Lawrence Durrell: A Biography Book

Lawrence Durrell, the oversexed, bad boy of mid-20th-century British letters is treated somewhat gingerly by biographer Ian S. MacNiven. He skims over the intense rivalry between Durrell and his younger brother, bestselling author, Gerald; avers that Durrell did not abuse his daughter Sappho (who, at 33, hanged herself ), despite her claims to the contrary; and even asserts that Durrell's insatiable appetite for new sexual conquests and acrobatics aside, the novelist was "in his fashion" faithful to each of his wives. MacNiven, the editor of The Durrell-Miller Letters, 1935-80 knows his subject well, and he fills the book with biographical detail about Durrell's lovers and friends--people such as Teresa Epstein who may have been the original model for Justine. He explores Alexandria, Egypt, the key to Durrell's best-known work, and finds that the Alexandria of the Quartet more closely resembles the city his wife Eva Cohen grew up in rather than the one he himself inhabited during the 1930s. MacNiven offers details about Durrell's friendship with Henry Miller--a closer kinship would be hard to find--that was forged during long nights of drinking, talking, and posturing, and he proffers reams of sensationally self- absorbed letter writing (scant mention of World War II is found in any of the letters from that period) that makes clear how the two fed one another's work. Most interestingly perhaps, MacNiven wonders about Durrell's ultimate position in the literary pantheon--The Alexandria Quartet, which many once believed would secure him the Nobel Prize for Literature, now seems like a relic from another age. Readers will walk away from this biography with an indelible impression of a personality that promises to endure as long as his books. Read More