Diplomat, teacher, British press attaché and a spy in Alexandria, Egypt; the older brother of the animalist writer Gerald Durrell, Lawrence Durrell (1913–1990) became world-famous after "The Alexandria Quartet" was published—an event that split English-language criticism into two camps: some predicted the author would achieve fame as the new Proust; others saw in him a literary charlatan. Time placed everything in its proper perspective.
The first novel of the quartet, "The Alexandria Quartet." A love story that happened to the novel’s hero, full of yearning and jealousy, unfolds on an "Egyptian stage." Once you catch this book, you can never get cured.