Lawrence Durrell, best known as the author of the Alexandria Quartet, wrote a total of sixteen novels. Most are still in print, but until this year, his first two novels, Pied Piper of Lovers and Panic Spring, have been impossible to get hold of.
Written in the 1930s, Pied Piper of Lovers traces the life of an Anglo-Indian boy, Clifton Walsh, from his childhood in India through his return to England and subsequent life in 1920s Bloomsbury. Panic Spring, written a few years later, is a more experimental novel that takes Walsh to a Greek island and a community of expatriates. Both seem to have a strong autobiographical influence, which perhaps explains Durrell’s refusal to have them reprinted. (They also form a loose trilogy with The Black Book, which is apparently still in print.)
Both were printed only once (although Panic Spring also had an American printing), and both had short print runs. Most of the copies of Pied Piper were destroyed in a fire during the London blitz, which perhaps explains why the only copy currently available, on AbeBooks, is almost £5,000, while first editions of Panic Spring can still be found starting at a few hundred.
With prices like that, I really never expected to have the chance to read either Panic Spring or Pied Piper of Lovers, and had resigned myself to making do with the excerpts printed in Sprit of Place, a superb collection of Durrell’s more obscure writing.
However, I was delighted to discover that ELS Editions, the publishing arm of the University of Victoria, have secured permission to reprint both books, for the first time since their original publication. They were published this summer under the editorship of James Gifford, who has provided a brief introduction and explanatory notes for each volume, and are available from the usual sources, priced at significantly less than £5,000.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:23 am
So where would you recommend beginning with Durrell, Rob? I’ve always meant to try him but have been put off by the extent of the Alexandria and Avignon books (and the reputation of the latter as being unreadable).
I did pick up an old copy of The Revolt of Aphrodite (two books in one, I think), but never got around to reading them and am not sure if I even have it any longer.
October 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am
I’d start either with the Alexandria Quartet or with one of his travel books.
Of the travel books I’ve read, Bitter Lemons—which I think is now called Bitter Lemons of Cyprus—was the best. Durrell was in Cyprus in the fifties in an at least semi-official capacity, and got tangled up in Enosis.
If you go for the Quartet, do read them in order, starting with Justine (though Faber do a nice, reasonably compact volume of the entire Quartet). I’ve known a few people who started in the middle, and then couldn’t get into it. Bitter Lemons and the AQ are probably the books that made his reputation.
As you say, the Avignon Quintet is pretty unreadable. I did finish it, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it. That might be partly my fault, for wanting a repeat of the Alexandria Quartet, which it isn’t. I’ve been tempted to go back since, though, having read more about what he was trying to do.