the first part of the book, Durrell describes the natural beauty of Corfu and his interactions with the local people. He also writes about his efforts to learn the Greek language and his fascination with the island's history and mythology.The second part of the book focuses on Durrell's time on Rhodes during World War II. He describes the island's strategic importance during the war and the impact it had on the local population. He also writes about his own experiences as a member of the British intelligence service stationed on the island.Throughout the book, Durrell reflects on the relationship between humans and the natural world. He also explores themes of identity, culture, and the impact of history on contemporary society.Overall, Prospero's Cell: And Reflections On A Marine Venus is a beautifully written and insightful travelogue that offers a unique perspective on two Mediterranean islands and the people who call them home.Two Volumes In One.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.

Four-time Edgar Award–winning author Lawrence Block’s definitive essay collection on the art of writing fictionFor ten years, crime novelist Lawrence Block funneled his wealth of writing expertise into a monthly column for Writer’s Digest. Collected here for the first time are those pieces illuminating the tricks of the authorial trade, from creating vibrant characters and generating seamless plots, to conquering writer’s block and experimenting with self-publishing.Filled with wit and insight, The Liar’s Bible is a must-read for experts, amateurs, and anyone interested in learning to craft great fiction from one of the field’s modern masters.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Lawrence Block, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

The magnificent final volume of one of the most widely acclaimed fictional masterpieces of the postwar era. Few books have been awaited as eagerly as Clea, the sensuous and electrically suspenseful novel that resolves the enigmas of the Alexandria Quartet. Some years and one world war was after his bizarre liaisons with Melissa and Justine, the Irish émigré Darley becomes enmeshed with the bisexual artist Clea. That affair not only changes the lovers, it transforms the dead as well, revealing new layers of duplicity and desire, perversity and pathos in Lawrence Durrell's masterly construction. "A massive, marvelously concrete, deeply felt statement of faith. . . . His style glows with the mineral deposits of many cultures. One of the most important works of our time has come to an end."-The New York Times Book Review "Clea rounds out the tetralogy with grace, beauty, and stunning impact. . . . This rich, exciting fare is Durrell's finest writing style, a manner of writing few living authors can equal. . . . A magnificent achievement."-The Detriot News "The reader is carried along on a current of superbly accomplished prose, as flexible and colorful as that of any contemporary writer. . . . What Durrell has given us is well worth having."-San Francisco Chronicle

The dazzling second volume of The Alexandria Quartet-an enthralling and deeply disturbing work of gorgeous surfaces and endless deceptions. In Alexandra, in the years before the Second World War, an exiled Irish schoolteacher seeks to unravel his sexual obsession with two women: the tubercular café dancer, Melissa, and Justine, the alluring Jewish wife of a wealthy Coptic Christian. What emerges in his sessions with the psychiatrist Balthazar, however, is something far more complex-and unfathomably more sinister-than neurosis. Lawrence Durrell's kaleidoscopic narrative ushers us into a world in which no perception is reliable-and love itself is always an act of treachery. "Durrell is one of the very best novelists of our time. . . . He has a sensuous, vigorous style that I have not found equaled by any other novelist today. . . . A spontaneous, resourceful new beauty that any sensitive reader will almost certainly love."-The New York Book Review "It is difficult to sum up Balthazar; it will not be contained. It spills or slips away like smoke. The sheer writing is superb. . . . A wonderful book, a book to read many times."-The Houston Post

Lose yourself in the thrilling political intrigue and tangled love affairs of wartime Egypt in Durrell's epic modern classic'A master at creating and handling tension ... I was fascinated from the start.' Wilbur SmithDavid Mountolive, a young English diplomat, has been obsessed with Egypt ever since a youthful love affair. Returning to Alexandria as British Ambassador just before World War Two, he unravels an intricate political and religious conspiracy - one that connects a web of wildly different characters, including an exiled schoolteacher and glamorous Egyptian couple. Mountolive gradually exposes the sinister underbelly of these tangled relationships, their deceptions and betrayals mirroring the explosive turmoil of the modern Middle East - and the result is Durrell's most cinematic masterpiece. 'Astonishing ... A work of splendid craft and troubling veracity.' New York Times Book Review'A masterpiece ... Don't be fooled by the richness of the prose, the depth of the passions ... Wicked and funny.' Guardian'Dazzlingly exuberant in style and vision, reckless in ambition, wonderfully prolific in invention ... Superb.' ObserverVOLUME THREE OF LAWRENCE DURRELL'S ALEXANDRIA QUARTET

This captivating Mediterranean novel was written by Lawrence Durrell immediately after finishing his exquisite vignette about Corfu, Prospero's Cell, and a decade before Justine. The story is set on Crete just after the War, as an odd assortment of English travellers come ashore from a cruise ship to explore the island and in particular to examine a dangerous local labyrinth. They include an extrovert painter, a spiritualist, a Protestant spinster with a fox terrier, an antiquarian peer and minor poet, a soldier with guilty memories of the Cretan resistance, a pretty convalescent and an eccentric married couple.To some extent the book is a roman a clef and Durrell's characters talk with great reality about their experiences, themselves and a certain psychological unease that has led most of them to embark on their journey. The climax is a disastrous visit to the labyrinth, with its reported minotaur. The novel is a gripping piece of story-telling, full of atmosphere and the vivid first-hand writing about Mediterranean landscape and people of which Durrell was a master.

First published in Paris in 1938, Durrell's third novel is the story, told from the inside, of the lives and loves of a group of struggling writers and artists in a seedly London hotel.. Controversial at the time because of its sexual frankness, the book was finally published in its complete form only through the efforts of Henry Miller.

Set in Yugoslavia during the Cold War, this book is based on the author's experience of working there for the Foreign Office in the 1950s. The book is about a British secret service officer sent to investigate the murder of a colleague and the activities of royalists guerrillas.

When a genius inventor is seduced by a mysterious firm to create a robot, technology may save him - or be his undoing ... Lose yourself in this dystopian novel by the bestselling author of The Alexandria Quartet.'A superb craftsman and stylist.' New York TimesFelix Charlock is a world-famous inventor. His scientific genius draws him into the web of a sinister multinational corporation called Merlin who recruit him for their own ends. When Felix is married into this wealthy family, 'The Firm' sets him an impossible project, demanding that he reinvents his former lover as a living, breathing replica. But creating this perfect robot facsimile heralds a new era of destruction, threatening not only Felix's sanity, but his very existence ...Consisting of two novels - Tunc and its sequel, Numquam - The Revolt of Aphrodite is a dystopian novel of ideas, rich in mystery and drama, with an epic global sweep and dazzling cast. Showing literary master Lawrence Durrell at his most conceptually ambitious, this tale of a modern Frankenstein will revolutionise the way you view technology forever.'Scenes of wild and deliberate fantasy ... [of] peculiar and disturbing poignancy.' New Statesman 'Such readability ... Few writers can tell a story better.' Observer

Three successive drafts of what became the novel TUNC, edited and published for the first time: "The Village of Turtle-doves", "The Placebo: An Attic Comedy" and "Dactyl".

A selection of mainly late poems by Lawrence Durrell which were not included in COLLECTED POEMS 1931-1974, but appeared only in prose works and have not been collected before. Poems drawn from SPIRIT OF PLACE, SICILIAN CAROUSEL, THE AVIGNON QUINTET and CAESAR'S VAST GHOST. Edited by Peter Baldwin.

As every reader of Durrell knows, his writing is steeped in the living experience of the Mediterranean, and especially the islands of Greece. This captivating and highly unusual text, originally conceived as a picture book and now reset in paperback format, weaves together evocative descriptions, history and myth with Durrell's personal reminiscences. No traveller to Greece or admirer of the genius of Durrell should miss it.

Having immersed himself in the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Cyprus, Lawrence Durrell turns to Sicily, the largest of the Mediterranean islands, with its long and varied history and its spectacular archaeological remains. To equip himself for this formidable task, Durrell joined a tour, the 'Sicilian Carousel', and the account of his travels with a mixed bag of companions is characteristically sharp and witty. But the deeper theme is Mediterranean civilization, its manifestations and its meaning, not only in Sicily but in Greece, in Italy, in Southern France.The book includes several poems by Durrell, not previously published, all inspired by different parts of the island and is illustrated by a selection of elegant engravings. Sicilian Carousel is a book to treasure.

Provence, where Lawrence Durrell lived for thirty years, is the motif of this final work, published just before his death. It is a highly personal and unusual book, part travelogue, part writer's notebook, part autobiography. It preserves memories from his intimate experience of the Midi, and scattered through the evocative text are nineteen poems inspired by the genius of the place.'A richly characteristic bouillabaisse by our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean, our old Prospero of the south; poet, travel writer, novelist and fumiste . . .' Richard Holmes, The Times

Bitter Lemons of Cyprus is Lawrence Durrell's unique account of his time in Cyprus, during the 1950s Enosis movement for freedom of the island from British colonial rule. Winner of the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, it is a document at once personal, poetic and subtly political - a masterly combination of travelogue, memoir and treatise. 'He writes as an artist, as well as a poet; he remembers colour and landscape and the nuances of peasant conversation . . . Eschewing politics, it says more about them than all our leading articles . . . In describing a political tragedy it often has great poetic beauty.' Kingsley Martin, New Statesman'Durrell possesses exceptional qualifications. He speaks Greek fluently; he has a wide knowledge of modern Greek history, politics and literature; he has lived in continental Greece and has spent many years in other Greek islands . . . His account of this calamity is revelatory, moving and restrained. It is written in the sensitive and muscular prose of which he is so consummate a master.' Harold Nicolson, Observer

Set amid the corrupt glamour and multiplying intrigues of Alexandria in the 1930s and 1940s, the novels of Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet" (of which this is the first) follow the shifting alliances - sexual, cultural and political - of a group of quite varied characters.

A breathtaking novel of passion and politics, set in the hotbed of Palestine in the 1940s, by a master of twentieth-century fictionIt is the eve of Britain's withdrawal from Palestine in 1948, a moment that will mark the beginning of a new Israel. But the course of history is uncertain, and Israel's territorial enemies plan to smother the new country at its birth. Judith Roth has escaped the concentration camps in Germany only to be plunged into the new conflict, one with stakes just as high for her as they are for her people.Initially conceived as a screenplay for the 1966 film starring Sophia Loren, Lawrence Durrell's previously unpublished novel offers a thrilling portrayal of a place and time when ancient history crashed against the fragile bulwarks of the modernizing world.This ebook features an introduction by editor Richard Pine, which puts Judith in context with Durrell's body of work and traces the fascinating development of the novel. Also included is an illustrated biography of Lawrence Durrell containing rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's estate and the British Library's modern manuscripts collection.

Thirty-eight rare, out-of-print, or previously unpublished essays and letters by Lawrence Durrell with scholarly introduction.

Rich in invention, psychological truth and sheer entertainment, the five short novels that comprise The Avignon Quintet form one of the key works of an undisputed modern master.'Another constellation of Mediterranean mysteries and memories. This time it is not Alexandria, but Avignon: the old kingdom of the Popes, the capital of the ancient South of France, the heart of legendary Provence . . . The evocation of all of this is superb . . . Our old guide bleu in vintage form.' The Times

In this new selection from the poetry of Lawrence Durrell (the first for thirty years), Peter Porter has drawn on the full range of the published work, from A Private Country (1943) to Vega (1973), and has provided a long overdue revaluation of Durrell's poetic career. In his detailed and generous introduction, Porter makes the case for A Private Country as one of the most accomplished debut collections of the twentieth century, and traces Durrell's preoccupations and poetic personality within the wider scene. The selection of poems makes its own strong case for the continuing power and originality of this attractive, metropolitan and wholly individual body of work.

In 1935, Lawrence Durrell, a young Englishman living on Corfu, wrote enthusiastically to a middle-aged Brooklynite - Henry Miller - of his just published novel "Tropic of Cancer". Miller felt that he had found his ideal reader and responded, thus beginning a correspondence that lasted 45 years.