Prospero's Cell by Lawrence Durrell

Prospero's Cell by Lawrence Durrell

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Summary

Lose yourself in this glorious memoir of the island jewel of Corfu by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu.

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Prospero's Cell by Lawrence Durrell

Lose yourself in this glorious memoir of the island jewel of Corfu by the king of travel writing and real-life family member of The Durrells in Corfu. 'In its gem-like miniature quality, among the best books ever written.' New York Times In his youth, before he became a celebrated writer and poet, Lawrence Durrell spent four transformative years on the island jewel of Corfu, fascinated by the idyllic natural beauty and blood-stained ancient history within its rocky shores. While his brother Gerald collected animals as a budding naturalist - later fictionalised in My Family and Other Animals and filmed as The Durrells in Corfu - Lawrence fished, drank and befriended the local villagers. After World War II catapulted him back into a turmoiled world, Durrell never forgot the wonders of Corfu. Prospero's Cell is his magical evocation of the blazing Aegean landscape, brimming with memories of the places and people that changed him forever. 'Cannot be bettered ... A classic ... His words still evoke the magical qualities of the island.' Telegraph 'Some writers reinvent their language; others the world. Durrell did both.' André Aciman 'Invades the reader's every sense ... Remarkable.' Victoria Hislop 'These days I am admiring and re-admiring Lawrence Durrell.' Elif Shafak 'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' Richard Holmes 'Corfu could not have found a fitter chronicler.' Daily Telegraph 'A charming idyll ... Delightful.' Sunday Times

'Invades the reader's every sense.. Remarkable.' - Victoria Hislop

'These days I am admiring and re-admiring Lawrence Durrell.' - Elif Shafak

'Our last great garlicky master of the vanishing Mediterranean.' - Richard Holmes

'Corfu could not have found a fitter chronicler.' - Daily Telegraph

'A charming idyll ... Delightful.' - Sunday Times


Lawrence Durrell was a British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. Born in 1912, he was sent to school in England and later moved to Corfu with his family - a period which his brother Gerald fictionalised in My Family and Other Animals - later filmed as ITV's The Durrells in Corfu - and which he himself described in Prospero's Cell. The first of Durrell's island books, this was followed by Reflections on a Marine Venus on Rhodes; Bitter Lemons, on Cyprus, which won the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize; and, later, The Greek Islands.

Durrell's first major novel, The Black Book, was published in 1938 in Paris, where he befriended Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin - and it was praised by T. S. Eliot, who published his poetry in 1943. A wartime sojourn in Egypt inspired his bestselling masterpiece, The Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea) which he completed in his new home in Southern France, where in 1974 he began The Avignon Quintet. When he died in 1990, Durrell was one of the most celebrated writers in British history.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780571362387
ISBN 10 0571362389
Title Prospero's Cell
Author Lawrence Durrell
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Faber & Faber
Year published 2021-07-01
Number of pages 208
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable