About this title: Durrell's monumental four-novel exploration of love, character, friendship, and death includes JUSTINE, CLEA, BALTHAZAR, and MOUNTOLIVE. Published between 1957 and 1960, the quartet, which follows the romantic and political fortunes of a group of friends in Egypt, was an international success, and marked Durrell as an important writer.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton, New York
Date Published: 1961
ISBN-13:9780525470816ISBN:0525470816
Description: Good. 250 p.; 19 cm. This is the second volume of a group of novels intended to be judged as a single work called "The Alexandria quartet". It is the sequel to Justine; and is followed by Mountolive; and Clea. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dutton, New York
Date Published: 1961
ISBN-13:9780525470816ISBN:0525470816
Description: Very Good. 250 p.; 19 cm. This is the second volume of a group of novels intended to be judged as a single work called "The Alexandria quartet". It is the sequel to Justine; and is followed by Mountolive; and Clea. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dutton, New York
Date Published: 1961
ISBN-13:9780525470816ISBN:0525470816
Description: Very Good. 250 p.; 19 cm. This is the second volume of a group of novels intended to be judged as a single work called "The Alexandria quartet". It is the sequel to Justine; and is followed by Mountolive; and Clea. read more
Description: Dutton D81 1961 paperback CONDITION: FINE, a few spine edge rubs, an excellent copy, fine condition SERIES-The Alexandria Quartet Book 2. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Dutton, New York
Date Published: 1961
ISBN-13:9780525470816ISBN:0525470816
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean pages. Very light cover wear. 250 p.; 19 cm. A Dutton paperback; D81.. This is the second volume of a group of novels intended to be judged as a single work called "The Alexandria quartet". It is the sequel to Justine; and is followed by Mountolive; and Clea. read more
Edition: Sixth Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books, New York
Date Published: 1969
Description: Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Good copy with some general wear. light edge rubbing and a couple of small creases on front cover corners. pages clean and unmarked with some light toning at edges. read more
Edition: 6th Printing
Binding: Perfect Bound Paper
Publisher: Pocket Books
Date Published: 1969
Description: Very Good. No Jacket as Issued. Mass Market Paperback. 16mo-over 5¾"-6¾" tall. Excellent shape, very light wear with minor water stain along the top end pages-not very bad. Binding tight, pages clean. read more
Binding: Mass market pb
Publisher: Dutton, New York
Date Published: 1961, c1958
ISBN-13:9780525470816ISBN:0525470816
Description: Good. No dust jacket, as issued. A Dutton paperback; D81. Unknown printing. 250 p. ; 19 cm. This is the second volume of a group of novels intended to be judged as a single work called "The Alexandria quartet". It is the sequel to Justine; and is followed by Mountolive; and Clea. read more
Description: Good. 0525470816 slight corner crease cover/ pages v. light discoloration/ cover acceptable /"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Plume
Date Published: 1961
ISBN-13:9780525470816ISBN:0525470816
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Previous owners name inscribed inside front. -, Mass Market PaperBack, Very Good / read more
"the rest of this series is a set of intertwining stories set in pre war Alexandria. The city is seductive and the characters intreguing, with the exception of the some time narrator who is the least likeable. Still pompous in parts, but mostly beautifully written and a romping good tale."
"This is the second book in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, and I can't imagine reading it without reading Justine first. Even having read Justine not too long ago, I kept feeling a need to go back and re-read to try to fit Balthazar into the context of the first novel.
Interesting, new angles and information, and a demonstration of how perspective changes a story!"
"I read the first volume of the Alexandria Quartet a few years back and, although I enjoyed it and was impressed by Durrell's writing (at times), I guess age had dulled some of the fascination with this author that was prevalent in the '60s. Now that I've read the second volume, I'm back to being impressed. I hadn't realized the structure which Durrell was building around the story (outlining the structure would be a good project for independent study or a degree thesis ... maybe). If you want to read Justine you MUST commit to reading the entire Quartet--Balthazar, Clea and Mountolive."
"Durrell occupies a strange position at the fulcrum of modernity. His style is often baroque and prone to exoticism (at first, he evokes 19th century British colonial literature above all else), but this volume, the second of his best known Alexandria Quatet, reveals more modern preoccupations besides. A perceptive character observes modern art's debt to theoretical physics, and so it is: the novel's tangle of disinterested and capricious love affairs (modern and age-old) shift and squirm in (quantum) uncertainty, resolving to clear positions only as long as they are, um, relative... to a single observer. It sounds silly written out, but that's because these scientific metaphors inform the structure subliminally and because they are feel most correct to the material. Likewise, the structure of the entire Alexandria Quartet echoes our perception of space and time, with the second part/dimension deepening and expanding on the events of the first, from a largely atmospheric rendering to a psychological and philosophical study (so this is not a true "sequel", Durrell points out; they both cover the same time span). Apparently these stories will take on a full three dimensions at last in the next part, with the final moving forward in time (the fourth dimension, of course) to a true sequel."
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