Justine

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Scobie’s story comes to an end when he is murdered by British sailors in a hate crime against his lewdness and sexual identity. A painter named Clea mentioned briefly in Justine is revealed to have a close friendship with Darley and is wary of Narouz’s desire for her. Justine learns of a masquerade, where her friend Toto de Brunel is stabbed; it is revealed that he is wearing her ring. Balthazar concludes the volume by commenting philosophically that each fact or event in life is predicated by multitudes of inexplicable motivations.

Friedman, Alan Warren. Lawrence Durrell and "The Alexandria Quartet": Art for Love's Sake. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1970. The function or destiny of an artist's creativity, according to Durrell, is not to be wounded or defeated by everyday reality, but to complete, perfect or fulfil the potential of the experience in our imagination. He refers to the relation of experience and imagination as a "joyous compromise". I return link by link along the iron chains of memory to the city which we used to inhabit together: the city which... precipitated in us conflicts which were hers and which we mistook for our own: Alexandria...It is the city which should be judged, though we, its children, must pay the price."Both assist us in our constant battle with the external world. We remember it as best we can. However, we also change it by virtue of how we imagine what we have just experienced.

Three of the novels of the quartet carry names of major characters, Justine, Balthazar and Clea. Mount Olive is the third volume. For much of the novel I was both disgusted with the complicated language and the ridiculous philosophizing. Then in the last part I all of a sudden felt a shift from the egotistical self-centered choices to what are the consequences of this behavior. The focus became relationships and how people interact and how we hurt each other and how what we do is affected by our past experiences. Adultery is going to affect not only the two who are cheating but the other partners and related friends. There are secrets, there are lies and none are left unscathed. What starts as egotistical flirtation turns into a huge deception having tremendous repercussions. Each will draw different interpretations of what really happened. Is there one truth? The majority of the book follows people going after their own personal goals, the end follows what then happened, what were the consequences of these choices. It was this that interested me. The next novel will give another interpretation of the given facts. I NEED to know more. I thought I would not continue, but really I have to at this point. There is no stopping now. “Balthazar” is my next read! the living limbo of free-will in which my beloved Justine wandered, searching with such frightening singleness of mind for the integrating spark which might lift her into a new perspective of herself..." Eve (Cohen) Durrell and mirror image (the apparent inspiration for Justine and the person to whom the novel is dedicated: "To Eve - these memorials of her native city")Through Nessim, I came to move in the cobweb of Alexandrian society. I came to blanch at the banality of Melissa's life as a dancer. "If you loved me, you would poison me," she said. In the novel there are allusions to another, parallel and fictional novel by a former husband of Justine's, titled Moeurs ("Mores"), which the narrator reads obsessively in his search for clues about Justine's past life. In doing so, he learns of her propensity for many lovers, her complex sexuality, and her perpetual angst. [1] He also discovers a diary that is kept by Justine, and quotes long passages from it in telling her story. [1] Style and characters [ edit ] Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

intellectual who has come through. Once a disciple of Henry Miller, he has not only surpassed his gifted master, he has been able to cope with the disintegration that was his legacy to indicate a really new movement in literature. It is The tone of the novel is very dark, and while Nessim is very rich and, at his expense, many of the main characters live a quite decent life, the “feel” of the novel is one lived in a dark, dirty, dangerous and discouraging city. Several of the characters are from the underclasses and live on the margin of civilized life. It's because the imagination fulfils their potential, that the moments live on in perpetuity. An artist creates something separate from experience that survives the present. I have been meaning to read the Alexandria Quartet for many years and now seems to be a good time. The first part of the Quartet focuses on a struggling writer (Darley); it tells in retrospect the story of a doomed love affair between Darley and Justine, the wife of an Egyptian Copt called Nessim. It is set in Alexandria and there is a strong supporting cast of characters: Pombal, an official at the French consulate who lives with Darley; Capodistria, a Greek who is a broker; Scobie, a transvestite; Pursewarden, another novelist. Clea and Balthazar have their own novels. Lovers are never equally matched - do you think? One always overshadows the other and stunts his or her growth so that the overshadowed one must always be tormented by a desire to escape, to be free to grow. Surely this is the only tragic thing about love?

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Haag, Michael (2006). "Only the City is Real: Lawrence Durrell's Journey to Alexandria". Alif. 26: 39–47.