Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence Durrell – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990), British expatriate writer of The Alexandria Quartet, was a master of place, memory, and psychological perspective. Explore his life, works, and memorable words in this full biography.

Introduction

Lawrence George Durrell (27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was a British novelist, poet, playwright, and travel writer noted for his richly atmospheric prose, his deep sense of place, and his experimental narrative techniques.

Though he was born into the British colonial milieu in India, Durrell spent much of his life far from England, roaming the Mediterranean, settling in France, Cyprus, Egypt, and Greece, and weaving his expatriate experience into his art.

His best-known work is The Alexandria Quartet (1957–1960), four interconnected novels set in cosmopolitan Alexandria, which experiment with shifting perspectives, metaphysical themes, and the interplay between memory, desire, and time.

In this article, we will trace Durrell’s life from his early years, through his literary maturation, to his later works and enduring legacy. We’ll also share some of his most resonant quotes, and what lessons his life offers to writers and readers alike.

Early Life and Family

Lawrence Durrell was born on 27 February 1912 in Jalandhar (then “Jullundur”), Punjab, British India. Lawrence Samuel Durrell and Louisa (Florence Dixie) Durrell, had themselves been born in India, giving the family an ambiguous colonial identity rooted in the subcontinent.

As a child, he spent his early years in India (including Darjeeling) before being sent to England at the age of 11 for schooling.

Durrell did not thrive under formal education; he failed university entrance examinations and left traditional academic paths behind. Quaint Fragments (or a similar early collection) in 1931 when he was 19.

His childhood and early bi-cultural orientation—neither fully colonial English nor purely Indian—would later inflect much of his sense of exile, displacement, and cosmopolitan identity.

Youth and Early Literary Development

After leaving strict schooling in England, Durrell drifted into bohemian and literary circles. He tried his hand at various jobs (including briefly as a jazz pianist, or playing in clubs) in London.

In 1935, Durrell married Nancy Myers and persuaded his mother, younger siblings, and wife to move to Corfu, Greece. This move was partly to escape the stultifying aspects he perceived in England and to live more economically and freely.

During his time in Europe and the Mediterranean, he corresponded and associated with writers like Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin, and he participated in small literary publishing efforts (e.g. via Villa Seurat group) alongside Alfred Perles.

In 1938, Durrell published The Black Book: An Agon, a novel influenced by Miller’s style—though it was not published in Britain until later. This early novel already shows the thematic conflicts of identity, desire, memory, and dislocation that would mark his later work.

Adult Life, Travels & Service

Wartime and Diplomatic Roles

When World War II broke out, Durrell and his first wife, Nancy, remained on Corfu. In 1940, after Greece fell, they escaped via Crete to Egypt, where Durrell began working as a press attaché and diplomat for British government postings in Cairo, Alexandria, Rhodes, and later Belgrade.

While in Alexandria during the war, Durrell lived with Eve Cohen (Yvette Cohen), an Alexandrian Jewish woman who would inspire the character Justine in his Alexandria Quartet. After his divorce from Nancy, he married Eve in 1947 and had a daughter, Sappho Jane (born 1951).

His diplomatic and cultural roles often fed into his writing. For example, his experiences in Cyprus (where he taught English literature and lived during the 1950s) led to his memoir Bitter Lemons.

Major Literary Works & Mature Style

The Alexandria Quartet

Between 1957 and 1960, Durrell published the four volumes of The Alexandria Quartet: Justine (1957), Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960). Clea does time advance.

The Alexandria Quartet is widely regarded as Durrell’s masterpiece. Critics praised its psychological depth, lyrical prose, interweaving of cultures, and the portrayal of Alexandria itself as a character.

Durrell once described his narrative method as “relativistic,” emphasizing how truth and memory shift depending on vantage point.

Later Works: The Avignon Quintet and Beyond

Beginning in 1974, Durrell embarked on The Avignon Quintet, comprising Monsieur or the Prince of Darkness, Livia or Buried Alive, Constance or Solitary Practices, Sebastian or Ruling Passions, and Quinx or The Ripper’s Tale. Monsieur, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1974. Constance was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1982.

Durrell also published travel-oriented works: Prospero’s Cell (on Corfu), Reflections on a Marine Venus, Sicilian Carousel, The Greek Islands, and Caesar’s Vast Ghost.

He wrote humorous/diplomatic sketches (e.g. Esprit de Corps, Stiff Upper Lip) drawn from his diplomatic experiences.

In later life, Durrell settled in Sommières, France, in the Languedoc region, and continued writing until his death.

Personality, Themes & Literary Significance

Cosmopolitan Identity & Exile

Durrell resisted being identified purely as British. He saw himself as a cosmopolitan writer, beyond national allegiances, shaped by landscapes, cultures, and cross-cultural encounters. displacement, otherness, and geographical identity.

The City & Landscape as Character

One of Durrell’s hallmarks is the way he treats places—not just as settings, but as living, animating presences in his narratives. Alexandria, Corfu, Cyprus, the Mediterranean coastlines—these landscapes influence character, mood, and meaning.

He once wrote:

“We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.”

Fragmentation, Subjectivity & Narrative Experiment

Durrell’s approach often defies linear, objective storytelling. He embraces relativism, multiple perspectives, shifting time, and subjective memory. This literary strategy invites readers to question truth, perception, and how selves are constructed.

Eroticism, Desire & Psychological Depth

His writings frequently explore erotic desire, obsession, unfulfilled longing, and the tensions between love, art, and suffering. For him, relationships are entangled with imagination and narrative. As he puts it in Justine:

“There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature.”

He also asks:

“Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?”

His prose is often richly sensuous, metaphorical, and allusive.

Flaws, Contradictions & Personal Struggles

Durrell was a conflicted man, prone to self-mythologizing, arrogance, and moral ambiguity. Later revelations—such as the tragic death by suicide of his daughter Sappho Jane in 1985 and her diaries’ allusions to alleged incest — have cast shadows on his personal legacy.

He also struggled with emphysema (as a longtime smoker) and died of a stroke on 7 November 1990 in France.

Despite these controversies, his literary ambition, imaginative scope, and command of voice remain influential in probing the porous borders between identity, place, memory, and desire.

Famous Quotes by Lawrence Durrell

Here are some representative quotes that showcase his thought, tone, and poetic sensibility:

“Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?”

“There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature.”

“We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.”

“Like all young men I set out to be a genius, but mercifully laughter intervened.”

“A city becomes a world when one loves one of its inhabitants.”

“Music is only love looking for words.”

“Truth disappears with the telling of it.”

These quotes reflect Durrell’s preoccupations with silence, perception, love, art, and the tension between what is unsaid and what is expressed.

Lessons from the Life of Lawrence Durrell

From Durrell’s life and art, we can draw several enduring insights:

1. Place shapes being – Durrell’s life shows how physical landscapes and cultural geographies can shape thought, feeling, and narrative.

2. Perspective matters – His experiments with shifting perspectives remind us that truth is seldom singular or objective.

3. Embrace complexity and contradiction – His life and work refuse simple moral judgments; greatness and flaw often coexist.

4. Root fiction in memory and longing – His use of memory, emotion, and the unreliability of recollection teaches how fiction can explore inner life, not merely external events.

5. The personal is not private – His life shows how writers’ personal struggles, identities, and relationships can both haunt and fuel their art.

6. Legacy transcends reputation – Though his readership has waned in parts, Durrell’s innovations in narrative form and his unique voice continue to inspire writers interested in place, psychological depth, and cosmopolitan sensibility.

Conclusion

Lawrence Durrell was a writer of restless vision—always between places, languages, identities, and perspectives. His masterpiece, The Alexandria Quartet, remains a touchstone for literature that seeks to fuse sensuality, memory, and narrative experimentation. Although his personal life was mired in contradiction and tragedy, his literary legacy endures as a vivid testament to what storytelling can do when it treats cities, landscapes, and human subjectivity not as static backdrops but as protagonists in their own right.