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The Black Book
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Lawrence Durrell's controversial third novel about a debauched group of intellectuals in a London hotel is 'the most exhilarating surge of language, style and sordid English manners [in] literature.' (DBC Pierre)
Lawrence Durrell's controversial third novel about a debauched group of intellectuals in a London hotel is 'the most exhilarating surge of language, style and sordid English manners [in] literature.' (DBC Pierre)
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
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Description
'The most exhilarating surge of language, style and sordid English manners [in] literature.' - DBC Pierre
'A wild, passionate, brilliantly gaudy and flamboyant extravaganza... Richly obscene, energetically morbid, very often very funny... Above all, stylistically and verbally inventive.' - Observer
Death Gregory has disappeared, abandoning his diaries in a seedy London hotel. Discovered by Lawrence Lucifer, they depict a clique of intellectuals living a life of squalid debauchery: struggling writers and artists consumed by loves, lusts, and a quest for innovation. But as they satisfy violent appetites of the flesh - and mind - their descent into darkness accelerates...
Written when he was only 24, Lawrence Durrell described his controversial third novel as 'a two-fisted attack on literature by an angry young man of the thirties' in which he 'first heard the sound of my own voice.' First published in Paris in 1938, it was banned in Britain for nearly four decades due to its 'obscenity' (influenced by Durrell's friend Henry Miller). Vivid, surrealist, and haunting, The Black Book peers into the recesses of our souls: and establishes Durrell as a trailblazing stylist.
'Stygian prose... Words like stones, throwing, rockerying, mossing, churning, sharpening, bloodsucking, melting, and a hard firewater flows and rolls through them.' - Dylan Thomas
'Genuine art... Lavishly displays Durrell's gift of language... Verbal brilliance.' - New York Times
'The first piece of work by a new English writer to give me any hope for the future of prose fiction.' - T.S. Eliot
'Durrell's first major work... Its showy brilliance is certainly that of a born writer... Savage and obscene.' - Guardian
'Brilliantly strange... It will astonish.' - Independent on Sunday
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780571362424
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 17 June 2021
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Edition: Main
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 15.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 215g
Pages: 256
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About the Author
Lawrence Durrell was a British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. Born in 1912 in India to British colonial parents, he was sent to school in England and later moved to Corfu with his family - a period which his brother Gerald fictionalised in My Family and Other Animals - later filmed as The Durrells in Corfu - and which he himself described in Prospero's Cell. The first of Durrell's island books, this was followed by Reflections on a Marine Venus on Rhodes; Bitter Lemons, on Cyprus, which won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize; and, later, The Greek Islands.
Durrell's first major novel, The Black Book, was published in 1938 in Paris, where he befriended Henry Miller and Anais Nin - and it was praised by T. S. Eliot, who published his poetry in 1943. A wartime sojourn in Egypt inspired his bestselling masterpiece, The Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea) which he completed in his new home in Southern France, where in 1974 he began The Avignon Quintet. When he died in 1990, Durrell was one of the most celebrated writers in British history.
Also by Lawrence Durrell
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The Dark Labyrinth
Spellbinding...A fine storyteller. - Guardian Superb...Quite simply a lovely work of art. - New York Times A group of English tourists have come ashore from their cruise ship to explore the island of Crete. This motley crew - including a painter, spiritualist, spinster, soldier, convalescent, and elderly couple - are holidaying to seek respite from a broken post-war world. But...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Caesar's Vast Ghost
'A richly characteristic bouillabaisse by our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean, our old Prospero of the south.' - Richard Holmes Provence, Southern France. Celebrated writer and poet Lawrence Durrell made the Midi his home for more than thirty years: and in his final book, he shares his most evocative, dazzling memories of life as a local. A...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Alexandria Quartet
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...Paperback$4100Elsewhere:$4500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Justine
Walking slowly home through the dark avenue of trees, tasting the brackish harbour wind, I remembered Justine saying harshly as she lay in bed: 'We use each other like axes to cut down the ones we really love'. Alexandria: the great winepress of love. Trams, palm trees, and watermelon stalls lie honey-bathed in sunlight; in darkened bedrooms, sweaty lovers unfurl....Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Sicilian Carousel
'A magician.' - The Times Despite decades spent poetically chronicling Mediterranean life in Rhodes, Cyprus, and Corfu, celebrated travel writer Lawrence Durrell had never set foot on the largest island: Sicily. For years, his friend Martine begged him to visit her on this sun-kissed paradise, but it took her sudden death to finally bring him to its shores - and...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Avignon Quintet
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...Paperback$4999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Greek Islands
Incandescent. - Andre Aciman Nobody knows the Greek islands like Durrell. - New York Times White-washed houses drenched in pink bougainvillea; dazzling seascapes and rugged coastlines; colourful harbours in quaint fishing villages; shady olive and cypress groves; terraces bathed in the Aegean sun... The Greek islands conjure up a treasure-chest of images - but nobody brings them to life as...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Selected Poems of Lawrence Durrell
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 re-evaluation of Durrell's poetic career. In his detailed and generous introduction, Porter makes the case for A Private Country...Paperback$3299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Clea
An expat schoolteacher has spent years in exile reflecting on his turmoiled love affair with Justine, a glamorous Egyptian wife. Returning to wartime Alexandria, he finds that his old friends have suffered dramatic changes of body, mind, and fortune - and someone whom he has never really known wishes to see him. His affair with Clea, a bisexual artist, not...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Prospero's Cell
"In its gem-like miniature quality, among the best books ever written." - New York Times In his youth, before he became a celebrated writer and poet, Lawrence Durrell spent four transformative years on the island jewel of Corfu, fascinated by the idyllic natural beauty and blood-stained ancient history within its rocky shores. While his brother Gerald collected animals as a...PaperbackSold Out -
Bitter Lemons of Cyprus
Bitter Lemons of Cyprus by Lawrence Durrell is a mesmerising chronicle that captures the essence of Cyprus during a turbulent period in its history. Set in 1953, the book unfolds against the backdrop of the island's struggle for independence from British colonial rule. As Cyprus becomes a battleground for ancient conflicts between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, Durrell finds himself amidst...PaperbackSold Out -
Mountolive
Mountolive by Lawrence Durrell is a novel that plunges readers into the complex world of an English diplomat in Egypt. David Mountolive, who has been captivated by Egypt since a youthful love affair, returns to Alexandria as the British Ambassador just before World War Two. There, he navigates an intricate web of political and religious conspiracies, connecting him with a...PaperbackSold Out
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