Lawrence Durrell: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer (1912–1990)}}

| caption = Lawrence Durrell during his visit to Israel in 1962

Born in [[British India|India]] to British colonial parents, he was sent to England at the age of eleven11 for his education. He did not like formal education, but started writing poetry at the age of 15. His first book was published in 1935, when he was 23 years old. In March 1935 he and his mother and younger siblings moved to the island of [[Corfu]]. Durrell spent many years thereafter living around the world.

His most famous work is ''[[The Alexandria Quartet]],'', published between 1957 and 1960. The best-known novel in the series is the first, ''[[Justine (Durrell novel)|Justine]]''. Beginning in 1974, Durrell published ''[[The Avignon Quintet]],'', using many of the same techniques. The first of these novels, ''[[Monsieur (novel)|Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness]],'', won the [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] in 1974. The middle novel, ''[[Constance (novel)|Constance, or Solitary Practices]],'', was nominated for the 1982 [[Booker Prize]]. ByIn the end of the20th century, Durrell was a bestselling author and one of the most celebrated writers in England.<ref name="migrant"/>

Like many other children of the [[British Raj]], at the age of eleven11, Durrell was sent to England for schooling, where he briefly attended [[St. Olave's Grammar School]] before being sent to [[St. Edmund's School]], [[Canterbury]]. His formal education was unsuccessful, and he failed his university entrance examinations. He began to write poetry seriously at the age of fifteen15. His first collection, ''Quaint Fragments'', was published in 1931, when he was 19 years old.

On 22 January 1935, Durrell married art student Nancy Isobel Myers (1912–1983), with whom he briefly ran a photographic studio in London.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Michael|last=Haag|title=Only the City is Real: Lawrence Durrell's Journey to Alexandria|journal=Alif|volume=26|year=2006|pages=39–47}}</ref> It was the first of his four marriages.<ref>{{cite book | last=MacNiven| first=Ian S.| title=Lawrence Durrell: A Biography| publisher=Faber and Faber|location=London| year=1998| isbn=0-571-17248-2}} p. xiii.</ref> Durrell was always unhappy in England, and in March of that year he persuaded his new wife, and his mother and younger siblings, to move to the Greek island of Corfu. There they could live more economically and escape both the English weather, and what Durrell considered the stultifying English culture, which he described as "the English death".<ref>Anna Lillios, "Lawrence Durrell,", in ''Magill's Survey of World Literature,'', volume '''7''', pp. 2334–2342; Salem Press, Inc., 1995</ref>

That same year Durrell's first novel, ''[[Pied Piper of Lovers]],'', was published by [[Orion Publishing Group|Cassell]]. Around this time he chanced upon a copy of [[Henry Miller]]'s 1934 novel ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]].''.<ref name="durrell.in.CA"/> After reading it, he wrote to Miller, expressing intense admiration for his novel. Durrell's letter sparked an enduring friendship<ref name="durrell.in.CA"/> and mutually critical relationship that spanned 45 years. Durrell's next novel, ''[[Panic Spring]],'', was strongly influenced by Miller's work,<ref name="orend">Karl Orend, "New Bibles", ''Times Literary Supplement'' 22 August 2008 p 15</ref> while his 1938 novel ''[[The Black Book (1938 novel)|The Black Book]]'' abounded with "[[four-letter word]]s... grotesques,... [and] its mood equally as apocalyptic" as ''Tropic''.<ref name="orend"/>

Durrell fictionalised this period of his sojourn on Corfu in the lyrical novel ''Prospero's Cell.''. His younger brother [[Gerald Durrell]], who became a naturalist, published his own version in his memoir ''[[My Family and Other Animals]]'' (1954) and in the following two books of Gerald's so-called ''Corfu Trilogy,'', published in 1969 and 1978. Gerald describes Lawrence as living permanently with his mother and siblings — his wife Nancy is not mentioned at all. Lawrence, in his turn, refers only briefly to his brother Leslie, and he does not mention that his mother and two other siblings were also living on Corfu in those years. The accounts cover a few of the same topics; for example, both Gerald and Lawrence describe the roles played in their lives by the Corfiot taxi driver Spyros Halikiopoulos and Theodore Stephanides. In Corfu, Lawrence became friends with [[Marie Aspioti]], with whom he cooperated in the publication of ''Lear's Corfu.''.<ref name="Lillios2004">{{Cite book | last = Lillios | first = Anna | title = Lawrence Durrell and the Greek World | publisher = Susquehanna University Press | year = 2004 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xevl3TA26KUC | isbn =978-1575910765 | access-date = 26 June 2013}}</ref>{{rp|260}}

In August 1937, Lawrence and Nancy travelled to the Villa Seurat in [[Paris]], France, to meet [[Henry Miller]] and [[Anaïs Nin]]. Together with [[Alfred Perles]], Nin, Miller, and Durrell "began a collaboration aimed at founding their own literary movement. Their projects included ''The Shame of the Morning'' and the ''Booster'', a country club house organ that the Villa Seurat group appropriated "for their own artistic . . . ends."<ref>{{cite book | last=Dearborn | first=Mary V. | title=The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller | publisher=Touchstone Books | year=1992 | isbn=0-671-77982-6 | url=https://archive.org/details/happiestmanalive00mary }} p. 192 and picture insert captions.</ref> 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]].''. Jack Kahane of the [[Obelisk Press]] served as publisher.

Durrell's first novel of note, ''[[The Black Book (1938 novel)|The Black Book: An Agon]],'', was strongly influenced by Miller; it was published in Paris in 1938. The mildly pornographic work was not published in Great Britain until 1973. In the story, the main character Lawrence Lucifer struggles to escape the spiritual sterility of dying England and finds Greece to be a warm and fertile environment.

At the outbreak of World War Two in 1939, Durrell's mother and siblings returned to England, while Nancy and he remained on Corfu. In 1940, they had a daughter, Penelope Berengaria. After the [[Battle of Greece|fall of Greece]], Lawrence and Nancy escaped from [[Kalamata]], where they had been teaching,<ref>Durrell was the director of the British Council’s English Language Institute in Kalamata (Peloponnese) from September 1940 to April 1941. The little house provided for him on Navarinou Street (no. 83), on the seafront, remains. With his first wife Nancy (née Myers) and baby daughter Penelope, the family fled to Egypt as the German army advanced (see, e.g., Ian MacNiven (1998), ''Lawrence Durrell: a biography'', Faber, pp.226-7; Nikos Zervis (1999), ''Lawrence Durrell in Kalamata'', isbn: 978-960-90690-1-0 (published privately) (in Greek); Joanna Hodgkin (2023), ''Amateurs in Eden: the story of a bohemian marriage; Nancy and Lawrence Durrell'', Virago, pp.258-63.</ref> via [[Crete]] to [[Alexandria]], [[Egypt]]. The marriage was already under strain and they separated in 1942. Nancy took the baby Penelope with her to [[Jerusalem]].

During his years on Corfu, Durrell had made notes for a book about the island. He did not write it fully until he was in Egypt towards the end of the war. In the book ''[[Prospero's Cell]],'', Durrell described Corfu as "this brilliant little speck of an island in the [[Ionian Sea|Ionian]],".{{page needed|date=October 2016}} with waters "like the heartbeat of the world itself".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Durrell |first1=Lawrence |title=Prospero's cell : a guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corcyra |date=1978 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=0140046852 |page=[https://archive.org/details/prosperoscellgui00durr/page/100 100] |url=https://archive.org/details/prosperoscellgui00durr/page/100 }}</ref>

During World War Two, Durrell served as a press attaché to the British embassies, first in [[Cairo]] and then Alexandria. While in Alexandria he met Eve (Yvette) Cohen (1918–2004), a Jewish Alexandrian. She inspired his character [[Justine (Durrell novel)|Justine]] in ''[[The Alexandria Quartet]].''. In 1947, after his divorce from Nancy was completed, Durrell married Eve Cohen, with whom he had been living since 1942.<ref name=SDperGranta1991>{{cite web|url=https://granta.com/journals-and-letters/|date=1 October 1991|title=Journals and Letters [of] Sappho Durrell|work=Sappho Durrell, quoted posthumously in a lengthy review of an "edited selection from the journals and letters [of Sappho Durrell] ... drawn mainly from 1979"|publisher=[[Granta|Granta 37]]|access-date=14 October 2020}}</ref> The couple's daughter, Sappho Jane, was born in [[Oxfordshire]] in 1951,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=%2FU7K5Kiz2gO%2FzUs03L%2Ba7g&scan=1|title=Index entry|access-date=13 October 2020 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}}</ref> and named after the ancient Greek poet [[Sappho]].<ref name=SD&LDperJR/>

In May 1945, Durrell obtained a posting to [[Rhodes]], the largest of the [[Dodecanese]] islands whichthat Italy had taken over from the disintegrating [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1912 during the [[Balkan Wars]]. With the Italian surrender to the Allies in 1943, German forces took over most of the islands and held onto them as besieged fortresses until the war's end. Mainland Greece was at that time locked in civil war. A temporary British military government was established in the Dodecanese at war's end, pending sovereignty being transferred to Greece in 1947, as part of [[war reparations]] from Italy. Durrell set up house with Eve in the little gatekeeper's lodge of an old Turkish cemetery, just across the road from the building used by the British Administration. (Today this is the Casino in Rhodes' new town.) His co-habitation with Eve Cohen could be discreetly ignored by his employer, while the couple gained from staying within the perimeter security zone of the main building. His book ''[[Reflections on a Marine Venus]]'' was inspired by this period and was a lyrical celebration of the island. It avoids more than a passing mention of the troubled war times.

[[File:LDurrellHouseRhodes.JPG|right|thumb|200px|alt=Durrell's house in Rhodes features Mediterranean architecture and has yellow-painted stucco or plaster walls. It is located on a paved asphalt street, with two cars parked parallel to it. The house is surrounded by several trees, shrubbery, roses, and flowering bushes.|Lawrence Durrell's home in [[Rhodes]] from 20 May 1945 until 10 April 1947]]

In 1947, Durrell was appointed director of the [[British Council]] Institute in Córdoba, [[Argentina]]. He served there for eighteen months, giving lectures on cultural topics.<ref>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.</ref> He returned to London with Eve in the summer of 1948, around the time that Marshal [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]] of Yugoslavia broke ties with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s [[Cominform]]. Durrell was posted by the British Council to [[Belgrade]], [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]],<ref>Alyn, ''op. cit.'' Ingersoll, pagep. 139.</ref> and served there until 1952. This sojourn gave him material for his novel ''[[White Eagles over Serbia]]'' (1957).

In 1957, Durrell published ''[[Justine (Durrell novel)|Justine]],'', the first novel of what was to become his most famous work, ''[[The Alexandria Quartet]].''. ''[[Justine (Durrell novel)|Justine]],'', ''[[Balthazar (novel)|Balthazar]]'' (1958), ''[[Mountolive]]'' (1958), and ''[[Clea (novel)|Clea]]'' (1960), deal with events before and during the Second World War in the Egyptian city of [[Alexandria]]. The first three books tell essentially the same story and series of events, but from the varying perspectives of different characters. Durrell described this technique in his introductory note in ''Balthazar'' as "relativistic.". Only in the final novel, ''Clea'', does the story advance in time and reach a conclusion. Critics praised the ''Quartet'' for its richness of style, the variety and vividness of its characters, its movement between the personal and the political, and its locations in and around the ancient Egyptian 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."

Durrell settled in [[Sommières]], a small village in [[Languedoc-Roussilon|Languedoc]], France, where he purchased a large house on the edge of the village. The house was situated in extensive grounds surrounded by a wall. Here he wrote ''[[The Revolt of Aphrodite]],'', comprising ''[[Tunc (novel)|Tunc]]'' (1968) and ''[[Nunquam (novel)|Nunquam]]'' (1970). He also completed ''[[The Avignon Quintet]],'', published from 1974 to 1985, which used many of the same motifs and styles found in his metafictional ''Alexandria Quartet.''. Although the related works are frequently described as a quintet, Durrell referred to it as a "[[quincunx]].".

The opening novel, ''[[Monsieur (novel)|Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness]],'', received the 1974 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]]. That year, Durrell was living in the United States and serving as the Andrew Mellon Visiting Professor of Humanities at the [[California Institute of Technology]].<ref>{{cite book | editor=Andrews, Deborah. (ed). | title=The Annual Obituary 1990 | publisher=Gale | year=1991}} p. 678.</ref>

Other works from this period are ''Sicilian Carousel,'', a non-fiction celebration of that island, ''The Greek Islands,'', and ''Caesar's Vast Ghost,'', which is set in and chiefly about the region of [[Provence, France]].

He was predeceased by his younger daughter, Sappho Jane, who took her own life in 1985 at the age of 33. After Durrell's death, it emerged that Sappho's diaries included allusions to an alleged incestuous relationship with her father.<ref name=SD&LDperJR>{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/XnLcdzWG8Ws|title=Inside Story: Daddy Dearest - The writer Lawrence Durrell cast a long, dark shadow over the short and troubled life of his daughter, Sappho|author=Jay Rayner|date=14 September 1991|work=[[The Guardian]]|location=London|via=[[Google Groups]]|access-date=13 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Roger|last=Cohen|title=A Daughter's Intimations|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/14/books/no-headline-011291.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=14 August 1991|access-date=11 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12025336.a-man-pursued-by-furies/|title=A man pursued by furies (a review of Bowker's biography)|work=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]|date=14 December 1996|access-date=19 September 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Redwine|first=Bruce|title=Tales of Incest: The Agony of Saph and Pa Durrell|publisher=www.academia.edu}}</ref>

Durrell worked for several years in the service of the [[Foreign Office]]. He was senior press officer to the British embassies in Athens and Cairo, press attaché in Alexandria and Belgrade, and director of the British Institutes in [[Kalamata, Greece|Kalamata]], Greece, and [[Córdoba, Argentina|Córdoba]], Argentina. He was also director of Public Relations in the [[Dodecanese Islands]] and on Cyprus. He later refused an honour as a [[Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George]], because he felt his "conservative, reactionary and right-wing" political views might be a cause for embarrassment.<ref name="Lillios2004"/>{{rp|185}} Durrell's works of humour, ''Esprit de Corps'' and ''Stiff Upper Lip,'', are about life in the [[Diplomacy|diplomatic]] corps, particularly in [[Serbia]]. He claimed to have disliked both Egypt and Argentina,<ref>{{cite bookreport |title=Lawrence Durrell in Cyprus: A Philhellene against Enosis |location=Epos |date=2003 |author=José Ruiz Mas |url=http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv.php?pid=bibliuned:Epos-06540BA4-FC08-586D-9536-77A561E422D8&dsID=PDF |page=230 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310163023/http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv.php?pid=bibliuned%3AEpos-06540BA4-FC08-586D-9536-77A561E422D8&dsID=PDF |archive-date=10 March 2012 }}</ref> although not nearly so much as he disliked Yugoslavia.

Durrell's poetry has been overshadowed by his novels, but [[Peter Porter (poet)|Peter Porter]], in his introduction to a ''Selected Poems,'', calls Durrell "One of the best [poets] of the past hundred years. And one of the most enjoyable."<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Porter|editor-first=Peter|title=Lawrence Durrell: Selected Poems|publisher=Faber and Faber|year=2006}}</ref> Porter describes Durrell's poetry: "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."<ref>{{harvnb|Porter|2006|p=xxi}}</ref>

In 1966 Durrell and many other former and present British residents became classified as non-[[Right of abode|patrial]], as a result of an amendment to the [[Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962|Commonwealth Immigrants Act]].<ref name="migrant">{{cite news | last = Ezard | first = John | title = Durrell Fell Foul of Migrant Law | newspaper = The Guardian | date = 29 April 2002 | url = https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/apr/29/books.booksnews | access-date = 30 January 2007 }}</ref> The law was covertly intended to reduce migration from India, Pakistan, and the West Indies, but Durrell was also penalized by it and refused citizenship. He had not been told that he needed to "register as a British citizen in 1962 under the [[Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962]].".<ref name="migrant"/>

As ''The Guardian'' reported in 2002, Durrell in 1966 was "one of the best selling, most celebrated English novelists of the late 20th century" and "at the height of his fame.".<ref name="migrant"/> Denied the normal citizenship right to enter or settle in Britain, Durrell had to apply for a visa for each entry. Diplomats were outraged and embarrassed at these events. "Sir [[Patrick Reilly]], the ambassador in Paris, was so incensed that he wrote to his Foreign Office superiors: 'I venture to suggest it might be wise to ensure that ministers, both in the Foreign Office and the Home Office, are aware that one of our greatest living writers in the English language is being debarred from the citizenship of the United Kingdom to which he is entitled.'"<ref name="migrant"/>

* ''[[The Black Book (Durrell novel)|The Black Book]] '' (1938; republished in theGreat UKBritain onin 1 January 19771973 by [[Faber and Faber]])

* ''Selected Poems: 1953–19631935–1963'' . Edited by [[Alan Ross]] (1964)

* ''Collected Poems: 1931–1974'' . Edited by James A. Brigham (1980)

* ''Selected Poems of Lawrence Durrell'' . Edited by [[Peter Porter (poet)|Peter Porter]] (2006)

* ''Esprit de Corps, Sketches from Diplomatic Life'' (1957)

* ''Stiff Upper Lip, Life Among the Diplomats'' (1958)

* ''Antrobus Complete'' (1985), abrings collectiontogether ofthe shortthree stories,preceding volumes plus the previously publisheduncollected insketch various"Smoke, magazinesthe embassy cat" (1978); omits "A smircher besmirched", aboutwhich lifeappeared in the [[Diplomacy|diplomatic]] corpsU.S. but not the British edition of ''Stiff Upper Lip''

* ''Lawrence Durrell and [[Henry Miller]]: A Private Correspondence'' (19621963), edited by George Wickes

* ''Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel'' (1969), edited by Alan G. Thomas

* ''Literary Lifelines: The [[Richard Aldington]]—Lawrence Durrell Correspondence'' (1981), edited by Ian S. MacNiven and Harry T. Moore

* "Letters to [[T. S. Eliot]]" (1987), ''Twentieth Century Literature'' Vol. 33, No. 3 pp.&nbsp;348–358.

{{reflistReflist}}

* {{cite journal| url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4720/the-art-of-fiction-no-23-lawrence-durrell| title=Lawrence Durrell, The Art of Fiction No. 23| journal=[[The Paris Review]]| issue=Autumn–Winter 1959–1960| date=1960|author1=Andrewski, Gene |author2=Mitchell, Julian | access-date=30 October 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104065036/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4720/the-art-of-fiction-no-23-lawrence-durrell| archive-date=4 January 2013| url-status=dead}}

* Bowker, Gordon. ''Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell''. New York: St. Martin's PPress, 1997.

* Durrell, Lawrence. ''The Big Supposer: An Interview with Marc Alyn''. New York: Grove PPress, 1974.

* Haag, Michael. ''Alexandria: City of Memory''. London and New Haven: Yale UUniversity PPress, 2004. [Intertwined biographies of Lawrence Durrell, E. M. Forster and Constantine Cavafy in Alexandria.]

* Haag, Michael. ''Vintage Alexandria: Photographs of the City 1860–1960''. Cairo and New York: The American UUniversity of Cairo PPress, 2008. [Includes an introduction on the historical, social and literary significance of Alexandria, and extensively captioned photographs of the cosmopolitan city and its inhabitants, including Durrell and people he knew.]

* Begnal, Michael H., ed. ''On Miracle Ground: Essays on the Fiction of Lawrence Durrell''. Lewisburg: Bucknell UUniversity PPress, 1990.

* Clawson, James M. ''Durrell Re-read : Crossing the Liminal in Lawrence Durrell's Major Novels''. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UUniversity PPress, 2016.

* Friedman, Alan Warren. ''Lawrence Durrell and "The Alexandria Quartet": Art for Love's Sake''. Norman: UUniversity of Oklahoma PPress, 1970.

* Gifford, James. ''Personal Modernisms: Anarchist Networks and the Later Avant-Gardes ''. EdmontonL UUniversity Alberta PPress, 2014.

* Kaczvinsky, Donald P. ''Lawrence Durrell's Major Novels, or The Kingdom of the Imagination''. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna UUniversity PPress, 1997.

* Kaczvinsky, Donald P., ed. ''Durrell and the City: Collected Essays on Place''. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UUniversity PPress, 2011.

* Lillios, Anna, ed. ''Lawrence Durrell and the Greek World''. London: Associated UUniversity Presses, 2004.

* Moore, Harry T., ed. ''The World of Lawrence Durrell''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UUniversity PPress, 1962.

* Morrison, Ray. ''A Smile in His Mind's Eye: A Study of the Early Works of Lawrence Durrell''. Toronto: UUniversity of Toronto PPress, 2005.

* Pelletier, Jacques. ''Le Quatour D'Alexandrie De Lawrence Durrell. Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet.''. Paris: Hachette, 1975.

* Pine, Richard. ''The Dandy and the Herald: Manners, Mind and Morals From Brummell to Durrell''. New York: St. Martin's PPress, 1988.

* Raper, Julius Rowan, ''et al'', eds. ''Lawrence Durrell: Comprehending the Whole''. Columbia: UUniversity of Missouri PPress, 1995.

* Potter, Robert A., and Brooke Whiting. ''Lawrence Durrell: A Checklist''. Los Angeles: UUniversity of California, Los Angeles Library, 1961.

* Thomas, Alan G., and James Brigham. ''Lawrence Durrell: An Illustrated Checklist''. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UUniversity PPress, 1983.

* Zahlan, Anne R. "Always Friday the Thirteenth: The Knights Templar and the Instability of History in Durrell's ''The Avignon Quintet.''" . ''Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal'' NS11 (2008–09): 23–39.

* Zahlan, Anne R. "Avignon Preserved: Conquest and Liberation in Lawrence Durrell's ''Constance.''" . ''The Literatures of War.''. Ed. [[Richard Pine]] and [[Eve Patten]]. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009. 253–276.

* Zahlan, Anne R. "City as Carnival: Narrative as Palimpsest: Lawrence Durrell's ''The Alexandria Quartet.''". ''The Journal of Narrative Technique'' 18 (1988): 34–46.

* Zahlan, Anne R. "Crossing the Border: Lawrence Durrell's Alexandrian Conversion to Post-Modernism.". ''South Atlantic Review'' 64:4 (Fall 1999).

*Zahlan, Anne R. "The Destruction of the Imperial Self in Lawrence Durrell's ''The Alexandria Quartet''.". ''Self and Other: Perspectives on Contemporary Literature XII.''. University Press of Kentucky, 1986. 3–12.

*Zahlan, Anne R. "The Most Offending Souls Alive: Ruskin, Mountolive, and the Myth of Empire.". ''Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal'' NS10 (2006).

*Zahlan, Anne. R. "War at the Heart of the Quincunx: Resistance and Collaboration in Durrell's ''Constance''.". ''Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal'' NS12 (2010). 38–59.

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110616051224/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article4618977.ece "Lawrence Durrell in the ambiguous white metropolis"]: an essay on the ''Alexandria Quartet,'', ''The Times Literary Supplement (TLS),'', 27 August 2008.

[[Category:PostmodernBritish writersexpatriates in Cyprus]]

[[Category:PeopleEnglish educatedtravel at Pancyprian Gymnasiumwriters]]

[[Category:BritishPeople expatriateseducated inat CyprusPancyprian Gymnasium]]

[[Category:GeraldPeople Durrelleducated at St Edmund's School Canterbury]]