From sumantranag at airtelmail.in Mon Mar 5 03:25:05 2012 From: sumantranag at airtelmail.in (Sumantra Nag) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 16:55:05 +0530 Subject: [ilds] Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of Memory" and its reflections on The Alexandria Quartet Message-ID: <46621750791042D888C134B493F8D8C1@abc> A few months ago I finally acquired Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of Memory". Needless to say I read the book with much anticipation and interest. I shall try to put my current points as briefly as possible. My present observations relate to Durrell's representation of Alexandria and implicitly, the city's multicultural but indigenous population, in The Alexandria Quartet, and the reflections which emerge from Michael Haag's own text in his book "Alexandria: City of Memory". Michael Haag writes in Alexandria:City of Memory: "There was an innocence about Alexandria then, in those early days of the war, an innocence that some would say the city never really lost. 'It was unthought of for an unmarried girl, or even an unmarried boy', recalled Bernard de Zogheb, 'to leave the family house and have a flat of their own...Certainly most girls in Alexandria went to their weddings as virgins - girls of all communities. We were brought up to think that sex was a mortal sin.'..." (p.184) It seems to me that only in Eve did Durrell find an Alexandrian who had been 'battered', but this was exaggerated because her 'battering' was basically the stifling control of a conservative Jewish family. Eve had later said, 'I had a father who was very possessive and for very good reasons. He was also, I think infatuated with me... It was the closest he had been to any human being...And Larry understood this to mean, when I told him, that my father had interfered with me sexually, but he never did... he was an honest-to-God man;..." (p.231). Eve's affairs with two other men (Shock and Rugge) were passing if somewhat complicated but could they have any relevance to "all who have been "deeply wounded in their sex.." as suggested by Durrell in his novel Justine?) And Eve appears to have provided him for psychological models not only for Justine but for Melissa as well. Somewhere in Haag's book Durrell refers to a nurse as a figure for Melissa, but not as a person with the emotional dimensions he represents in Melissa. How does this fit with Lawrence Durrell's broad claims about the Alexandrian people? For instance: 1. "The Orient cannot rejoice in the sweet anarchy of the body - for it has outstripped the body...Alexandria was the great winepress of love; those who emerged from it were the sick men, the solitaries, the prophets - I mean all who have been deeply wounded in their sex." (The Alexandria Quartet, Justine, Faber paperback, 1974, p.18). 2. "It is as if the preoccupations of this landscape were centred somewhere out of the reach of the average inhabitant - in a region where the flesh, stripped by over-indulgence of its final reticences, must yield to a preocccupation vastly more comprehensive..." (The Alexandria Quartet, Justine, Faber paperback, 1974, p.38). On the other hand these are Michael Haag's accounts about the British in Alexandria (Alexandria:City of Memory): 1. "Who were Durrell's original Alexandrians? In fact their names read like the cast of characters in a Noel Coward play: charles, Damien, Claudia, John, Hogarth, Baroness Irma, Tessa, Melissa, Corege. Almost all his characters are British; they turn out to be like Durrell and his friends, not true denizens of the cosmopolitan city but exiled in Alexandria by the war."(p.299). [But Gwyn Willams ('Durrell in Egypt') is also quoted by Haag as referring to 'Zananiri, Sachs, Baddaro, Menasce, Zogueb, Suarez...'. and 'It was out of this varied and dying ferment that Larry invented his Alexandria Quartet'.] 2. "Gwyn Williams would watch 'for as long as one caredto look' at British servicemen and women in 'a motionless clinch'...pressed against walls..." and "For Mario Colucci, ..he remembers seeing 'a Wren standing on the pavement...her skirt hitched up, one foot on the wall, having sex with a soldier.' " (pp.213-14) [This scene appears as follows in the novel Clea: 'The city was always perverse but it took its pleasures with style...never up aginst a wall or a tree or a truck!' (p.732, The Alexandria quartet)] 3. Haag writes of the temporarily resident Englishwoman in Alexandria, Elizabeth Gwynne - not a native citizen of Alexandria - who had the history of having been raped by a close relative, the history which Durrell gives to Justine in his novel. ['But it is not clear if eventually she herself or Cowan or a mutual friend told Durrell that at the age of fourteen she had been raped by a member of her family...' (Haag, p.274)]. 4. "...for a time the navy itself operated a brothel...with a medical officer permanently on duty. 'It created a big scandal that the British should participate in such activity...' " (p.213) 5. In his novels, Durrell also underplays or ignores the the life of cultivation among the elite of Alexandria, mentioned in Michael Haag's book: "..Nuovo Teatro Alhambra on the Rue Missalla and the Mohammed Ali Theatre on the Rue Fuad, where Pavlova danced and Toscanini conducted, where the opera season was brightened by the stars of La Scala...' (Haag, p.136) Instead Durrell says about Alexandria, "You would never mistake it for a happy place." (Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet, Faber paperback, Justine, p.1-2.) My questions: Has Durrell underplayed the preoccupation with British people when he tars Alexandria with broad brushes of his concern with sexual activity? And why has he ignored the culture and the considerable involvement with artistic activities displayed at leat by the cosmopolitan elite as they are represented in Haag' book. Sumantra -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From godshawl at ucmail.uc.edu Mon Mar 5 18:04:40 2012 From: godshawl at ucmail.uc.edu (Godshalk, William (godshawl)) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 21:04:40 -0500 Subject: [ilds] Folio Society In-Reply-To: <4F512344.40703@gmail.com> References: <4F512344.40703@gmail.com> Message-ID: <94B18F18BF859846A11A82A6166B6C4202099157B5CF@UCMAILBE2.ad.uc.edu> W. L. Godshalk * Department of English * * University of Cincinnati* * Stellar Disorder * OH 45221-0069 * * ________________________________________ From: ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca [ilds-bounces at lists.uvic.ca] On Behalf Of James Gifford [james.d.gifford at gmail.com] Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 2:45 PM To: ILDS Listserv Subject: [ilds] Folio Society Hello all, The Folio Society (just around the corner from the site of the London conference this summer) is now celebrating Durrell's centenary: http://www.foliosociety.com/news If you've not seen the Folio editions of the Quartet, they are lovely... Cheers, James -- --------------------------------------- James Gifford, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of English and University Core Director School of English, Philosophy and Humanities University College: Arts, Sciences, Professional Studies Fairleigh Dickinson University, Vancouver Campus Voice: 604-648-4476 Fax: 604-648-4489 E-mail: gifford at fdu.edu http://alpha.fdu.edu/~jgifford 842 Cambie Street Vancouver, BC V6B 2P6 Canada _______________________________________________ ILDS mailing list ILDS at lists.uvic.ca https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds From sumantranag at gmail.com Fri Mar 9 22:27:55 2012 From: sumantranag at gmail.com (Sumantra Nag) Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:57:55 +0530 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 4 References: Message-ID: <21CCB554158A4CE292B3039681614DA3@abc> I have seen no posts on the ILDS over the last few days! The wide discussion and posts from a variety of participants which was a mark of this forum seems to be conspicuously absent for some time! I look forward to a revival of those discussions! Regards Sumantra ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2012 1:30 AM Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 4 > Send ILDS mailing list submissions to > ilds at lists.uvic.ca > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca > > You can reach the person managing the list at > ilds-owner at lists.uvic.ca > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of Memory" and its > reflections on The Alexandria Quartet (Sumantra Nag) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 16:55:05 +0530 > From: "Sumantra Nag" > To: > Subject: [ilds] Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of Memory" and its > reflections on The Alexandria Quartet > Message-ID: <46621750791042D888C134B493F8D8C1 at abc> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > A few months ago I finally acquired Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of > Memory". Needless to say I read the book with much anticipation and > interest. I shall try to put my current points as briefly as possible. My > present observations relate to Durrell's representation of Alexandria and > implicitly, the city's multicultural but indigenous population, in The > Alexandria Quartet, and the reflections which emerge from Michael Haag's > own text in his book "Alexandria: City of Memory". > > Michael Haag writes in Alexandria:City of Memory: > > "There was an innocence about Alexandria then, in those early days of the > war, an innocence that some would say the city never really lost. 'It was > unthought of for an unmarried girl, or even an unmarried boy', recalled > Bernard de Zogheb, 'to leave the family house and have a flat of their > own...Certainly most girls in Alexandria went to their weddings as > virgins - girls of all communities. We were brought up to think that sex > was a mortal sin.'..." (p.184) > > It seems to me that only in Eve did Durrell find an Alexandrian who had > been 'battered', but this was exaggerated because her 'battering' was > basically the stifling control of a conservative Jewish family. Eve had > later said, 'I had a father who was very possessive and for very good > reasons. He was also, I think infatuated with me... It was the closest he > had been to any human being...And Larry understood this to mean, when I > told him, that my father had interfered with me sexually, but he never > did... he was an honest-to-God man;..." (p.231). > > Eve's affairs with two other men (Shock and Rugge) were passing if > somewhat complicated but could they have any relevance to "all who have > been "deeply wounded in their sex.." as suggested by Durrell in his novel > Justine?) > > And Eve appears to have provided him for psychological models not only for > Justine but for Melissa as well. Somewhere in Haag's book Durrell refers > to a nurse as a figure for Melissa, but not as a person with the emotional > dimensions he represents in Melissa. > > How does this fit with Lawrence Durrell's broad claims about the > Alexandrian people? For instance: > > 1. "The Orient cannot rejoice in the sweet anarchy of the body - for it > has outstripped the body...Alexandria was the great winepress of love; > those who emerged from it were the sick men, the solitaries, the > prophets - I mean all who have been deeply wounded in their sex." (The > Alexandria Quartet, Justine, Faber paperback, 1974, p.18). > > 2. "It is as if the preoccupations of this landscape were centred > somewhere out of the reach of the average inhabitant - in a region where > the flesh, stripped by over-indulgence of its final reticences, must yield > to a preocccupation vastly more comprehensive..." (The Alexandria Quartet, > Justine, Faber paperback, 1974, p.38). > > On the other hand these are Michael Haag's accounts about the British in > Alexandria (Alexandria:City of Memory): > > 1. "Who were Durrell's original Alexandrians? In fact their names read > like the cast of characters in a Noel Coward play: charles, Damien, > Claudia, John, Hogarth, Baroness Irma, Tessa, Melissa, Corege. Almost all > his characters are British; they turn out to be like Durrell and his > friends, not true denizens of the cosmopolitan city but exiled in > Alexandria by the war."(p.299). > > [But Gwyn Willams ('Durrell in Egypt') is also quoted by Haag as referring > to 'Zananiri, Sachs, Baddaro, Menasce, Zogueb, Suarez...'. and 'It was out > of this varied and dying ferment that Larry invented his Alexandria > Quartet'.] > > 2. "Gwyn Williams would watch 'for as long as one caredto look' at British > servicemen and women in 'a motionless clinch'...pressed against walls..." > and "For Mario Colucci, ..he remembers seeing 'a Wren standing on the > pavement...her skirt hitched up, one foot on the wall, having sex with a > soldier.' " (pp.213-14) > > [This scene appears as follows in the novel Clea: 'The city was always > perverse but it took its pleasures with style...never up aginst a wall or > a tree or a truck!' (p.732, The Alexandria quartet)] > > 3. Haag writes of the temporarily resident Englishwoman in Alexandria, > Elizabeth Gwynne - not a native citizen of Alexandria - who had the > history of having been raped by a close relative, the history which > Durrell gives to Justine in his novel. ['But it is not clear if eventually > she herself or Cowan or a mutual friend told Durrell that at the age of > fourteen she had been raped by a member of her family...' (Haag, p.274)]. > > 4. "...for a time the navy itself operated a brothel...with a medical > officer permanently on duty. 'It created a big scandal that the British > should participate in such activity...' " (p.213) > > 5. In his novels, Durrell also underplays or ignores the the life of > cultivation among the elite of Alexandria, mentioned in Michael Haag's > book: > > "..Nuovo Teatro Alhambra on the Rue Missalla and the Mohammed Ali Theatre > on the Rue Fuad, where Pavlova danced and Toscanini conducted, where the > opera season was brightened by the stars of La Scala...' (Haag, p.136) > > Instead Durrell says about Alexandria, "You would never mistake it for a > happy place." (Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet, Faber paperback, Justine, > p.1-2.) > > My questions: > > Has Durrell underplayed the preoccupation with British people when he tars > Alexandria with broad brushes of his concern with sexual activity? > > And why has he ignored the culture and the considerable involvement with > artistic activities displayed at leat by the cosmopolitan elite as they > are represented in Haag' book. > > Sumantra > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds > > > End of ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 4 > *********************************** From timlot at comcast.net Sat Mar 10 08:03:26 2012 From: timlot at comcast.net (Merrianne Timko) Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:03:26 -0600 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 4 References: <21CCB554158A4CE292B3039681614DA3@abc> Message-ID: <15B2F5B0C51247B0AB1C1C17A01C8E3B@D3NY0YF1> Dear Sumantra, Regarding your #3. Haag writes of the temporarily resident Englishwoman in Alexandria, > Elizabeth Gwynne - not a native citizen of Alexandria Elizabeth Gwynne is best known as the British food writer Elizabeth David. Two biographies have been published on David. The "official" biography is Writing at the Kitchen Table by Artemis Cooper. The "unofficial" biography was written by Lisa Chaney. Merrianne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sumantra Nag" To: Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2012 12:27 AM Subject: Re: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 4 >I have seen no posts on the ILDS over the last few days! > > The wide discussion and posts from a variety of participants which was a > mark of this forum seems to be conspicuously absent for some time! > > I look forward to a revival of those discussions! > > Regards > > Sumantra > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: > To: > Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2012 1:30 AM > Subject: ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 4 > > >> Send ILDS mailing list submissions to >> ilds at lists.uvic.ca >> >> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit >> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds >> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to >> ilds-request at lists.uvic.ca >> >> You can reach the person managing the list at >> ilds-owner at lists.uvic.ca >> >> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >> than "Re: Contents of ILDS digest..." >> >> >> Today's Topics: >> >> 1. Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of Memory" and its >> reflections on The Alexandria Quartet (Sumantra Nag) >> >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> Message: 1 >> Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 16:55:05 +0530 >> From: "Sumantra Nag" >> To: >> Subject: [ilds] Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of Memory" and its >> reflections on The Alexandria Quartet >> Message-ID: <46621750791042D888C134B493F8D8C1 at abc> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> A few months ago I finally acquired Michael Haag's "Alexandria: City of >> Memory". Needless to say I read the book with much anticipation and >> interest. I shall try to put my current points as briefly as possible. My >> present observations relate to Durrell's representation of Alexandria and >> implicitly, the city's multicultural but indigenous population, in The >> Alexandria Quartet, and the reflections which emerge from Michael Haag's >> own text in his book "Alexandria: City of Memory". >> >> Michael Haag writes in Alexandria:City of Memory: >> >> "There was an innocence about Alexandria then, in those early days of the >> war, an innocence that some would say the city never really lost. 'It was >> unthought of for an unmarried girl, or even an unmarried boy', recalled >> Bernard de Zogheb, 'to leave the family house and have a flat of their >> own...Certainly most girls in Alexandria went to their weddings as >> virgins - girls of all communities. We were brought up to think that sex >> was a mortal sin.'..." (p.184) >> >> It seems to me that only in Eve did Durrell find an Alexandrian who had >> been 'battered', but this was exaggerated because her 'battering' was >> basically the stifling control of a conservative Jewish family. Eve had >> later said, 'I had a father who was very possessive and for very good >> reasons. He was also, I think infatuated with me... It was the closest he >> had been to any human being...And Larry understood this to mean, when I >> told him, that my father had interfered with me sexually, but he never >> did... he was an honest-to-God man;..." (p.231). >> >> Eve's affairs with two other men (Shock and Rugge) were passing if >> somewhat complicated but could they have any relevance to "all who have >> been "deeply wounded in their sex.." as suggested by Durrell in his novel >> Justine?) >> >> And Eve appears to have provided him for psychological models not only >> for Justine but for Melissa as well. Somewhere in Haag's book Durrell >> refers to a nurse as a figure for Melissa, but not as a person with the >> emotional dimensions he represents in Melissa. >> >> How does this fit with Lawrence Durrell's broad claims about the >> Alexandrian people? For instance: >> >> 1. "The Orient cannot rejoice in the sweet anarchy of the body - for it >> has outstripped the body...Alexandria was the great winepress of love; >> those who emerged from it were the sick men, the solitaries, the >> prophets - I mean all who have been deeply wounded in their sex." (The >> Alexandria Quartet, Justine, Faber paperback, 1974, p.18). >> >> 2. "It is as if the preoccupations of this landscape were centred >> somewhere out of the reach of the average inhabitant - in a region where >> the flesh, stripped by over-indulgence of its final reticences, must >> yield to a preocccupation vastly more comprehensive..." (The Alexandria >> Quartet, Justine, Faber paperback, 1974, p.38). >> >> On the other hand these are Michael Haag's accounts about the British in >> Alexandria (Alexandria:City of Memory): >> >> 1. "Who were Durrell's original Alexandrians? In fact their names read >> like the cast of characters in a Noel Coward play: charles, Damien, >> Claudia, John, Hogarth, Baroness Irma, Tessa, Melissa, Corege. Almost all >> his characters are British; they turn out to be like Durrell and his >> friends, not true denizens of the cosmopolitan city but exiled in >> Alexandria by the war."(p.299). >> >> [But Gwyn Willams ('Durrell in Egypt') is also quoted by Haag as >> referring to 'Zananiri, Sachs, Baddaro, Menasce, Zogueb, Suarez...'. and >> 'It was out of this varied and dying ferment that Larry invented his >> Alexandria Quartet'.] >> >> 2. "Gwyn Williams would watch 'for as long as one caredto look' at >> British servicemen and women in 'a motionless clinch'...pressed against >> walls..." and "For Mario Colucci, ..he remembers seeing 'a Wren standing >> on the pavement...her skirt hitched up, one foot on the wall, having sex >> with a soldier.' " (pp.213-14) >> >> [This scene appears as follows in the novel Clea: 'The city was always >> perverse but it took its pleasures with style...never up aginst a wall or >> a tree or a truck!' (p.732, The Alexandria quartet)] >> >> 3. Haag writes of the temporarily resident Englishwoman in Alexandria, >> Elizabeth Gwynne - not a native citizen of Alexandria - who had the >> history of having been raped by a close relative, the history which >> Durrell gives to Justine in his novel. ['But it is not clear if >> eventually she herself or Cowan or a mutual friend told Durrell that at >> the age of fourteen she had been raped by a member of her family...' >> (Haag, p.274)]. >> >> 4. "...for a time the navy itself operated a brothel...with a medical >> officer permanently on duty. 'It created a big scandal that the British >> should participate in such activity...' " (p.213) >> >> 5. In his novels, Durrell also underplays or ignores the the life of >> cultivation among the elite of Alexandria, mentioned in Michael Haag's >> book: >> >> "..Nuovo Teatro Alhambra on the Rue Missalla and the Mohammed Ali Theatre >> on the Rue Fuad, where Pavlova danced and Toscanini conducted, where the >> opera season was brightened by the stars of La Scala...' (Haag, p.136) >> >> Instead Durrell says about Alexandria, "You would never mistake it for a >> happy place." (Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet, Faber paperback, Justine, >> p.1-2.) >> >> My questions: >> >> Has Durrell underplayed the preoccupation with British people when he >> tars Alexandria with broad brushes of his concern with sexual activity? >> >> And why has he ignored the culture and the considerable involvement with >> artistic activities displayed at leat by the cosmopolitan elite as they >> are represented in Haag' book. >> >> Sumantra >> >> >> >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> ILDS mailing list >> ILDS at lists.uvic.ca >> https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds >> >> >> End of ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 4 >> *********************************** > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds > From sumantranag at gmail.com Sun Mar 11 09:00:14 2012 From: sumantranag at gmail.com (Sumantra Nag) Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:30:14 +0530 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 6_Merriane Timko References: Message-ID: <91B00D923856406F99D14615B5F9FB44@abc> Dear Sumantra, Regarding your #3. Haag writes of the temporarily resident Englishwoman in Alexandria, Elizabeth Gwynne - not a native citizen of Alexandria, etc...... Merrianne ------------------------------------ Dear Merrianne, I would rather not have mentioned this fragment from Michael Haag's book at all. But Michael Haag's book seems to imply that Durrell was prepared to transpose attributes to Alexandrians in attempt to arouse the curiosity of readers about his characters. Whereas Michael Haag depicts the lives of girls from Alexandrian society as deeply conventional, Durrell seems to concentrate on "...sexual provendor..." and imply a "..wine-press of love.." (whatever that might actually mean) which produced people who were psychically wounded. Contrast these two representations: 1. Michael Haag: "There was an innocence about Alexandria then, in those early days of the war, an innocence that some would say the city never really lost. 'It was unthought of for an unmarried girl, or even an unmarried boy', recalled Bernard de Zogheb, 'to leave the family house and have a flat of their own...Certainly most girls in Alexandria went to their weddings as virgins - girls of all communities. We were brought up to think that sex was a mortal sin.'..." (Alexandria: City of Memory, p.184) 2. Lawrence Durrell: "Alexandria was the great winepress of love; those who emerged from it were the sick men, the solitaries, the prophets - I mean all who have been deeply wounded in their sex." (The Alexandria Quartet, Justine, Faber paperback, 1974, p.18) Is this an exaggerated attempt at making a subject interesting in a prurient sort of way? If so, does the literary value of the work suffer? In fact The Alexandria Quartet appears to depend far too much on prurience for retaining the interest of the reader, even though Durrell also succeeds in recreating romance in an age when romance seemed to have become irrelevant or obsolete. Sumantra From gammage.kennedy at gmail.com Sun Mar 11 12:27:21 2012 From: gammage.kennedy at gmail.com (Ken Gammage) Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:27:21 -0700 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 6_Merriane Timko In-Reply-To: <91B00D923856406F99D14615B5F9FB44@abc> References: <91B00D923856406F99D14615B5F9FB44@abc> Message-ID: Sumantra and Merrianne ? I think it?s worth remembering that Durrell was in Alexandria during the war, but used those experiences to create an epic story with dozens of memorable characters, dramatic events in an exotic locale?which he *pushed back in time* into the 1930s (Don Kaczvinsky dates Darley?s arrival in the city to 1933: "When Was Darley in Alexandria? A Chronology for the Alexandria Quartet," Journal of Modern Literature 17.4 (1991), 591-94,) which was to your point perhaps a more innocent time ? but to tell you the truth, I have a hard time believing that the 1930s were truly innocent anywhere on the planet earth, or that what we might call the dark side of Durrell?s Alexandria was cut out of whole cloth. Thanks - Ken On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 9:00 AM, Sumantra Nag wrote: > Dear Sumantra, > > Regarding your #3. Haag writes of the temporarily resident Englishwoman in > Alexandria, Elizabeth Gwynne - not a native citizen of Alexandria, > etc...... > > Merrianne > ------------------------------**------ > > Dear Merrianne, > > I would rather not have mentioned this fragment from Michael Haag's book > at all. But Michael Haag's book seems to imply that Durrell was prepared to > transpose attributes to Alexandrians in attempt to arouse the curiosity of > readers about his characters. Whereas Michael Haag depicts the lives of > girls from Alexandrian society as deeply conventional, Durrell seems to > concentrate on "...sexual provendor..." and imply a "..wine-press of > love.." (whatever that might actually mean) which produced people who were > psychically wounded. Contrast these two representations: > > 1. Michael Haag: > "There was an innocence about Alexandria then, in those early days of the > war, an innocence that some would say the city never really lost. 'It was > unthought of for an unmarried girl, or even an unmarried boy', recalled > Bernard de Zogheb, 'to leave the family house and have a flat of their > own...Certainly most girls in Alexandria went to their weddings as virgins > - girls of all communities. We were brought up to think that sex was a > mortal sin.'..." (Alexandria: City of Memory, p.184) > > 2. Lawrence Durrell: > "Alexandria was the great winepress of love; those who emerged from it > were the sick men, the solitaries, the prophets - I mean all who have been > deeply wounded in their sex." (The Alexandria Quartet, Justine, Faber > paperback, 1974, p.18) > > Is this an exaggerated attempt at making a subject interesting in a > prurient sort of way? If so, does the literary value of the work suffer? In > fact The Alexandria Quartet appears to depend far too much on prurience for > retaining the interest of the reader, even though Durrell also succeeds in > recreating romance in an age when romance seemed to have become irrelevant > or obsolete. > > Sumantra > > > > ______________________________**_________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/**listinfo/ilds > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From robin.w.collins at gmail.com Sun Mar 11 15:42:55 2012 From: robin.w.collins at gmail.com (Robin.W.Collins) Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:42:55 -0400 Subject: [ilds] ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 7 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2FF51CC3-0FB0-4FFB-95F7-382AEC7E342C@gmail.com> It's fiction, not history. The more prurient the better. R. > > Is this an exaggerated attempt at making a subject interesting in a prurient > sort of way? If so, does the literary value of the work suffer? In fact The > Alexandria Quartet appears to depend far too much on prurience for retaining > the interest of the reader, even though Durrell also succeeds in recreating > romance in an age when romance seemed to have become irrelevant or obsolete. > > Sumantra > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > ILDS mailing list > ILDS at lists.uvic.ca > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/ilds > > > End of ILDS Digest, Vol 60, Issue 7 > *********************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: