Mountolive

by Lawrence Durrell

Series: Alexandria Quartet (3)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Conversations
551	3	8,400	(3.85)	13

Work details

Book details

Title	Mountolive
Author	Lawrence Durrell
Rating
Tags	literature, alexandria
Collections	Your library
Your review	The third book of The Alexandria Quartet is different from the first two-- since Durrell wanted to discuss the subject/object distinction, it becomes an "objective" novel, written in a wide third-person point-of-view, rather than the first-person perspective of the first two. It makes for a very different novel from the first two-- while Balthazar wouldn't make sense if you hadn't read Justine (or at least it wouldn't have much of a point), Mountolive could stand entirely on its own. Its perspective is very removed from that of the first two-- its protagonist, David Mountolive, only has a couple fleeting mentions in the second book, whereas the narrator of the first two (finally given a name here) is barely in this one, and usually disparaged when he is mentioned, much to my amusement. The continuous revision of the information we received in the first book is very interesting-- Mountolive presents an entirely new set of reasons for the events of Justine yet again, so that it would seem old Balthazar didn't know what he was talking about after all. Or did he? Even though this book is written in the third person, allegedly more reliable, I never felt inclined to trust it. I think I would prefer it if the version of events given in the first book was true, but I'll wait to talk more about that once I read the last book in the series. Hopefully soon.
Other authors 1
Publication	New York, Dutton, 1959 [c1958]
Publication date	1959
ISBN	/
LC classification	PR6007.U76Mo 2
Dewey 1	823/.912 20
Subjects	Alexandria (Egypt) › Fiction Diplomats › Alexandria › Fiction Diplomats › Egypt › Alexandria › Fiction Love stories
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired	2008-06-01
Date started
Date finished	2008-07-01
Summary 1	Mountolive by Lawrence Durrell (1959)
Comments
BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	Requires valid ISBN.
Data source	Library of Congress

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