The Avignon Quintet

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The Avignon Quintet
Author Lawrence Durrell
Country Great Britain
Language English
Series The Avignon Quintet
Genre Novel
Publisher Faber & Faber (UK) & Viking (US)
Publication date
 1992
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 1376 p. (Faber edition)
ISBN 0-571-22555-1 (paperback edition)
OCLC 173163835
Preceded by The Revolt of Aphrodite
Followed by Caesar's Vast Ghost

The Avignon Quintet is a five-volume series of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1974 and 1985. The novels are metafictional. He uses developments in experimental fiction that followed his The Alexandria Quartet (1957-1960). The action of the novels is set before and during World War II, largely in France, Egypt, and Switzerland.

Lawrence Durrell British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer

Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the oldest brother of naturalist Gerald Durrell.

<i>The Alexandria Quartet</i> 1957-1960 Four books by Lawrence Durrell

The Alexandria Quartet is a tetralogy of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, 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 (Egypt), before and during the Second World War. The fourth book is set six years later.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Contents

The novels feature multiple and contradictory narrators, often with each purporting to have written the others as characters in a novel. The thematic materials range from a form of Gnosticism [1] blended with Catharism, obsession with mortality, Nazism, and World War II to Holy Grail romances, metafiction, Quantum Mechanics, [2] and sexual identity.

Gnosticism is a modern name for a variety of ancient religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish-Christian milieux in the first and second century AD. These systems believed that the material world is created by an emanation or 'works' of a lower god (demiurge), trapping the divine spark within the human body. This divine spark could be liberated by gnosis, spiritual knowledge acquired through direct experience. Some of the core teachings include the following:

  1. All matter is evil, and the non-material, spirit-realm is good.
  2. There is an unknowable God, who gave rise to many lesser spirit beings called Aeons.
  3. The creator of the (material) universe is not the supreme god, but an inferior spirit.
  4. Gnosticism does not deal with "sin," only ignorance.
  5. To achieve salvation, one needs gnosis (knowledge).
Catharism Christian dualist movement that thrived in some areas of Southern Europe

Catharism was a Christian dualist or Gnostic revival movement that thrived in some areas of Southern Europe, particularly what is now northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. The followers were known as Cathars and are now mainly remembered for a prolonged period of persecution by the Catholic Church, which did not recognise their belief as being Christian. Catharism appeared in Europe in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century and this is when the name first appears. The adherents were sometimes known as Albigensians, after the city Albi in southern France where the movement first took hold. The belief system may have originated in Persia or the Byzantine Empire. Catharism was initially taught by ascetic leaders who set few guidelines, and, thus, some Catharist practices and beliefs varied by region and over time. The Catholic Church denounced its practices including the Consolamentum ritual, by which Cathar individuals were baptized and raised to the status of "perfect".

National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practices associated with the Nazi Party – officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party – in Nazi Germany, and of other far-right groups with similar aims.

The five novels are:

<i>Monsieur</i> (novel) 1974 Book by Lawrence Durrell

Monsieur, or The Prince of Darkness (1974), is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet. Published from 1974 to 1985, this sequence of five interrelated novels explore the lives of a group of Europeans before, during, and after World War II. Durrell uses many of the experimental techniques of metafiction that he had integrated into his Alexandria Quartet, published 1957 to 1960. He described the later quintet as a quincunx.

<i>Livia</i> (novel) 1978 Book by Lawrence Durrell

Livia, or Buried Alive (1978), is the second volume in British author Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet, published from 1974 to 1985. Durrell has described the novels as "roped together like climbers on a rockface, but all independent. .. a series of books through which the same characters move for all the world as if to illustrate the notion of reincarnation." The first novel of the quincunx, Monsieur, received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1974.

<i>Constance</i> (novel) 1982 Book by Lawrence Durrell

Constance, or Solitary Practices (1982) is the central volume of the five novels of Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet, published from 1974 to 1985. It was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1982. Involving some of the characters from the preceding Livia, the novel also introduces new ones. It is set before and during World War II, in France, Egypt, Poland and Switzerland.

Durrell often referred to the work as a "quincunx." He described them as "roped together like climbers on a rockface, but all independent... a series of books through which the same characters move for all the world as if to illustrate the notion of reincarnation." [3]

Quincunx Pattern of five points, four in a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center

A quincunx is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center. It forms the arrangement of five units in the pattern corresponding to the five-spot on six-sided dice, playing cards, and dominoes. It is represented in Unicode as U+2059⁙FIVE DOT PUNCTUATION or U+2684⚄DIE FACE-5.

The books were not published together as The Avignon Quintet until 1992, two years after Durrell's death in 1990. They were described as a quincunx in the first edition of Quinx. The notion of the quincunx challenges any linear approach to the novels, which is reflected in their stylistic features. The character of Livia may be modeled in part on Unity Mitford, one of the well-known Mitford sisters and a prominent supporter of fascism and friend of Adolf Hitler.

Unity Mitford English socialite best known as a devotee of Adolf Hitler

Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford was a British socialite best known as a devotee of Adolf Hitler. Both in Great Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism, fascism and antisemitism, and belonged to Hitler's inner circle of friends. Following the declaration of World War II, Mitford attempted suicide in Munich, and was officially allowed safe passage back to England in her invalid condition, but never recovered.

Reception

The first novel, Monsieur, received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize of 1974. The middle novel, Constance, was nominated for the 1982 Booker Prize. While the Quintet did not receive the critical approval of his earlier Alexandria Quartet, Durrell was a bestselling and celebrated British author in this period. Records of the Swedish Academy that were opened in 2012 revealed that he had been on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, the year that the American writer John Steinbeck was selected.

The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, United Kingdom, the prizes were founded in 1919 by Mrs Janet Coats Black in memory of her late husband, James Tait Black, a partner in the publishing house of A & C Black Ltd. Prizes are awarded in three categories: Fiction, Biography and Drama.

Booker Prize prize awarded each year for the best original English novel

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the United Kingdom. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured international renown and success; therefore, the prize is of great significance for the book trade. From its inception, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish, and South African citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014 it was widened to any English-language novel—a change which proved controversial.

Swedish Academy Swedish Royal Academy

The Swedish Academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. It has 18 members, who are elected for life. The academy makes the annual decision on who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in memory of the donor Alfred Nobel.

Related Research Articles

This article presents a list of the literary events and publications in 1974.

Outremer

Outremer was a general name used for the Crusader states; it originated after victories of Europeans in the First Crusade and was applied to the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and especially the Kingdom of Jerusalem. During the Renaissance, the term was later often equated to the area of the Levant and it remains synonymous for the Holy Land.

Justine may refer to:

Jacques Lacarrière was a French writer, born in Limoges. He studied moral philosophy, classical literature, and Hindu philosophy and literature. Professionally, he was known as a prominent critic, journalist, and essayist.

<i>Justine</i> (Durrell novel) 1957 Book by Lawrence Durrell

Justine, published in 1957, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's literary tetralogy, The Alexandria Quartet. The first in the tetralogy, Justine is one of four interlocking novels, each of which tells various aspects of a complex story of passion and deception from differing points of view. The quartet is set in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in the 1930s and 1940s, the city itself as described by Durrell becoming as much of a complex character as the human protagonists of the novels. Since first becoming available to the public and reviewers in 1957, Justine has inspired what has been called "an almost religious devotion among readers and critics alike." It was adapted into the film of the same name in 1969.

Prince of Darkness may refer to

<i>Clea</i> (novel) 1960 novel by Lawrence Durrell

Clea, published in 1960, is the fourth volume in The Alexandria Quartet series by British author Lawrence Durrell. Set in Alexandria, Egypt, around World War II, the first three volumes tell the same story from different points of view, and Clea relates subsequent events.

<i>The Revolt of Aphrodite</i> novel by Lawrence Durrell

The Revolt of Aphrodite consists of two novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published in 1968 and 1970. The individual volumes, Tunc and Nunquam, were less successful than his earlier The Alexandria Quartet, in part because they deviate significantly from his earlier style and because they approach more openly political and ideological problems.

<i>Sebastian</i> (Durrell novel) 1983 Book by Lawrence Durrell

Sebastian, or Ruling Passions (1982), is the fourth volume in The Avignon Quintet series by British author Lawrence Durrell, which was published from 1974 to 1985. This novel is set mainly in Switzerland immediately after World War II. It continues the story of Constance and a Gnostic cult, which was introduced in the first novel of the quintet, Monsieur (1974).

<i>Mountolive</i> 1958 Book by Lawrence Durrell

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 view and come to a conclusion in Clea.Mountolive is the only third person narrative in the series, and it is also the most overtly political.

<i>Quinx</i> 1985 Book by Lawrence Durrell

Quinx, or The Ripper's Tale (1985), is the 5th and final volume in Lawrence Durrell's "quincunx" of novels, The Avignon Quintet, published from 1974 to 1985. It explores the activities of Constance, Aubrey Blanford, Robin Sutcliffe, Lord Galen, and most of the other surviving characters as they return to Avignon and Provence in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

A quincunx originally meant a 5/12 fraction of something, but most modern uses involve patterns of five points. It may refer to:

A pentalogy is a compound literary or narrative work that is explicitly divided into five parts. Although modern use of the word implies both that the parts are reasonably self-contained and that the structure was intended by the author, historically, neither was necessarily true: in fact, a pentalogia could be assembled by a later editor, just as Plotinus's Enneads were arranged in nines by Porphyry in order to create an overarching structure of six which would express the idea of perfection.

Quantum fiction is a literary genre that reflects modern experience of the material world and reality as influenced by quantum theory and new principles in quantum physics. The genre is not necessarily science-themed and blurs the line separating science fiction and fantasy into a broad scope of mainstream literature that transcends the mechanical model of science and involves the fantasy of human perception or imagination as realistic components affecting the every day physical world. Quantum fiction is characterized by the use of an element in quantum mechanics as a storytelling device. In quantum fiction, everyday life hinges on some aspect of the quantum nature of reality.

References

  1. ↑ Gifford, James (2004-05-26). "Gnosticism in Lawrence Durrell's Monsieur: New Textual Evidence for Source Materials". Agora. Retrieved 2007-11-20..
  2. ↑ Lorenz, Paul (1997-01-01). "Quantum Mechanics and the Shape of Fiction: "Non-Locality" in the Avignon Quincunx". Weber Studies vol. 14 no. 1. Retrieved 2007-12-04..
  3. ↑ Alastair Forbes, "Dwarves Abounding in Provence", New York Times, 22 April 1979; accessed 17 October 2016



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