The Alexandria Quartet

Justine is the first volume in The Alexandria Quartet, four interlinked novels set in the sensuous, hot environment of Alexandria just before the Second World War. Within this polyglot setting of richly idiosyncratic characters is Justine, wild and intense, wife to the wealthy business man Nessim, a mari complaisant. Her emotional and sexual wildness fuels a highly-charged atmosphere which, caught famously by DurrellÕs poetic language, made Justine (1957), and the three novels that complete the QuartetÊÐ Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960) both a critical and a popular success.