The Alexandria Quartet PDF
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THE JUSTINE ALEXA NDRIA BALTHAZAR QUART ET MOUNTOLIVE LAWREN CE CLEA DURREL L [THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET is also available in a cloth- bound edition] THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET JUSTINE, BALTHAZAR, MOUNTOLIVE, CLEA by LAWRENCE DURRELL ‘He has achieved the rare feat of perfectly balancing and intertwining emot ion, sensation and thinking, through four novels al so closely woven together that once you ha ve them al in your head they fuse and it is no longer possible to separate one from the other three…. If ever a work bore an instantly recogni zable signature on every sentence, this is it. It is in fact a formidable, glittering achievement; and not the least remarkable thing about it is that in spite of the al -pervading spirit of Alexandria, it has, too, a timelessness and placelessness peculiar to works that are big enough to make a world of their own.’ The Times Literary Supplement FABER paper covered EDITIONS THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET books by Lawrence Durrel * novels NUNQUAM TUNC THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea JUSTINE BALTHAZAR MOUNTOLIVE CLEA THE DARK LABYRINTH * travel BITTER LEMONS REFLECTIONS ON A MARINE VENUS PROSPERO’S CELL * humour SAUVE QUI PEUT STIFF UPPER LIP ESPRIT DE CORPS * poetry COLLECTED POEMS SELECTED POEMS 1935-1963 THE IKONS THE TREE OF IDLENESS * drama SAPPHO AN IRISH FAUSTUS ACTE * letters LAWRENCE DURRELL AND HENRY MILLER: A Private Corresponde nce SPIRIT OF PLACE: Letters and Essays on Travel * for young people WHITE EAGLES OVER SERBIA The Alexandria Quartet by LAWRENCE DURRELL JUSTINE BALTHAZAR MOUNTOLIVE CLEA FABER AND FABER London Justine first published in 1957 Balthazar first published in 1958 Mountolive first published in 1958 Clea first published in 1960 First published in this edition 1968 Reprinted 1969, 1970 by Faber and Faber Limited 24 Russell Square London W.C.I Printed in Great Britain by C. Tinling & Co. Ltd. , London and Prescot. All rights reserved ISBN 0 571 08609 8 ( Faber Paper Covered Edition ) ISBN 0 571 05204 5 ( Hard Bound Edition) CONDITIONS OF SALE This book is sold to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise cir- culated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published and without a sim ilar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser This one-volume edition © Lawrence Durrell 1962 Balthazar © Lawrence Durrell 195 Mountolive © Lawrence Durrell 1958 Clea © Lawrence Durrell 1960 PREFACE THIS group of four novels is intended to be read as a single work under the col ective title of The Alexandria Quartet; a suitable descriptive subtitle might be ‘a word continuum’. In trying to work out my form I adopted, as a rough analogy, the relativity proposition. The first three were related in an intercalary fashion, being ‘siblings’ of each other and not ‘sequels’; only the last novel was intended to be a true sequel and to unleash the time dimen-sion. The whole was intended as a chal enge to the serial form of the conventional novel: the time-saturated novel of the day. Among the workpoints at the end I have sketched in a number of possible ways of continuing to deploy these characters and situations in further instalments — but this is only to suggest that even if the group of books were extended indefinitely the result would never become roman fleuve; if, that is to say, the axis of the work has been properly laid down it should be possible to radiate from it in any direction without losing the strictness and congruity of its relation to ‘a continuum’. It has been possible, for this edition, to correct a number of smal slips pointed out by readers and critics, and also to add some smal passages which were cut out of the original volumes in the MS. stage. The changes are not very great. Balthazar and Mountolive both lose half a dozen lines of text. Clea gains a smal section, and a new translation from C. P. Cavafy. L.D. France 1962 CONTENTS page Preface 7 JUSTINE: a novel 11 Note 13 Part I 17 Part I 78 Part I I 121 Part IV 179 Workpoints 197 Notes in the Text 203 BALTHAZAR: a novel 205 Part I 209 Part I 281 Part I I 338 Part IV 366 Consequential Data 385 Scobie’s Common Usage 388 Workpoints 389 Note in the Text 390 MOUNTOLIVE: a novel 391 Note 395 CLEA: a novel 653 Workpoints 878 Some Notes for Clea (by Pursewarden) 879 Notes in the Text 882 JUSTINE NOTE The characters in this story, the first of a group, are al inventions together with the personality of the narrator, and bear no resemblance to living persons. Only the city is real. I am accustoming myself to the idea of regarding every sexual act as a process in which four persons are involved. We shall have a lot to discuss about that. S. FREUD : Letters There are two positions available to us — either crime which renders us happy, or the noose, which prevents us from being unhappy. I ask whether there can be any hesitation, lovely Thérèse, and where will your little mind find an argument able to combat that one? D. A. F. DE SADE : Justine To EVE these memorials of her native city
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