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Article: Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- World Literature Today
- Article date:
- January 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 University of Oklahoma. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The main question Gordon Bowker's book raises is whether Lawrence Durrell deserves it. Bowker speaks gushingly of "a writer of dazzling virtuosity" whose poetic prose "can leave the reader breathless with admiration." True, he is aware that Durrell's "place in English literature is not as secure as it ought to be," but he never comes to grips with the neglect of Durrell by the academy, except to conclude that the popular success of The Alexandria Quartet made its author a victim of his own achievement. In any case, there has been only a meager scholarly interest in Durrell compared, for example, with the interest in Joyce, Woolf, Lawrence, Beckett, or even Greene and Waugh. ...