Lawrence Durrell: A Biography

by Ian S. MacNiven

Overview

The prize-winning biography of the celebrated author of the Alexandria Quartet and the Avignon Quintet: an “elegant and meticulous . . . treat” (Kirkus Reviews).

A New York Times Notable Book

Born in colonial India in 1912, Lawrence Durrell established his literary reputation as a citizen of the Mediterranean. After attending school in England, Durrell escaped the country he dubbed “Pudding Island” for the Greek island of Corfu, only to make another escape—this time from Nazi invasion—to Egypt. His experiences in wartime Alexandria led to a quartet of novels, beginning with Justine, that are collectively considered some of the great masterpieces of postwar fiction.

Durrell’s peripatetic life, which eventually took him to the South of France, fed his work with the richness and drama of his various adoptive homes. A man of protean talents, Durrell is celebrated for his fiction and poetry, as well has his highly regarded translations, essays, and travel literature.
In researching this authorized biography, Ian S. MacNiven traveled over a period of twenty years from India to California, interviewing hundreds of individuals and visiting all but one of the many places Durrell lived. The result is an intimate portrait of a literary titan that was awarded a prize by the French city of Antibes for the year’s best study on Durrell.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504063104
Publisher:	Open Road Media
Publication date:	08/11/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	814
File size:	41 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ian S. MacNiven’s authorized biography of Lawrence Durrell was listed by the New York Times as a Notable Book in 1998, and it was awarded a prize by the city of Antibes in France for the best study on Durrell in the same year, cited as “l’étude le plus complète et la plus pénétrante sur cet auteur méditerranéen.” In the course of researching his biography of Durrell, MacNiven traveled over a period of twenty years from India to California, interviewing hundreds of individuals and visiting all but one of the many places his subject had lived.

MacNiven’s authorized biography of the poet and publisher James Laughlin, “Literchoor Is My Beat”: A Biography of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2014. Earlier, he edited two collections of Durrell’s correspondence with Richard Aldington and Henry Miller. MacNiven is also the author of numerous articles on various figures of literary modernism, and over the years has directed and spoken at conferences on three continents. He is an emeritus professor of literature at SUNY Maritime College, and he currently resides on the west bank of the Hudson, outside Athens, New York.
 

Ian S. MacNiven’s authorized biography of Lawrence Durrell was listed by the New York Times as a Notable Book in 1998, and it was awarded a prize by the city of Antibes in France for the best study on Durrell in the same year, cited as “l’étude le plus complète et la plus pénétrante sur cet auteur méditerranéen.” In the course of researching his biography of Durrell, MacNiven traveled over a period of twenty years from India to California, interviewing hundreds of individuals and visiting all but one of the many places his subject had lived.

MacNiven’s authorized biography of the poet and publisher James Laughlin, “Literchoor Is My Beat”: A Biography of James Laughlin, Publisher of New Directions, was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2014. Earlier, he edited two collections of Durrell’s correspondence with Richard Aldington and Henry Miller. MacNiven is also the author of numerous articles on various figures of literary modernism, and over the years has directed and spoken at conferences on three continents. He is an emeritus professor of literature at SUNY Maritime College, and he currently resides on the west bank of the Hudson, outside Athens, New York.

Editorial Reviews

We are unlikely to be given a more thorough biography. . . . What is needed now is a livelier, less respectful assessment of the man and his work. Was Durrell, as Henry Miller once wrote, 'a stinking genius'? -- The New York Times Book Review

Miranda Seymour

Elegant and meticulous, this authorized biography of the author of such literary works as The Alexandria Quartet and The Avignon Quintet is a belletristic treat. If this biography existed in isolation, it would be a formidable achievement. Its fluidity and richness of detail echoes Durrell's work at its best. But MacNiven (Literary Lifelines, 1981) is up against last year's landmark Durrell biography, Into the Dark Labyrinth, by Gordon Bowker. It's a fair fight, and in the ideal world both books should be read since they cover substantially different ground. Though MacNiven has the advantage of being able to quote freely from Durrell's oeuvre, he is much better on his subject's life, while Bowker's real strength lies in his understanding and exposition of Durrell's work. These two biographies make a compelling case for his protean talents, the timelessness of his art, but they probably aren't enough to hold the ebbing tide of his popularity. Durrell was a child of the Raj, and MacNiven convincingly argues that India, in one form or another, inflected much of Durrell's writing. Sent away to England, the despised 'Pudding Island'; for schooling, he quickly proved an indifferent student. Unable to get into university, he set out for Corfu, intent on becoming a writer. This was the start of a peripatetic life that seemed to fuel his work. Each move, to various Greek islands, to wartime Alexandria, to the south of France, brought with it a cascade of poems and at least one novel. Unlike so many expatriate writers whose work remains ineluctably homebound, Durrell was truly a poet of places. In MacNiven, he has found a gifted, sympathetic interpreter.

Kirkus Reviews