{"product_id":"balthazar-9780140153217","title":"Balthazar","description":"The dazzling second volume of \u003ci\u003eThe Alexandria Quartet\u003c\/i\u003e--an enthralling and deeply disturbing work of gorgeous surfaces and endless deceptions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In Alexandra, in the years before the Second World War, an exiled Irish schoolteacher seeks to unravel his sexual obsession with two women: the tubercular caf  dancer, Melissa, and Justine, the alluring Jewish wife of a wealthy Coptic Christian. What emerges in his sessions with the psychiatrist Balthazar, however, is something far more complex--and unfathomably more sinister--than neurosis. Lawrence Durrell's kaleidoscopic narrative ushers us into a world in which no perception is reliable--and love itself is always an act of treachery. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Durrell is one of the very best novelists of our time. . . . He has a sensuous, vigorous style that I have not found equaled by any other novelist today. . . . A spontaneous, resourceful new beauty that any sensitive reader will almost certainly love.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Book Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"It is difficult to sum up \u003ci\u003eBalthazar\u003c\/i\u003e; it will not be contained. It spills or slips away like smoke. The sheer writing is superb. . . . A wonderful book, a book to read many times.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Houston Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLawrence Durrell \u003c\/b\u003ewas born in 1912 in India. He attended the Jesuit College at Darjeeling and St. Edmund's School, Canterbury. His first literary work, \u003ci\u003eThe Black Book\u003c\/i\u003e, appeared in Paris in 1938. His first collection of poems, \u003ci\u003eA Private Country\u003c\/i\u003e, was published in 1943, followed by the three Island books: \u003ci\u003eProspero's Cell\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eReflections on a Marine Venus\u003c\/i\u003e, about Rhodes; and \u003ci\u003eBitter Lemons\u003c\/i\u003e, his account of life in Cyprus. Durrell's wartime sojourn in Egypt led to his masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eThe Alexandria Quartet\u003c\/i\u003e, which he completed in southern France, where he settled permanently in 1957. Between the quartet and \u003ci\u003eThe Avignon Quintet\u003c\/i\u003e he wrote the two-decker \u003ci\u003eTunc \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eNunquam\u003c\/i\u003e. His oeuvre includes plays, a book of criticism, translations, travel writing, and humorous stories about the diplomatic corps. \u003ci\u003eCaesar's Vast Ghost\u003c\/i\u003e, his reflections on the history and culture of Provence, including a late flowering of poems, was published a few days before his death in Sommières in 1990.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Penguin Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50555957575954,"sku":"9780140153217","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e40e85c5-5c40-461c-b6dd-d078b8de5415.jpg?v=1731745983","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/balthazar-9780140153217","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}