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Provence Paperback – May 3, 1994

by Lawrence Durrell (Author)

4 customer reviews

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Before Peter Mayle there was Lawrence Durrell, who for more than 30 years made Provence his home. In this, his last book, he distills the affection and understanding of half a lifetime, describing the rich culture and giving breath to the history that still invests the land. 39 color photos.

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Lawrence Durrell

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Hardcover

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Product Details

Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Arcade Publishing (May 3, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1559702478
ISBN-13: 978-1559702478
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #494 in Books > History > Europe > France
- #1192 in Books > Travel > Travel Writing

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Durrell's Swan Song

By Bruce Kendall VINE VOICE on July 25, 2000

Format: Paperback

Lawrence Durrell did "go gently into that good night," and this book serves as a document to that peaceful passage. Like his novels, this book is a mixture of the poetic, the prosaic and especially the erotic motifs that preoccupied him throughout his literary career.
Like Mayles after him, Durrell had a deep afffection for the region and for the Provenceaux. Both Mayles and Durrell are great guides to take along on either a literal or imaginary excursion through the region. Mayles is the more humorous of the two and will keep you constantly entertained. Durrell will give you a clearer understanding of the Provencal history, telling you who built monuments such as the Pont du Gard and something about their effect on a visitor: "Yet there are surprises for us even here, for even a functional artefact like the Pont du Gard is so huge in conception that its magniloquence is the equal of Westminster Abbey. But we must remember that it was dedicated to water and water was a God. The best description of the Pont is by Rousseau. It took a great deal to shut a man like him up, but the emeregence of this mastadon from the featureless garrigues which house the spring that feeds it deprived him of coherent speech, so uncanny did it seem." This is an example of what distinguishes Durrell's book. He will take you to an oft-visited site and in a few strokes, with the occasional literary allusion thrown in for good measure, produce a vivid enough image that even before you travel to the site you will have a pretty good notion of what to expect.
The only part of the book I found distracting was the uneven quality of the poems that Durrell inserts throughout the narrative.Read more ›

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Roman excursion...

By Dianne Foster HALL OF FAME on June 6, 2000

Format: Paperback

I read "Provence" by Lawrence Durrell before I stumbled onto more recent works by other authors. For my money, this is the book for arm chair and real travelers, and history buffs who are interested in Provence. Durrell lived there for over 30 years and his writing depicts a place he found filled with the spirits of past civilizations. His chapters cover a number of them, including the Greeks, Romans, and Medieval times.
The chapter I have remembered the longest is "The Story of Marius." Gaius Marius was one of the greatest generals Rome ever produced. He was married to Julius Caesar's aunt, and was responsible for "saving" Rome from northern invaders driven from their own homes by flood and famine. Marius' successor Sulla, tried to destroy his reputation by erasing many of his monuments, but Julius Caesar restored them when he came to power. Durrell takes you to visit a site in ancient Les Baux marked for an unknown event in Marius' life. Durrell says, "There is much else we might like to know about Marius which would bring him more fully to life in these pages, but history is never eloquent enough about her children.." (Coleen McCullogh writes great fiction about these times, see "The First Man in Rome.")
In spite of it's Roman past, Durrell finds Provence more Medieval than anything else. He says "Provence is a strange place..with withdrawn Protestant communities who live out a life of secret repudiation." He suggests a certain melancholy, a "deep introspective undertow" permeates the land.
Narbonne, Avignon, and Nimes are rich with Roman relics. Here one can see the Roman tombs with "funery stone of freedman's caps.Read more ›

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A beautiful "swan song"...

By John P. Jones III TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on June 21, 2013

Format: Paperback

Lawrence Durrell was born in British India in 1912, and spent his life as an "expatriate," though he preferred to see himself as a citizen of the world, utilizing the term "cosmopolitan." He was a prolific writer of novels, travel books, poetry, drama and essays. His most famous work is the The Alexandria Quartet Boxed Set: Justine; Balthazar; Mountolive; Clea. He also wrote the The Avignon Quintet: Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian and Quinx. Regrettably, I've read neither, but I did read his excellent account of his stay on Cyprus during the `50's, entitled Bitter Lemons, as well as Reflections on a Marine Venus: A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes on his stay on the island of Rhodes immediately after World War II. He lived in Provence (technically, he lived nearby, in Languedoc) for over 30 years, long before it became the destination for the "au courant." This was his last book, published in the year of his death. Thereafter, the publishers may have played a bit footloose with his final legacy. Certainly it is unclear at Amazon, but this book is the same as "Caesar's Vast Ghost", truly a klutzy ham-fisted title that I cannot believe Durrell would have approved of.Read more ›