''The Alexandria Quartet'' is a

tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...

of novels by British writer

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial pare ...

, published between 1957 and 1960. A critical and commercial success, the first three books present three perspectives on a single set of events and characters in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, before and during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The fourth book is set six years later. As Durrell explains in his preface to ''Balthazar'', the four novels are an exploration of relativity and the notions of continuum and subject–object relation, with modern love as the theme. The ''Quartet''s first three books offer the same sequence of events through several points of view, allowing individual perspectives of a single set of events. The fourth book shows change over time. The four novels are: :* '' Justine'' (1957) :* '' Balthazar'' (1958) :* ''

Mountolive ''Mountolive'', published in 1958, is the third volume in The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt, around World War II, the four novels tell essentially the same story from different points of v ...

'' (1958) :* ''

Clea Clea Strange () is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by co-plotters Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Clea first appeared in the Doctor Strange feature in ''Strange Tales'' #126 (November 1964). S ...

'' (1960). In a 1959 ''

Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Philip ...

'' interview, pp. 26–27. Durrell described the ideas behind the ''Quartet'' in terms of a convergence of Eastern and Western metaphysics, based on Einstein's overturning of the old view of the material universe, and Freud's doing the same for the concept of stable personalities, yielding a new concept of reality. In 1998, the

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...

ranked ''The Alexandria Quartet'' number 70 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

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Further reading