A prolific writer of prose, Lawrence Durrell proved an interesting and complex
personality reflected in his work, structured in its turn on different levels, thus allowing
different approaches. A traditional one would relate the p 656i82g lace pf this place pf his birth -
author's personality that oversteps time and space and any other convention and aiming
at a unique of both time and space in a single creation.
Durrell's images are paralleled by the relativity of his work which underlines the
focus on the alteration of reality through the process of creation. His well - known The
Alexandria Quartet is a successful outcome of his theory offering different perspectives
of the same story as he states in the Preface to the Quartet : "I'm 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 dimension. The whole was
intended as a challenge to the serial form of the conventional novel: the time - saturated
novel of the day'.
Before any reference to Alexandria Quartet the reader should brood on the last
sentence of the quotation. First of all the author warns the reader that he is aware of his
responsibility as a 'modernist' writer and considers his gesture a "challenge" - therefore
a progressive step of English literature. From his point of view progress consists of the
discovering of something new, different, opposite to everything that has already been
written. The first three novels so -called 'siblings' suggest similarity and difference;
different views of the same story. The concept of "conventional novel" is synonymo
us with the "traditional novel" with its fluent running of the events that assures its
linearity and successiveness. Durrell's "challenge" proposes an annihilation of the
limitation between spatial arts painting, sculpture - and linear arts - music, literarure.
This huge creation was realised in only four years: Justine (1957), Balthazar
(1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960). The main character who is seeking the truth
is a writer, Darley, not accidentally reduced to the initials L.D. The first novel relates
L.D.'s love affair to a strange, enigmatic Jewish named Justine, married with an
aristocrat, Nessim, a member of the religious - philosophical Cabal. The second book
offers Darley's reading of the same "painting " Balthazar, another member of the cabal,
corrects his vision. According to the version Darley seems to be a tool in Justune's hands
while the latter was mistress of another writer Pursewarden, who is dead.
Alexandria Quartet can be interpreted as a "panorama pf sexual experience". "To
the many gradations of heterosexual eroticism - from the romantic - idealistic to the pure
physical - are added rape, incest, male homosexuality, lesbianism, child prostitution and
travesty". By adding erotic experiences the author widens the horizon of the work
without alternating the idea of formation, education, preparation of a character and also
of building a modern novel.
The constant presence of the pool is like a vivid awareness of the novel itself. By
placing it inside the house the author respects the reality of the muslin world suggesting
that there is an opposition between the house could be a symbol of life, freshness, activity
and it could be considered antonymous with the sun outside associated with heat, sand,
death, therefore the desert.
The depth of the water invites the reader to a more careful interpretation of it
meanings. Its stillness is generally associated with its depth - its calmness with the
coming storm. The surface of the pool resembles a mirror, a reflecting surface that
implies duality: life and death, light and darkness. Therefore an image reflected in the
pool supposes alternation, a change of plan, difference and identity at the same time. The
mirror is a symbol of the coexistence of good and evil in a single person.
The idea of double vision suggested by the pool and the mirror is emphasised by
the double presentation of the characters. Their personalities are complex since they are
the result of both an external presentation - the other characters point of view - and their
confessions. Their inner aspect is offered to the reader through direct confessions,
journals or letters which instead of helping the reader to clarify the character's image,
make it even more ambiguous and spread. This makes Darley's journey towards truth
futile since truth cannot be reached by anyone as Durrell himself says: "he was like a man
seeking to marry the twin images in a camera periscope in order to lay his lens in true
focus".
The characters' quality of changing. As they are perceived by different eyes is
similar to the "magical landscape", the frame of their actions,
able to adjust to the onlooker, like the chameleon that transforms itself always hiding
something. From that point of view
town to dwell for an outsider since it influences his behaviour and life.
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