FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET, ONE OF ONLY 199 COPIES SIGNED BY DURRELL

DURRELL, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., (1962). Octavo, original half blue cloth, marbled boards, beveled edges, top edge gilt, original slipcase. $1500.

First American edition, number 42 of only 199 deluxe copies signed by Durrell on the limitation page.

Set in the Mediterranean and Aegean islands where Durrell had worked for the British Foreign Office, this tetralogy explores love in Alexandrian society. The first three books, set in Alexandria during the period just before the Second World War, explore the same series of events from different points of view; the last book, Clea, moves forward in time. "'The central topic… is an investigation of modern love,' Durrell proclaimed, while a subsidiary theme is the nature of fiction itself" (Parker & Kermode, 370). "We cannot see the whole of any given character or event in one novel alone. Each novel is meaningless on its own" (Burgess, 99 Novels, 67).

Mild dusting to slipcase. A fine signed copy.