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{{Short description|1960 novel by Lawrence Durrell}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} |
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| name = Clea |
| name = Clea |
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| title_orig = |
| title_orig = |
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| translator = |
| translator = |
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| image = |
| image = Image:Clea.jpg |
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| caption = First UK edition |
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| author = [[Lawrence Durrell]] |
| author = [[Lawrence Durrell]] |
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| illustrator = |
| illustrator = |
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| cover_artist = |
| cover_artist = |
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| country = |
| country = United Kingdom |
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| language = |
| language = English |
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| series = [[The Alexandria Quartet]] |
| series = [[The Alexandria Quartet]] |
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| genre = |
| genre = |
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| publisher = [[Faber and Faber|Faber]] |
| publisher = [[Faber and Faber|Faber]] |
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| release_date = 1960 |
| release_date = 1960 |
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| media_type = Print ([[Paperback]] and [[Hardback]]) |
| media_type = Print ([[Paperback]] and [[Hardback]]) |
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| pages = |
| pages = |
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| isbn = NA |
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| preceded_by = [[Mountolive]] |
| preceded_by = [[Mountolive]] |
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| followed_by = |
| followed_by = |
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}} |
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'''''Clea''''', published in 1960, is the fourth volume in |
'''''Clea''''', published in 1960, is the fourth volume in [[The Alexandria Quartet]] of novels by the British author [[Lawrence Durrell]]. Set in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 1930s and 1940s, the first three volumes tell the same story from different points of view, and ''Clea'' relates subsequent events. |
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Durrell wrote the book in four weeks.<ref name=Wood>[https://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/michael-wood/sink-or-skim Sink or Skim], by [[Michael Wood (academic)|Michael Wood]]; in the ''[[London Review of Books]]''; published January 1, 2009; retrieved July 15, 2018</ref> |
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==Epigraphs & Citations== |
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==Plot and characterization== |
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Marquise de Sade and Freud again helm the epigraphs - including a nostalgic preface in which Durrell, reluctantly and defiantly, claims the story is now "complete" - failing to convince either himself, or the Reader. The story will haunt the Author in the [[Quincunx]] format of The Avignon Novels - and the discerning and perceptive reader. One never views 20th Century Literature the same way again after reading [[The Alexandria Quartet]] and has to make seismic shifts of perception and appreciation to accommodate this essential book from the mid-point of the Century. |
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The book begins with the Narrator (Darley) living on a remote Greek island with Nessim's illegitimate daughter from Melissa. The child is now six years old—marking the time that has elapsed since the events of ''[[Justine (Durrell novel)|Justine]]''. Darley has been able to spend this period on the island—thinking, writing, maturing—due to the £500 left him in his will by the writer Pursewarden (who killed himself). |
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Mnemjian arrives (unexpectedly) to see Darley with a message from Nessim and news of events in Alexandria—notably the fall from prosperity of the Hosnani family (Nessim, his wife Justine, and brother Narouz—the latter dead). Mnemjian is a prosperous barber, and possibly brothel owner. |
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==Plot & Characterization== |
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They proceed to Alexandria, now under nightly bombardment because of the War (WW2), Darley continues to reminisce, sometimes lamenting, and seeks and sometimes finds, the characters of the earlier book. |
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The book begins with the Narrator living on a remote Greek island with his illegitimate daughter from Melissa( now six years old - marking the time that has elapsed since the events of [[Justine]] ); however the tone is very dark & opposed to the light & airy reminescence of [[Prospero's Cell]] - Durrell's travelogue-memoir of his life on Corfu. The prolonged nature-peices, which are a highlight of Durrell's prose, still intervene between straight linear narrative - but are uniformly of [[askesis]] & alone-ness. |
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He runs into Clea in the street—and they effortlessly pick up an affaire de coeur—this time unencumbered by the interfering physical presences of Justine and Melissa. |
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[[Balthazar]] arrives on a passing steam-boat with the loose-leafed [[Inter-Linear]] - as the narrative is now styled by the Narrator of [[Justine]].A few secrets are revealed ( please read the book for these ). They proceed to Alexandria, where Darley continues to reminesce lamentingly, & seeks and sometimes finds, the characters of the earlier books. |
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==Reception== |
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He runs into Clea in the street - & they effortlessly pick up an affaire de couer - this time un-encumbered by the interfering physical presences of Justine & Melissa - though there is a lot of pillow-talk about the two women in a self-absorbed manner by Darley. The sex scenes actually read more real than those in the preceding books, where the fervent desperation of "bodies straining against each other while the souls watch the proceedings from some corner of the ceiling" is finally replaced by an apparently real sexual relationship between two mature adults, rather than the teeming adolescent angst of infatuation ( Justine ) & nurturance ( Melissa ) that precedes this [[Golden Mean]] of Coupling. However, this romance is tepid compared to the white-hot intensity of [[Justine]]. |
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In ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Orville Prescott]] noted that the novel "contained fine passages of lushly beautiful descriptive writing and one marvelously grotesque and horrible disaster," but was "more passive, reflective and meandering" than its predecessors in the Quartet; Prescott also observed that the lengthy digression on the philosophy of literature, purportedly taken from Pursewarden's notebooks, "makes astonishingly little sense."<ref name=TimesPrescott>[https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/13/specials/durrell-clea.html Books of the Times], by [[Orville Prescott]], in ''[[the New York Times]]''; published March 30, 1960; retrieved July 15, 2018</ref> ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' lauded Durrell's prose as "rich with implication, color, evocation, humor, wit and poetry," with "characters [...] as vivid as dreams."<ref name=Kirkus>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/lawrence-durrell-2/clea/ ''Clea'', by Lawrence Durrell], reviewed at ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]''; published March 30, 1960; retrieved July 15, 2018</ref> |
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==References== |
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The other, & perhaps more enduring, deliciousness of the [[Text]] is extended meditations on Art, Composition, Form & Intent - with Darley's Inter-Linear, Pursewarden's Novels & Clea's paintings serving as the imaginary scaffold on which Durrell builds his elegant [[Ivory Tower]] theoretical stance. |
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{{reflist}} |
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{{Lawrence Durrell}} |
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==Post-Colonial Criticism== |
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Although the narrator Darley starts off as a bohemian British expatriate, it is interesting to note that he finds romantic fulfillment neither with the "adulterous jewess" [[Justine]] nor with the good-as-gold street-walker Melissa, who unfortunately is also a Greek brunette, with a "feral bush" - who conveniently delivers a baby-girl & dies in a poignant sanatorium scene a la Doeisteveski, which Balthazar describes to the Narrator Darley. Post-Colonial criticism wonders whether this is because Clea is the White, Blonde-haired, Blue-eyed pubescent dream -girl of the Narrator - & that eventually for all "[[Mad Dogs & Englishmen]]" the only equitable partner is another White Woman. |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clea (Novel)}} |
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[[Category:Alexandria in popular culture]] |
[[Category:Alexandria in popular culture]] |
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[[Category:Novels by Lawrence Durrell]] |
[[Category:Novels by Lawrence Durrell]] |
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[[Category:Novels set in Egypt]] |
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[[Category:Faber & Faber books]] |
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{{1960s-novel-stub}} |
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Latest revision as of 01:30, 7 August 2024
.jpg) First UK edition | |
| Author | Lawrence Durrell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The Alexandria Quartet |
| Publisher | Faber |
Publication date | 1960 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Paperback and Hardback) |
| Preceded by | Mountolive |
Clea, published in 1960, is the fourth volume in The Alexandria Quartet of novels by the British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 1930s and 1940s, the first three volumes tell the same story from different points of view, and Clea relates subsequent events.
Durrell wrote the book in four weeks.[1]
Plot and characterization
[edit]The book begins with the Narrator (Darley) living on a remote Greek island with Nessim's illegitimate daughter from Melissa. The child is now six years old—marking the time that has elapsed since the events of Justine. Darley has been able to spend this period on the island—thinking, writing, maturing—due to the £500 left him in his will by the writer Pursewarden (who killed himself).
Mnemjian arrives (unexpectedly) to see Darley with a message from Nessim and news of events in Alexandria—notably the fall from prosperity of the Hosnani family (Nessim, his wife Justine, and brother Narouz—the latter dead). Mnemjian is a prosperous barber, and possibly brothel owner.
They proceed to Alexandria, now under nightly bombardment because of the War (WW2), Darley continues to reminisce, sometimes lamenting, and seeks and sometimes finds, the characters of the earlier book.
He runs into Clea in the street—and they effortlessly pick up an affaire de coeur—this time unencumbered by the interfering physical presences of Justine and Melissa.
Reception
[edit]In The New York Times, Orville Prescott noted that the novel "contained fine passages of lushly beautiful descriptive writing and one marvelously grotesque and horrible disaster," but was "more passive, reflective and meandering" than its predecessors in the Quartet; Prescott also observed that the lengthy digression on the philosophy of literature, purportedly taken from Pursewarden's notebooks, "makes astonishingly little sense."[2] Kirkus Reviews lauded Durrell's prose as "rich with implication, color, evocation, humor, wit and poetry," with "characters [...] as vivid as dreams."[3]
References
[edit]- ^ Sink or Skim, by Michael Wood; in the London Review of Books; published January 1, 2009; retrieved July 15, 2018
- ^ Books of the Times, by Orville Prescott, in the New York Times; published March 30, 1960; retrieved July 15, 2018
- ^ Clea, by Lawrence Durrell, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published March 30, 1960; retrieved July 15, 2018