Collected Poems 1931-74

Lawrence Durrell's success as a novelist may have tended to obscure his achievement as a poet and in poetry. It is primarily as a lyrical poet of places that he was acknowledged to excel, but in Collected Poems it will be found that the range of feeling and ideas, of wit and experience, and also of style, is remarkable. The whole volume is charged with Durrell's response to the 'spirit of place', which is one of this exceptional gifts as a writer.

'They range from affecting and beautiful love poems to skilful, succinct portraits and robust ballads . . . Rich in ideas.' -- Alan Ross

'As a lyrical poet . . . he is the equal of Auden.' -- Gavin Ewart

'Durrell's poetry compels the highest standard of judgement . . . The effect of reading him is to have one's love of poetry rekindled . . . Genuine life, genuine emotion, genuine art.' -- John Wain



Lawrence Durrell was born in 1912 in India. He attended the Jesuit College at Darjeeling and St Edmund's School, Canterbury. His first literary work,

The Black Book, appeared in Paris in 1938. His first collection of poems,

A Private Country, was published in 1943, followed by the three Island books:

Prospero's Cell,

Reflections on a Marine Venus, about Rhodes, and

Bitter Lemons, his account of life in Cyprus. Durrell's wartime sojourn in Egypt led to his masterpiece,

The Alexandria Quartet, which he completed in southern France where he settled permanently in 1957. Between the Quartet and

The Avignon Quintet he wrote the two-decker

Tunc and

Nunquam. His oeuvre includes plays, a book of criticism, translations, travel writing, and humorous stories about the diplomatic corps.

Caesar's Vast Ghost, his reflections on the history and culture of Provence, including a late flowering of poems, appeared a few days before his death in Sommières in 1990.