T H E S I S
D e p a r t a m e n t o de Língua e L it er at u ra Estrangeiras
A R T A N D THE A R T I S TS IN L A WR EN C E DURRELL
Tese submetida ã U ni v er s id a d e Federal de Santa Catarina para a o bt enção do grau de M estre em Letras
de
M e st r e em Letras
E s pecialidade LÍngua Inglesa e Literatura C or respondente e aprovada em sua forma final pelo Programa de Põs-Gr ad ua çã o
Prof^ ^Ífomas Eddie C o w i n , MA O rientador
Prof. Paulino Vandresej/, PhD Integrador do Cu^so
A p r e s e n ta d a p e rante a Comis s ão E xaminadora composta dos pro- fessore:
Prof. Thmias Eddie Cowin, MA Pres
Prof/ John Bruce Derrick, PhD
à U n i v e r si d a d e Federal de Santa C a tarina pela o portunidade de me p o s - g r a d u a r e de a p r e s e n t a r este ■ t r a b a l h o .
Ao P ro fe ss or T homas Eddie Cowin pela extrema dedicação e p r o fundo i nt eresse com que me orientou.
Aos demais p ro f es s o r es que c o n t r i b u i r a m para que esse trabalho pudesse ser realizado.
From Lawr'ence D ur rell's first important n o v e l , The Black Book (19 38) to his last one M o n s i e u r or The Prince of D a r k n e s s ( 1 97 U) artists are central characters w h o transmit Durrell's vision of
art and life.
T hr o u g ho u t the study of Durrell's theories of art, the d e v e l op m e n t of his experi me nt al techniques and the analysis of ce ntral themes in his work, Durrell's own p os it i on as an artist can be t r a c e d as well as the role of his artists in life.
For Durrell, the a r ti s t is the one who imposes a pattern upon life by t rying to r ew or k reality, as Durrell also does by. c re a ti ng characters who are e xtensions of himself. Durrell, the artist , th us , is projected in all his artists, l e ading us to the c on c l u si o n that the a uthor cannot be separated from his creation. All D ur re ll 's artists are refracted aspects of himself, each one a dd i n g a d if f er en t layer to the total i mpression of his personality.
In The A l ex a n d r i a Quartet Durrell is c on ce rn e d with p r e s e n t i n g a r e al i t y which is not a single truth, but a composite pi c t ur e m a d e up of highly s u bj ec t i v e truths as seen by observers and actors in the novel. These observers and actors are primarily artists. In M o n s i e u r or The P r i nc e of Darkness interest has changec to an i n w a r d - l o o k i n g analysis of his own creative p r o c e s s e s .The artist here is, as his a uthor also is, only c on ce r ne d with his own p o s si b i l it i es of a na ly si ng h im s e l f . through diffe r en t angle.? , and for him, i'-eality cannot be reworked anymore, b ecause reality is c on f o u nd e d with, and i n di st in gu i s h ab l e from fiction.
This obsessive concern with the self, and the deliberate u n c e rt a in t y of w he t he r art imitates life, or life art, indicate? ,= tendency towards nai'cissi stic decadence which increases 'chroui2h.",“ D urrell's v\;ork, until it a ssumes major importance in his last
D esde a p ri me i r a n o v e l a impor ta nt e de Lawrence Durrell, The Black Book (1936) atë sua u lt i m a n ovela M o n s i e u r or the P r in ' ce of Darkness (.1974), a r tistas sao p ersonagens centrais os quais t r a n s m i t e m a visio de a rt e e vida de Lawrence Durrell.
A t ra vë s do estudo de sua teoria de arte, do d e s e n v o l v i m en t o de sua t ëc ni ca e x pe r i m e n t a l e da a na li s e dos temas centrais em sua obra, a p o si ç ão de D u rr e l l como a rt is ta pode ser delineada a s s i m como a de seus artistas.
Para Durrell, o a r t i s t a ë aquele que impõe u m p ad rã o s o bre a vida, t en ta n do m o d i f i c a r a r e a li d a d e que o cerca. Durrell i a s s i m o faz q uando cria p e r s o n a ge n s que sS'o extensões dele pro prio.. 0 a r ti st a Lawrence D u rrell proj e t a ~ ? e ,p o r t a n t o , em todos os seus artistas, l e vando-nos a c o nc lu sã o que p e rs on a ge ns não são au tonomos, mas p arte de seu autor. Todos os artistas de Durrell são aspec t os r e fr a t ãr io s dele mesmo, e cada u m a di c i on a ângulos d i f e rentes na c om p os i ç ã o total de sua personalidade.
Na t e t ra l o g ia The A l e x a n d r i a Quartet Durrell p r e o cu pa - se em a p r e s e n t a r uma r e a l i d a d e que não ë uma unica verdade, mas um quadro c o mp os t o de m u it as v e rd ad es subjetivas vistas por o b serva- dor'es e atores .Esses o b s e rv a d o re s e atores são p r i m ar i a m en t e a r tistas. Na n ov e la M o n s i e u r or the P rince of Darkness o interesse m u da e o autor a p re s e n ta uma a u t o - a n a l i s e de seu p ro pr io p ro ce s s o criativo. 0 a r t i s ta agora e st aj C om o seu autor t am b ê m está..; p r e o cupado com a p o s s ib i l i d a d e de se a u t o - an a li s a r sob â ngulos diver sos, e para eles r ea li da de e f ic ç ã o são c o n f u n d i d a á , quase indis- t i n g u i v e i s .
Essa p r e o c u p aç ã o o b s e ss i va com o p rprio ser ,e a incer - tesa d e l i be ra d a se arte imita a vida ou se a vida imita a r te , i n di ca uma t e nd e n ci a para uma d e c a d e n c ia n ar c i s si s t a a qual a um en ta a travês de sea obra, atë a s s u m ir m a i o r import an ci a em sua ultima novela.
A bs t ra ct ___________________________________________________ vii 1. Introductory 1.1. Statement of P u r p o s e ______________________________________ 1 1.^. Review of Previous C ri t i c i s m _____________________________ 2 Bibliographical R e f e r e n c e s _______________________________ 9 2. Themes and T h e o r i e s ______________________ _________________ 10 ,2.1. T h e m e s ______________________________________________________ 10 2.2. Theories . The H er al d i c U n i v e r s e ________________________ 27 2.3. The Space-Time T h e o r y and Prismatic T h e o r y ____________ 31 B iblio gr ap hi ca l R e f e r e n c e s _______________________________ 39 3. The Black Book_____________________________________________ 41
Bibliographical R e f e re nc es _______________________________ 51 4. The A le xa nd ria Q u ar te t____________________________________ 52 Bibliographical R e f e re nc es _______________________________ 7 5 5. Monsieur or The Prince of Darkne ss______________________ 7 6 Bibli'ographical R e f e r e n c e s _______________________________ 89
Conclusion_________________________________ 90
1.1. State m en t of Purpose
L aw rence Durrell has b e en ,w ri ti ng c o nt i n u o u s l y since the mid t h ir ti es but s u d de nl y achieved success around 1 96 0 ,with the p u b l i c a t io n of J us t in e and then Balthazar followed by
M ou n to l iv e and C l e a , w h i c h form The A l ex a n d r i a Quartet. His o th e r work t h e n began to r e ce iv e serious c ri tical consideration.
The forms in w h i ch Lawrence Durrell has w orked embrace a wide range of l i terary possibility. He is the a u th o r of the espionage t h r i l l e r White Eagles Over Serbia., of several books of poems and ballads, of a trilogy of 'travel or island books'
(Prospero's C e l l , R e fl ec ti on s on a M a r i n e Venus and Bitter
L e m o n s ), of poetic dramas, of comic sketches about the d iplomatic corps (Esprit de C o r p s , Stiff U pp er Lip and Sauve qui P e u t ),of li t erary critic is m, and of the novels The Black Book, The Dark L a b y r i n t h , the t e tr a l o g y The A l e x an d r i a Q u a r t e t , the double- de c ke r Tunc and N u n q ua m and of the novel M o ns ie u r or the Prince of D a r k n e s s , which was p ub li s he d in 1974. Durrell has also t u r n ed out public r e la ti o ns copy, n e ws pa p e r columns and letters
(his c o rr ep o nd e n c e with Henry Miller, p u bl is he d by Faber, is of some c on si d e r ab l e signi f ic an ce for the study of his work).He is a t r a n sl a t o r of prose, an' anthol og is t and a m a gazine editor.
In this d i s s e r ta t i o n I shall be d e al in g with Durrell p ri n ci pa ll y as a novelist, because it is in his novels that he shows concern with the concept of "the artist".
In The Black B o o k , his first important novel, in his t et r al og y The A l e x a n d ria Quai'te-t ( henceforward the Quar'tet), wiiich gave liim world fa ;<e and v.’hicii is, without any doub'i is most signif icant, '.vork . ar.d finally in Monsievir or tlie p-’-'inor cf
Darkn e ss ( h e n ce fo rw ar d M o n s i e u r )f I shall study Durrell^s search for the m e an i ng of art, the role of the artist in life, and his f a s c i n a t i o n w it h the m e ch an ic s of the creative process. His
artists, r el at ed to his own p o s i t i o n as an a r t i s t ,will be studied in d ep th as well as the r e l a t i o n s h i p b etween art and life.
I shall analyse, in this d i s s er ta t io n, the t e ch ni qu e of p ri s ma t ic r e a l i t y ,founded on E i ns te in ' s t h e or y o f ■r e l a t i v i t y , which Durrell a pp ea rs to b el ie ve i important for the artist, and 1 shall deal with his e x pr e s s e d t h eo ry of a r ti st ic creation, w hi c h is the t h eo ry of the H e r a ld i c Universe. Also, I shall pick out c en tr al themes, like the spirit of place, escape and exile, d e c a d e n c e and b o h e m ia n is m and r e l at e t he m to his own life when r e l e v a nt , and then, t hrough the c e ntral books I have chosen.
I intend to show that in the course of Durrell's life and work, the develo p me nt we can trace in his various themes and t h eo r ie s about art coalesces into a coherent and u n i f ie d set of a t ti tu de s, which may be r e ga r de d as c h ar ac t er i s i ng Durrell's state of mind, at least at the time he finished his last book, M o n s i e u r .
It is n ec es s ar y first to r e v ie w critical scholarship, p r i n c i p a l l y that which c on ce rn s with Durrell as c o ns cious artist and of his concept of the artist.
1.2. Review of Previous C r i t i c i s m
Since the p ublication of the Quartet in the late nineteen fifties, Lawrence Durrell has p uz z le d critics who have tried to d iscuss and a nalyse his e x pe r i m en t al work. George Steiner, (1)
"there are critics who assert that Durrell is a
pompous c harlatan; a mere word spinner and g at h e re r of f l am bo ya nt e l i d e s ; a novelist whose angle of vi s io n is g r o t e s q u e l y narrow; a late Victorian de c ad en t and m i n o r d i sc i pl e of Henry Miller," He continues s a y i n g :
"Elsewhere, however, and p a rt i cu la rl y in France, it is held w it h equal v eh em en ce that t h e "The A l e x a n d r i a Q u a r t e t " is the h ig he st perfor m an c e in the m o de rn n ovel since Proust or Joyce, and that he is a genius of the first rank."
Obviously, S te in er is t r yi n g to show two extreme c r itical views of Lawrence Durrell as an artist. 1 cannot agree with those who
say that Durrell is a c h ar la ta n, because from my point of view, he is a serious w ri te r t ry i n g to create what he thinks is true abo.ut life. N ev er t he l e s s, in this dissertation, I shall try' to show that Durrell has d e v e l op e d in a way that may be c h ar a ct e r i se d as an i nc re as in g t en de nc y t o wards decadence. He cannot be
considered as simply a m i no r d i s c ip l e of Henry M iller either. Their a p pr oa c h to art and life is different, although they have
some themes and a t ti tu de s in common, and M i l l e r took on the role of m e nt or and a d vi s er to the y o un g Durrell. On the o th e r hand, Durrell cannot be c o n s id e r e d a genius, because there are flaws and i m pe rf e ct io ns in his work, some of which will becomie apparent in this dissertation.
The few critical works w hich I have at hand c l ai m the significance and import an ce of Durrell as an artist. For more than twenty years before his name first became w i dely k nown with the p u bl i ca ti on of J u s t i n e , Durrell had the support of a vigorous m i no ri t y which insisted that he was an important wr'iter. Henry Miller was the first to speak out for him. Lawrence Clar- Powell was an early and ardent enthusiast. T.S. Eliot pave hi"
the a u t h o r i t y of his support. Richard Alding to n, his close
friend, also r e co g n i z e d his a r ti s ti c values. Then, with J u s t i n e , in 1957, D u rr e l l struck the w i d e r r e ading public. His fame
in c reased quickly.
In this section, I am g o in g to r e v ie w b riefly some of the c r it ic is ms made of Durrell as an artist, c o nn ec t ed with the
t hemes I have c h os en to show his concept of art. Most of the critics c o n c e n tr a t e on Durrell's e xp er im en ta l t echniques, e s p e c i a l ly in the Q u a r t e t . Very little c r i t ic i sm has been carried out on The Black B o o k , which the c r itics c o ns i d e r a vjeak piece of work, but in which many of the themes, techni q ue s and characters will be d e ve lo p ed in his later work. For the p u rpose of this d i s s e r t at i on , however. The Black Book is i mp ortant as a prototype of the Quartet and M o n s i e u r . I do not have at hand any critical w or k for his last book M o n s i e u r (197U) and I do not think any serious c r i t i c i s m has been p ub li s he d yet, because the book is very recent.
John Weigel (2),who w r ot e an analyt ic al study of D u r r e l l 's total w o r k , s a y s that D u r r e l l 's e xp er im en ta l work, "The A le xa nd r ia Q u a r t e t " deals with:
"truth t elling in w h i c h truth is always a function of ma n y voices and of m an y points of view. It is a l av i sh and eloqu e nt b ea ri ng - w i tn e s s by many, many
wi t ne ss es to the m a n y truths in c ur ve d ,m ul ti - di m e n si o n a l s p a c e - t i m e ."
Weigel is t a lk i n g about the p r is ma ti c r eality and the influence of the t heory of r el at iv i t y w h ic h is a base for D u r r e l l 's work. There is no fixed truth, except the s ubjective one. The prisrr.axic r e a l it y t e ch ni q u e is analysed in this d i s s e r t a t i o n as an
e xp e ri me nt al technique, which Durrell uses in order to work hfs ideas into the frarne^vork of his novels.
prismatic r e a l i t y technique;
" Du r r el l in the Quartet is often c on ce r ne d with the p u r e l y technical p r o b l e m of writing a novel, and the author-'s emphasis on space-time and subject- o b j e c t is simply one way of m aking the novel protean and ever - d ev e lo pi ng as the r ea de r views it from d i f f e r e n t angles. Durrell cites his influence from science, and a free use of E i n s te in ea n p h ysics is o b v i o u s l y behind the space-time continuum."
Karl also says that this t e ch ni qu e is not new b ecause it has
a lready been u s e d by Joyce, G i d e , Conrad and Woolf. The prismatic r ea lity t e c h n i q u e will be examined in Ch,apter 2.3.
G . S . F r a s e r (4), says that Durrell is c on ce r ne d in his
fiction not w i t h a g rowing change in c h ar acter but with a process of s el f - d is c ov e r y ,
"a s t ri pp i ng away of layer after layer of the self of o u tw a rd social habit till a hard core is revealed, w h i c h was always there, and in a sense always half- . knovv’n . "
Fraser b e l i ev es , at least it seems so, that there is an objective reality, w h i c h is not in accord w it h prismatic r e a l it y in which truth is a l w ay s subjective. The process of s e lf -discovery, nevert h el es s , is obvious in most of Durrell's artists, as will be shown in the study of his indivi du al artists, and the same process can be t raced through the study of his own work, where his p e r s o n a l i t y changes a c c o r d i n g to his e x pe r i en ce s of life. Durrell b ec om es more and more c on cerned with the m e ch an ic s of fiction than w it h the end r esult of the work and his a t te nt io ns are focused on the means a v ai la bl e to the artist to create a reality. Fi^aser continues saying, that Durrell in his deep self, is a q u ie t is t and almost a mystic.
"His p e rs on al it y is in a sense e v er yt hi n g in his boc^s and yet it is a r e m a r k ab l y elusive one, what he h i m self caljs an" ingenous m a s k . ” Durr'ell is a n^ar-mystic or a me .a r - ma p e . " ( 5 )
It is true that his p e r s o n a l i t y is ver'y strong in his books and in fact all the artists are h i ms e lf in a way or another. Th.ere is an i n c re as i ng i nt ru si on of the a uthor in his work, which
becomes e x tr e m e l y m a rk ed in Mons i e u r . This line of thought will be followed t h ro ug h ou t the whole d is se rt at i on , where I try to prove that Durrell's c o nc er n with h i ms el f as artist is evidence of an i nt ro ve rt e d n a rc is si sm , which may be r eg ar d e d as decadent. T he r e are indications, in Mons i e u r ,that he has misgivings about his serious stature as an artist.
A l a n Warren Friedman, like W eigel and Fraser, also wrote a deep study on L aw rence D ur r ell's works. He says that Dui-^rcll's intense aware n es s of place imposes a kind of unity in his material. He says t h a t :
"the p r ot og a ni st of "J u s t i n e " is not so much Justine or Darley, or any of the o th e r m embers of the eterr^l qu a dr i l a te r al of mutual, yet u n ce rt ai n need, as A l e x a n d r ia itself, the p ri sm at ic world of love m a n i f e s t in g itself in various ways and in numerous chara c te rs ." (6)
A l e x an d r i a would m an if e s t itself e s pe ci a l l y to the artist for w ho m the city m,ay be r eg ar d ed as the \#iite Goddess Muse as I suggest in the study of the Quartet , in Chapter 4.
F r ed er ic k Karl thinks, however, that A le xa n d ri a provic63 just the sensual b ac kg ro un d for sex and love:
"The sense of place allows a n a t u ra ln es s of sexual e x pr es s io n that borders on the p r om i sc uo us and at the same time it suggests a h e al t h y freedom, frot. purita n ic a l r e p r es si on . " (7)
I do not think that the sense of place would free the character £ from p ur i ta ni ca l repression, because in the A l e x a n d ri a n worlr, . there is no such thing as p u r i t a n i s m and the characters' sex,:il b e ha vi o ur is amoral as the cit\' also is. The charac te rs ir. the Q u a r t e t are functions of the city which dominates, ther: ill.
p la c e . Henry Miller, D u r r e l l ’s a d vi se r and critic for a long time, tells h i m in one of his letters of their C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :
"VJhen I see h o w you call up the places y ou've been, ho w d e eply you have a bs orbed them, how magnifies,.ntly you have given up t h e ir spirit and essence, even to the flea, 1 am dismayed." (8)
Place is very important t h ro u g h ou t Durrell's work. His e v oc at i on of it in his later work shows the same t e nd en ci es t owards d e c a de nc e found in the o th er themes and techniques.
Gerald Sykes compares Durrell to Proust in his sensitivity towar'ds landscape and his m e l a n c h o li c p re oc c u p at i o n with old
love affairs, and to Joyce, in his use of what seemed like the epiohariy method d e sc ri b e d in "Stephen Hero".
"Durrell belongs to the great British t r a d i ti o n of i maginative t r a ve l le r s (Conrad, Joyce) who r e alized t h ^ best t a lents by g e tting as far away from
Britain as they could." (9)
The theme of the a r t i s t ’s exile will be a n alysed in my
dissertation. Exile, as a source of creAHon is not o n ly important to Durrell himself, but also to most of his artists (see 2.1).
In the same book, George Steiner says that:
"mirrors play a crucial s y m b o l i c •role throu g ho ut the action (in the Q u a r t e t ). And it is a
dange r ou s role, for a lt ho u gh they m u l t i p l y vision and drive it inward, they also shut if off from the outside. In D urrell even the sea is a pool for Narcissus". (10)
The m i rror imagery linked to the p ri smatic r eality appears ir. all of Durrell's books and I shall comment on the use of
this technique. VJhat is important in this criticsm., however, is that Sykes relates the imagery to n ar ci ss is ti c impulses ar.d
d e ca de nc e which is a m aj o r t heme a n al y s e d in this dissertation, is h ardly m e n t i o n e d by critics. They comment on the decadent c h a r a ct e r or actions , but they do not trace any consiste.nt t en dency towards decadence.
(01) STEINER, George, in the article "Lawrence Durrell: the Baroque N o v e l ", quoted in Moore, H.T. e d . The World of L aw r e nc e Durrell
,
E. P. Dutton, NY, 196U.p.
13.(02) WEIGEL, John. L aw rence D u r r e l l . E. P. Dutton, N Y , 1 9 6 6 , p .96. (03) KARL, F r ed e r i c k R. A R e a d e r ’s Guide to the C on t em p o r ar y
En g li sh N o v e l . T h am e s and Hudson, London. 1972 p. 42. (04) FRASER, G. S. L a wrence Durrell - A S t u d y . Faber and Faber,
London, 1973. p. 17. (05) FRASER, i b i d . p. 148.
(06) FRIEDMAN, A l a n Warren. Lawrence Durrell and The A le xa nd ri a Q u a r t e t . U n i v e r si t y of Oklahoma Press. 1970. p. 46. (07) K A R L . opus . c i t . , p . 45.
(08) WICKER, George. Lawrence Durrell and Henry M il le r - A Private C o r r e s p o n d e n c e . Faber and Faber, London, 1963. p. 390. (09) SYKES, G er a ld - a rt i cl e "One Vote for the S un ". qu ot ed in
Moore, H. T. The World of Lawrence Durrell, E. P. Duttcr.
N. Y. 1964 . p'. 152. '
2 . T H E ME S A N D T H EORIES
In this section I shall introduce some themes which are c ^ t r a l to D ur re l l' s vision of art, and of the artist, and which are n e c e ss a ry to trace t hr ough his life and art in o rd er to reach
some c o n cl u si o n about his state of m in d at the time he finished M o n s i e u r . A l t h o u g h I shall be a t t e m p t i ng to discuss the three themes: place, escape and exile, d e ca d en ce and bohemiamism, aS separate entities, they are so i n t er w o v en that it will often be n e c e s s a r y to r el at e one to the other. I shall also introduce and d is c u s s his own theories of art.
2.1. Theine s
L aw rence George Durrell was born in India in 1912 where he spent his early childhood. The s no w- co ve r ed peaks of the Himalayas made a deep impi^ession on him as a boy, which he c ar ri ed t h r o u g h out his whole life. Perhaps this experi e nc e was the germ that led to his c o n v ic t io n that he, and his artists, could only create wlien they feel t h em se lv es in a cc or d with their e n vironment, the spirit of place. By spirit of place I u n de rs t an d the deliberate t e ch ni q ue of fusing t o gether h i st or ic al , geogra ph ic al , social and personal features of a landscape, townscape, or smaller location, so that the total s ig ni f ic an ce is g re ater and more m e a ni n gf u l than simply the sum of its parts. We shall see below jiow, for example, suburban London becomes e mblem of creative d e at h for an artist, A l ex an d ri a becomes em.blem of the total h um a n c o ns ciousness, and, at a n o t h e r time, fused t O R e t he r with one of irs ip.i'.abitjn ts as a m u se figure.
At tlie apG of tvjelve, Durrell vjas sent to E ng la n d to study t h e r e :
"If D u r r e l l 's early childhood in India c ontributed to his work as not just imagery of innocence but a
l ocale of good life, the rest of D u r r e l l 's early c h il dh o od seemed to have offered him, in England, i m ag er y tied to the experi en ce of c o r r up ti on and a v i si o n not so much of evil as of hypocrisy, a major i ng r ed ie nt of the " E nglish D e a t h " , which is the subject of The Black B o o k ." (1)
In The Black B o o k , Durrell captures the sad and grey at m os ph er e of southern London ■ which is an u n pl e a s an t setting for the m i s e r y and decadence of the characters' lives- humid, dark, and dead. The artiste in the book are failures, stultified
’ s by the tedium, conven ti on s and lack of stimulation and imagination that c h a r a c t e r i s e the "English Death". Here v;e see that the
spirit of place is t ig htly linked to the theme of decadence, and the e vo ca ti on of place is used to convey here the tvpe of d ec a de nc e typical of The Black B o o k , that i s , the stifling inwardness and f rustration of the artist struggling h opelessly against p ro vi nc ia l Englis h ne ss , and the moral d ecay of their lives. In the same book, D urrell in contrast, expresses the spirit of place of the Greek Island, where e v er yt h in g is green, bright and alive. This is the place for the a r ti st ' s exile and for creation. London is death for the artist and the island is life, and there, the artist will be reborn.
D u r r e l l 's C o r f u - R h o de s - C yp r u s books are accounts of i n te r e st in g places, where all the senses play a very important part. His o bj ec t iv e is to evoke the spirit of each place, r ather than d es cr i be them. He calls up this suirit of place using history, scene and conversation. The three books are
n o n- f i ct io n w ri t in g and of the three, Bitter IjeinonS" is the most important. Cyprus is almost as fabulous as D u r r e ] 1 ' s Alexandria
■^Bitter Lemons -.js first published by Faber and Faber, l,.on.-’on , in 19 ST.
w i t h ,
"its echoes f r o m f o rg ot te n moments, of history." (2) B i t t er Lemons not only captures an a tm os ph er e and a tone, a way of life and a people, but it details and examines the destruction of the Cypriot peace which culmin at es in the disastrous outbreak of civil war. The sense of place is b r i l l i a nt l y and a pp ropriately s u b o r d i n a t e d to the sense of the moment.
While Durrell was t h o r ou gh ly at home in the M e d i t e r r a n e a n , he was u nhappy away f r om it. As a British Council lectu re r in Argep.- tina, he spent a sterile, u nc re at i v e year. The A r g e n t in i an landscape did not attract him. and he was h o m e s i c k for the Mediterranean.
Similarly, the two and half y ears he spent as press attache to the B ritish Embassy in Belgrade were also frustr a ti ng ones. He was o v e r w o r k e d and was not able to c on c en tr at e on his w r i t i n g . No r did he find Y u g o s l a v i a congenial. So once again, he r e tu r ne d to the M e d i t e r r a n e a n landscape, w he re he could find his roots and produce his art. Clearly then, a lt h o ug h s el f -i m p o se d exile was important f or his writing, the place of exile had to be in tune with his s e n s i b i l i t i e s .
In 19M4, Durrell was p osted as press a tt a ch e in Alexandria. Th e re he met Eve Cohen*, who was to b e co me his s econd wife,and v.-hcie r ec o ll e ct i o n s of A l e x a n d r i a h e l p e d to focus J u s t i n e . He wrote to Henry Miller:
"A strange, smashing, d a r k -e ye d woman I found here las'r y e ar w ith every r es po n s e right, every g es tu re ,a nd the i nt e ri or style of a real person, but c ompletely at sea here in this morass of v en al it y and m o n e y .T h e only per.-.: I have been able to talk to really; we share a kind of of i-^efugee life. Slie sits for hours on the bed and tell5 me the sex life of A r a b s , perversion, circumcision.
■■^Durrell m a rr i e d '\’ancy Myers in 1935 in England. She left him in 1944. Then ]ie m,'ir.:'i'^d Eve Co;ien in 194 7. They s e pa r a t ed in 1952. Finally, he ied C l i u d e -J-'ir c:\con in 13c L, ’.•:ho d ie d in 195'.
h a s i s h5 sweet meats, r emoval of the clitoris, cruelty, murder. As a b a r e f o o t child of Tunisian J e wish parents, she has seen the i ns id e of Egypt to the last rotten dung- b lo w n flap of o bscenity. She is Tropic of C a p r i c o r n *
walking". (3)
Egypt and Alexandria- were the sources for his most well known work, t h ^ 'Quartet.
A l t h o u g h d e sp is i ng Egypt, he collected there all sorts of human, cultural and m.aterial experiences. He became especially
interested in a Cabal is ti c g r o u p and in the esoteric, in the function; of the symbols and the Tarot. Egypt was the source for all these
new interests, w hi ch led h i m to f u rt he r definition on his "Heraldic Universe" and n o n - a s s e r t i v e forms, discu ss e d in 2.2. He despised the country b ecause it was decadent, but its decadence was different from thit of England. Whereas in Egypt decadence was a c cepted as normal, the p a r t i c u l a r sexual and moral decadence of the community described in The Black Book w as throughly d isapproved of by
society at large. Of course, D ur re ll presents the c o mf or t ab le and complacent values and a tt it u de s of that society as themselves
decadent, but in a d i ff er en t way. In The Black Book , the hotel and its inhabitants are very m uc h out of society, because they are
decadent, while in E gypt d e ca d en t characters like T o to , a h o mo s ex u a l , or Capodistria are well a c c e p t e d in society. Durrell wrote to H.Mill::
"The A l e x a n d r i a n way of death is very P ro us ti a n and slow, a d e c o m p os i t i on in greys and greens." C4)
The E g yptian d e ca de n c e striick h i m ( he felt he was a par*, of it as he was a part of the d ec ad en t England) and his r e ac ti on to it was t r an sp os ed to his w o r k m a in ly in the Quartet and in Monsi e ur , where a lot of the g ro te sq ue and decadent life of the Egyptians is b r il li a nt ly T'ecreated. A l ex an d ri a would be the einbler. or the symbol of a c i v i l i z a t i o n already in decay t hr ea te n e d by v:ar; a place of exile, a place w h e r e the a r t i s t ’s loneliness intensifies
T r o p i c of C ap ricorn w ri tt en by Henry M il le r , was first p u b l i s h e d b y 't he 'l JL ^T sk P r e s s , of J a c k Kahone, in Paris, 1939.
his sense of riclmess and tragedy of life; a place of great
sensua l it y ai'id yet, also a remote and d if fi c ul t spiritual artistic a s p i r a t i o n .
The spirit of place is p a rt i cu la r ly strong^'ln the Q u a r t e t -’’A l e x a n d r i a is a place q u i c k e n e d into a c ha ra ct e r" (5), a c c ording to Weigel. The city marks its inhabitants and the inhabitants, in turn design the city. The h u m a n element is in its power and there is no escape. The city is m y s t e r i o us and involving. A l ex an d ri a is
G roddeck's " I T " “ ; the c o n t a i n e r of all those forces w h ic h influence man and m a k e h i m the m ys t e r io u s creature he i s .
For Durrell, based on G r o d d e c k the c o ns ciousness of an i ndivi du al is an i n e xt ri ca bl e part of a vast, symbolic whole , wh ic h is the sum of t he ir m u lt i pl e " co ns ciousness" or p e r s o n a l i t i e s .T h u s , each h u ma n b e i n g r epresent! an aspect of a. l arger total it y; th e "IT" becomes a k i n d of p l atonic form of which we all partake, a form whic'r. has as man|i m a n i f e s t a t i o n s on earth as there are people. The d e l i b e rate e vo ca ti o n s of A l e x a n d r i a as a composite of consciousness and pe r so n a l it i es shows the spirit of place e x p e es s in g a greater
s ig n i f ic a nc e than, simply the sum of its parts .Durrell wrote in his critical b o o k Key to Modern P o e t r y about Groddeck:
"Pheno m em a ■ may be individuals c a rr yi ng on separate e x i st e n c e in space and time, but in the d e eper reality
b ey o n d space and time, we may all be m em be rs of one body."(!; ■'•"George G r o d d e c k is the German p s y c ho l og is t c on te mp or ar y with
Freud. G r o d d e c k is a g ainst t ho se who p ro po un d the notion of an autonomous, p o we f ul ego, since he feels that they are unable to
explain the m e c h a n i s m c o nt r ol l i n g breathing, digestion, heai-t action and the like. G ro dd e ck sought a single entity, a u n ifying concept, a still point at w h ic h the p ar a ll el lines of v ol un ta ry and involunt.-.: \ processes w o u l d m.eet - and he c on cluded that the concept of the
individual, i n d ep en de nt ego woul.d not b ea r the weight. He posits then, a m ys t e r io u s Force so p ow erful that it controls not only the i n v o l u n ta r y b o di ly p ro ce ss es but also the human will - and, in fact, all human as w e l l .G ro d d ec k says:
"The sum of an indiv i du al human being, physical, mental;, and spiritual, the o r g a n i sm with all its forces and
m ic r o co s mo s, the u ni v er se which is a man, I conceive of as a self unknown and f or e ve r unkno wa b le , and I call this the "IT" as the most indefi ni te term avaiiabj^g w i t h o u t either emotional or i n t e ll e ct ua l associations. The I T -hypothesis I regard not as truth - for what do any of us know about absolute truth?, but as a useful tool in w o rk and life... the IT is a way, not a thing, not a pr'inciple or a conceptual figment., it is imagery, symbol 5 ajid the s^np.bol can not be spoken. It lives and ve lived by it. One can only use woi.-'ds that are indetermiiia'^rc and vague . , . fox-’ any definite d e sc r ip ti on destroys the tl-ie symbol," (7).
Based on Groddeck, thus, D ur rell creates the n - d i m e ns i o n al novel (the symbol 'n' being t aken f r o m Mathematics, signif y in g 'any n u mb er o f '):
"a b o ok which is s ta nding above time and slowly turning on its own axis to c om p re h e n d the whole patter n. Th in gs
do not all lead f orward to o t he r things : some lead baokwai’o; to things w h ic h have passed. A mar^riage of past and
p r es e nt with the flying m u l t ip l ic it y of the future
r a cing towards one. Anyway, that was my ( P u r s e w a r d e n 's ) i d e a ."(8 )
We can say t h a t •A l e x a n d r i a personifies the mother/ mistress figure, b ec ause it is a muse for> the poet, but at the
same time, it is a d e st r u ct iv e force which sterilizes h i m and nakes him, escape from it. Alexan dr ia , a c co rd in g to Durrell, is essentially an open city, w h er e an}/ v ariety of religion, any p e rm u t at io n of
sex is not only p er mi t te d but almost celebrated. A l e x a n d r i a not only evokes the E g yp t ia n spirit of place, but it also represents decadence and b o he mi an is m, for its inhabitants are d e cadent and cynical. While they love and exalt their city, they also hate it and A l e x a n d r i a responds in kind.
The spirit of place in A le xa nd r ia c ha racterizes people like Nessim, Leila and J us t in e who are completely integrated with the land where the}/ were born. Narouz, himself, is the desert and its myster'ies.
The r ev iv a l of A l e x a n d r i a by Durrell as a place of inspiration and at the same time a sterile place for the
artist, the d e ve l o p me n t of charac t er s like Hilda, in The'BIack B o o k . and J u st i n e in the Quartet who are m ot h er / w h or e figures, could be c o mpared to "The lAThite Goddess "of Robert Graves ,although there is no e v idence in Durrell's wox'k that he has been
c onsciously i nf lu en ce d by Graves. Both however, have the same attitude to the r e l a t i o ns h ip of the poet and his m u s e ,"The White Goddess" which is that of a s u pp li ca n t lover to a m o th er .m i s t re s s- bitch image.
"The White Goddess", a c co r d i n g to Graves, is a m a ny -n am e d and m a n y - f o r m e d deity, whose o r igins go back to the Old Stone Age, c o n s id e r a bl y p r e -d a ti n g the more well known and p atriarchal m y t h figures of, for example, a n ci en t Egypt and the Classical World. The true poet, Graves suggests, ovjes allegi an ce to her, who
"demanded that man should pay woman spiritual and sexual homage." (9)
Graves c o nt in u e s saying:
"By a nc ient tradit i on , the White Goddess becomes one with her human r e p r e s e n t a t i v e - a priestess, a
p rophetess, a queen-mother. No Muse-poet grows c on s cious of the Muse except by experience of a
w om a n in w h o m the G o dd es s is to some degree resident ... A M us e- po et falls in love, absolutely, and his true love is for h i m the em.bodiment of the Muse. As a rule, the p ow er of absolu te ly falling in love
soon vanishes... But the real perpetually obsessed
M us e - p o e t d i s t i n g u i s he s b e tween the Goddess: as- manifest in the supreme power, glory, w i sd om and love of
woman, and the individual woman whom the G o ddess may make her instrument for a month, a year, seven
years, or even more. The Goddess abides; and perhans he will again have k n ow l e d g e of her t h rough his
ex p er ie nc e of a n o t h e r woman.
Being in love does not, and should not, blind the poet to the cruel side of woman's nature - and m an y Muse-poems are written in helpless a t t e st at io n of this by men whose love is no longer r e t u r n e d 10) Hilda, in The Black Book repres e nt s the womb, a source of i n sp i r at io n and creativity, but is at the same time, a whore. J us t in e is a b i t c h/ g od de ss to w ho m A rn au ti and Darley must
sur'render. P u r s ew ar de n nevert he le ss , does not s u rr ender to her. He regards her simply as
"a t ir e so me old sexual turnstile through which presumiably we must all pass - a somewhat vulpine A le x a n dr i a n Venus." (11)
P ur s ew ar de n then, was not s u sc ep ti bl e to her will. For him, the muse figure vcas not embodied in A l e x an d ri a or Just.i'ie, wb.ile for Darley and Arnauti, it was.
nature of the muse, it inspires but it also destroys, and the poet must escape from it. Durrell presents A l ex an d r i a as:
"princess and whore. The royal city and the anus mundi. She would n e ve r change so long as the races c on t in u ed to s ee th e here like must in a vat; so long as streets still gushed and spouted with the f e rm e n ta ti on of these diverse passions and spites, rages and sudden calms. A fecund desert of human loves littered with the whitening; bones of its exiles... The sadness and b e at it ud e of this human c o nj u n ct ur e which p e r p e t u at e d itself to eternity, an endless cycle of r eb ir th and a n ni h il a t i on which alone could t e ac h and r e f o r m by its d estructive povjer." (12)
As Durrell e s caped f r om the d e cadent England, he had to escape from the E gy ptian l an ds ca pe and decad e nt a tm os ph er e which depri v ed h i m of his c ap ac i ty to create. He had to escape, but re was fascinated by the a r t i fi c i a l A l e x an d ri an v.-orld as a source of inspiration. He c o mm en t e d on E.eyDt:
"The a t mo sp h er e of sex and death is s taggering in its intensity. M ea nw hi le , the big shots come and go, seeing n othing in a m o n e y dream. This steaming humid flatness, not a hill or a mount a ny where- shocked to b ur s t in g point with bones and the crummy deposits of wiped-out cultures. A sea flat, dirty, b rown and w av e le ss r u b b i n g the port - Arabic, Copic , Greek,
L e v a n t , French; no music, no art, no gaiety, no
subject of c o n v e r s a t i o n except money. And the
shrieking personal u n h ap p in e s s and loneliness showing in every place. No, if one could write a single line of a ny th i ng that had a human smell to it here, one would be a genius." (13)
The Greek l a nd scape r e p r e s e nt e d for him innocence, and there he would be at ease to r e wo r k his h u m a n experi en ce s in Egypt and tiere , he could live at pcBce. His impressions of the Greek landscape are very d i ff er e n t from the ones of Egypt:
" I ’ve told you (H. Hiller) how unique it is up here, stuck on the hill side. W e l l ,m ul tiply that by
four... I'd like to tell you hov%' many smells and
sounds and colours this place is, but my superlati.ves u-ould give out. As I sit for instance, windov^■', liglit, blue grey. T wo baby Cypress lullijig very slightly in the sirocco, the sea. all cjrav.'ling round in a bend 33 tlie coast curves away to Lefkimo, with one sailing boat on it. In. the road, the peasants are passing on donkeys. I love it I'eally, because it is so
savage and u n a p p r o a c h a b l e . " (lU)
D u rrell and Eve went to the Dodecanese Islands, he as
a Public I n fo rm at io n O ff ic er in Rhodes. This was a n other retreat in o rd er to r e cr e at e his e x p e r i e n ce s in a country he despised, e x p e ri en ce s w h ic h were o b v i o u s l y painful, but w hich were the source for his m a jo r work. The Greek islands, the place of c reation, were sources of l yr ic al and light books which were w r it t en later. This need to r e t r e at in order to create is felt by Lawrence L u cifer and Darley, who go to Greek islands, exactly like their creator, to write about their past life.
In Rhodes, Durrell lived one of t h e ,happiest periods of ■'is life. Despite the p ol it ic al situation and the poverty of the people, he produced t;iere many poems, booklets, articles and so on. The second of his island books Reflections on a Marine Venus is a r e t r os p e c ti v e summary of his life in the islands.
J u st in e and Bitter Lemons brought him world fame.
Finally, he could settle down as a full time writer, the dream, of all his life. He moved to the southern part of France, Provence, with Claude, his third wife and like Nancy, also an artist (a writer). He has been l iving there ever since. In France, he vcrote B a l t h a z a r , M o u n t o l i v e and C l e a . The southern French
culture and atmosp h er e is t r a n sp o se d to his last novel, Honsieui". Durrell r el at e s the Provençal French atmosphere, culture and landscape xo the M ed it e r r an e an one.
D urrell lived in many c ou ntries and e x pe ri en ce d expatriatic r. many times. Other v.'riters also exiled themselves, searchinr for
new experi en ce s and t r yi ng to escape from their home countr'ies. The French poet Baudelaire went to India, the German writer Thomas Mann went to Italy. Conrad went in his youth from Poland and
Russia to the M e d i t e r r a n e a n and then to England. D. H. Lawrence journeyed to Italy and Mexico, Joyce exiled h i mself in Paris, Zurich, Italy and Austria.
D u rr ell's artists, as an immediate c onsequence of his life, are also exiled and they feel, as he felt many times, the negat i ve q u al i t ie s of it: s e pa ra ti on and loneliness. However, like Durrell h i ms el f, they can only produce their art far from their countries, because in o r d e r to rescue, what is best in them, they subject the c o untry itself to the analysis of satir'’cal
rejection. Durrell told lienry Miller;
"This is the vjorld (England) which was implicit in our e x t ra v a g an t gust, our laughter, our tears, our poems. That is why, when I tell you I have rejec t ed it, I want you to u n d e r s t a nd c l early the terms of that rejection. That is an England I am going to kill, b e cause by g iv i n g it a quietus once and for all, I can r ev i ve it." (15)
Being exiled f ro m England and its decadent world, the artist Durrell could r e vi ve it, because, as I have suggested, England like A lexandria, r ep r es e n t ed for him the White Goddess, a source of i nspiration and rejection.
The G reek islands r e p r e s e n t e d for Durrell and for his artists a place of i s ol ation f r om the cities, in v^íhich they would find much of t heir m at erial, a place in w hi ch they can compose t h ei r fragme nt ed e x p er i en c e s by linking it to a landscape soaked in the past, but to w h i c h thev are not attached. Durrell wrote in P r ospero ' s Ce 1_1 :
"Other c o un tr i es may o f fe r you discovet^'ies in m anner or lore or landscape, Greece offers you soiriethine I'.arder •- the d i s co v e r y of vourself." (16)
The place of exile, then, would represent for the artist not simply a place, but also a symbol of existence.
The three books Durrell wrote about the Greek islands, the place of his s e lf - i mp os ed exile, are symbolic and lyrical, because they r ef le ct his life on these islands. They contrast h e av i ly with the novels, which are in part accounts of decadent m om ents of his life.
In the late thirties, Lawrence Durrell m oved to Corfu, w i th his family. He could not longer bear the E n glish life, and he felt the need to escape in o r de r to free h i ms el f and create. In Corfu, he got in contact with Dr. Theodore Stephanides, a pjiysician, an e rudite and c iv il iz ed man, \<!ho taught him e v e r y thing relating to the island and tiie Greek C u l t u r e - .
The bohemian and d e cadent life in England from which Durrell escaped, the d i sc o v e ry of the Greek world a f fe c t e d his artistic feelings in such a way that he felt the urge to create. The violent r e a ct i o n against the English e nvironment led him. to an artistic and humian d e v e l op m e n t in Greece that c u l mi na t ed in The Black Book and in the Island Books.
The Greek islands, a l t h o u g h soaked in their history, myths and m em o ri es r ep r e s en t ed for Durrell, while he was there, p urity and simplicity, because t h e i r h is tory and m e mo ri es
would not affect him at his p re se nt moment. He 'A’ould be free xo create, while in England, ne felx he VvES a part of its history and its dead bodies. He wrote to his friend .Alan Thomas:
Tt al so from th~Ls tTrie tnat he began Jiis ~correspondence with Henry Miller', wh.o would be one of the g r e a t e s t influences on his work and a close frienci. Dui'rell’s first letter to Miller' praising T r o n i c p ^ J ^ a n c e r as t]ie copy book for his generation and tne or Ly man--size -piece of vjork which this centurv boast of, v-, s v; it ten fi^om Corfu.
"The sails are set. I'jr, .starting out now in a more splendid curve than you would ever have imagined p os s i bl e .for me. What I mean is this - I have b eg u n to be a real writer." (17)
Al a n T homas says that one of D u r r e l l ’s most striking qualities as a w r it e r lies in his a bility to r ender scenery and the feel of places. From India to England to Cor'fu to Egypt to Rhodes to Latin .America to Y u g o sl av ia to Cyprus to Provence, with i n te rl ud es in Paris and in England, each place was material for a book to be w r it t en in the next place while getting m at erial for the next.
The i mp or ta n c e of "place" and "landscape" in the Durrelloan vision is as d ef in it ve as the importance o f decadence and exile c-3 major themes of his v:orks. For i^^urrell, a :s only an extension of the spit-it of place, because he believes in the "God of P l a c e ".
D ec a dence in Durrell is a complex set of a t ti tudes and interests, w hich colours m an y of his other interests and
c ha r a c te r i s ti c s r at he r than b ei n g an individual trait. For this reason, it is impossible to d e fi ne with any precision. VJhat
v-je find is a group of c h ar ac te rs , a place, a series of events, or a n a rr at iv e t e ch n iq ue w hi ch we may identify as being treated in a d ec adent way, or as e x h i bi t i n g decadent tenden ci es in the author. Thus, d e ca de n ce has m^any manifestations. We may
t e nt a t iv el y c h a r a c t er i s e d e ca d en c e as d et er io ra t io n o r decay, from a state of excellence. There is also sometimes, an implied awareness of the decay on the part of those who have s u f fered it. In a writer, it may indicate a f fectation, or a d e ri va ti ve style, supgesting a iack of s t r e n g t h or originality. It is implicit in Wilde's phrase t'- jt; life i:r.icatos -rt, in the that an imitation of an imitation is dec.a.<ieT\t . Thei-e is also the
decad e nc e implicit in n a r c i s s i s m and use of the mirror. Finally, an intense interest in d e c a d e nt subjects may itself be described as decadent. Clearly, d e c a d e n c e here is not r ed uc ib le to a
single d e fi n it io n, but is som.ewhat of an u m br el la term r e fl ec t i n g a p a rt i cu l ar state of m.ind. I hope to show that decadence,
s ignificant t hroughout B u r r e l l ' s work, assumes o v er w h el mi ng import a nc e towards the end.
The theme of d e c a de n ce can be related to historical
factors and has influe nc ed o t h e r writers. It would be possible to trace this theme t hr ou g h f ro m the "Gothic Novelists" of the 13th c entury (their h er oi n e s s u ff er ed m a cabre and m e lo d r a ma t i c tr,reats and m i s f o r tu n es in m y s t e r i o u s castles and houses). In Durrell's Tunc and N u n q u a m this sort of d ec adence and macabr'e atnio.sphere is also found. A ls o through P r e- Raphaelite poets
(the Rossettis and Morris) the theme of d ec ad e nc e is evident, for there was a continual r e f e r e n c e to death and decay, to a sense of p ur po se le ss and fatigue, and the c r ea ti on of a mood of depr’essed v-jeariness. The same p re di le ct io n for decay and sickness is found in Baudelaire. S w in burne also vrrote of weariness of
life and a d esire to w i t h d r a w f ro m it. During the nineties,
the Aesth e ti c m o ve me nt in B r itain was c h ar a ct er iz ed by decadencc. They owed something to Pre-Raphaelitism., to Swinburne and to
a large extent to Pater, who had equated the good and the beautiful. Oscar Wilde is often quoted as an example of a decadent A e s t h e t e ,t rough this is perhaps more because of his flagrant flouting of c o n v e n t io n al morality than his art. As a final example of tiie f a s ci n at i o n with d ec ad en ce that r e lates
to Durrell, we may c o n s i d e r a r e ma r k made by Lionel Johnson*, on W il de's poem "Ballad of R e ad i ng Gaol"**:
"Wilde's p l ea su re and e xcitement were, perhaps increased by the d e g r a d a ti o n of that group ' of beggars and
pa t hetics and I remember, too, his smile at my surprise, as t ho ug h he spoke of p sy ch ol og ic al depths 1 could never enter." (18)
The c ritic A.E. Rodway remarks:
"the comment itself is e vi dence of a k n ow ledge of such depths - p r e c is e l y the terri t or y of "decadence" wo r th y of the name ought to be exploring" (19)
Durrell, as he d ev el o p s the theme of decadence in his work is also showing a t en de n cy towards decadence, because, like '.'iilde, he b e comes fasci n at e d with the subject. Decadence would be one of his source^ of energy and inspiration, a lt hough he profe s se d to be d ep r es se d by it.
In his early work, d e c ad e n c e is associ at ed m ai n ly with bohemianism. By bohem.ianism, we u nd er st an d a philos o ph y of
life a do pt ed by artists w hi ch leads them to live free from socia.l conventions. It involves f r e q ue nt ly a d e li be ra te flouting of the c o n v e n ti o n s which are based on habit, snobbery and social niceties. Such f re ed om is supposed to liberate the im.agination and stimulate the d e ve l o pm en t of c re ative art. Based, on this philosophy, Durrell d e ve lo ps his charac t er s who g en erally live a life w i thout fixed p at terns and are against the normal rules of an e s ta bl is he d society, and are, consequently, outcasts from it. In The Black B o o k , D u rrell was to p or tray this bohem.ianism. as well as in the o ther novels.
The Black Book is the im.miediate result of Durrell's
^Joyinson~an alc6ho.ll.c vjriTter and revlevjer, Tntimiate of Yeats an'; '•Jil.de, and oDiers of the Aestnei'ic movement. He made this r emark to Yeats.
This poem was wi\itten about his (Wilde's) expei'ience durinr his t\vo veai"' ImDrisonment i.n Reading;
Gaol.-b oh e mi an and d ec ad en t life in London in the early 3 0 's. It o ffered him not only the g r ot es qu e human material but also the d ec a de nt a tm os ph er e w h i c h surrounded all of the c h a r a c t e r s . It f i c t io na li ze s a y ea r Durrell spent in a London r e s i de n ti al hotel in the early 30's, a y e ar of stagnation, of spiritual sterility, of m ar ki n g time in a smug dying England.
It was in L ondon that he began his first literary
a ct i vi ty and he was very much a t t r ac te d to the bohem.ianism and the artistic life of the big centre. There, Durrell made a wide range of b oh emian a c qu ai nt an ce s, i n cl uding John Gawsworth-'.
In London, he tried a v ariety of jobs.' He wrote to Henry
.
"I hymned and whored in London, playing in a night club, c o mp o s i ng jazz songs, working in real state. Never really starved, but I wonder vjhether thin rations are not a n ot h e r degree of starvation. I met Nanc s? in an equally precarious p o si ti on and
\<ie struck up an i ncongruous p a rt ne rs hi p - a d re am of b roken bottles, t inned food, rancid meat... well, we did a bit of d ri n ki ng and dying." (20)
He continued, saying from this tim.e in London;
"I had m oved to London at the behest of my mother, who tired of my antics, said to me one day:'You can be as b oh em ia n as you like, but not in the house. I think you had b e tter go somewhere else where it d oesn't show so m u c h . ' So I left
B ournemouth to study B o h em i a n is m at first h a n d . "(21) Durrell's "cheap" novel, (as he calls it) Pied Piper of Lovers turned out, in spite of its account of bohemian Bloom.s- b u r y , to be n ei t h e r an artistic success, nor a finajicial one,
but it led to his pi-'oduction two years later of a second c ommercial novel. Panic S r r i n n., a romance p.' Charles M o r d e n , whicli ’,;as
" John G a w s w o r t h Tpseu d b n^ m of T c r e nee'I r. a~F 7” /\r FiT sTI'on g”! T 912) v,v2s a poet, critic aiid editor. He wrole "Collected P o e m s" (194 S ) , "Ten C o n t e m poraries" . He was a close fri.end 'o F ~ D u r r e T T and
his pseudonym.
The decad en ce which involves not only the characters, but also the a t om o sp h e r e (perhaps an immediate c onsequence of the a ut h o r ' s b o he mi an life) is an intrinsic c ha ra ct er is ti c of La w re n c e B ur re ll 's work. The c h ar ac t er s are exotic, since most of t h em seem to have no i''0 0ts and no w e ll -d ef in ed nation a li ty or b a ckground. Durrell m a n a g e s to create a w orld where
unconven'tionatel}^ is a norm, e mb od y in g people who are still part of the e s ta bl is he d s o ciety and existing in an uneasy
symbiosis with both, like M o u n t o l i v e and Nessim, in the Quai~^tet . \ve also e n c ou nt er in his work, fetishists, tranvest i t e s ,
homo-ph a ll ic r i tuals ,:^nd onanism, everything p re s en te d by the author' as a c c e pt a b l e and as part of human nature. The most tragic love story of the Q u a r t e t , the intense love of P ur se wa rd en and Liza, is a story of incest. The same h ap p en s in Tunc and N u nq ua m and in M o n s i e u r , in all of which it
is a m a jo r theme a n d, wi th in the world of the characters, an a c c e pt ab le one.
'.ve have seen then, that B urrell was interested in subjects, places and events that in one vjay or a n ot he r are decadent. I have also o b se r ve d that an obsessive interest in d e ca de nt subjects may itself show evidence of d e ca dence in the artist. Tliere are other a sp ec ts of decadence that need to he stated here, beore a more car’eful analysis of his works.
Durrell imitated tlie a f f e c t e d and d el ib e r a te l y ornate style of Pater, Landor and de Quincey, but regarded early use of this style as an a f f e c t i o n a t e par'ody. However, he has o ften been c r it i ci se d for o ve r- o rn a teness ai'id v,ford-s ni.nn i ng . Such a conscious c u l t i va ti on of style, often at the expc-n-.;'i of
