Balthazar cover art

Balthazar

The Alexandria Quartet, Book 2

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Balthazar

By: Lawrence Durrell
Narrated by: Nicholas Boulton
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About this listen

"The politics of love, the intrigues of desire, good and evil, virtue and caprice, love and murder, moved obscurely in the dark corners of Alexandria’s streets and squares, brothels and drawing-rooms - moved like a great congress of eels in the slime of plot and counter-plot."

In Balthazar, the second volume in Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet, the story and the characters come more clearly into focus. Darley, the reflective Englishman, receives from Balthazar, the pathologist, a mass of notes that attempt to explain what really happened between the tempestuous Justine, her husband, Nessim, Clea the artist, and Pursewarden the writer; new figures emerge and play key roles. Balthazar, in his "Interlinear", explains and warns.

©1958 Lawrence Durrell (P)2021 Naxos AudioBooks UK Ltd. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction

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The continuing tale of life in pre-second WW Alexandria written with powerfully expressive language. The words weave a beautifully poetic image of the city leaving the reader bewitched. The story line meanders and can be repetitive but this is secondary to the main force of descriptive prose. Narration is good but could benefit from more light and shade although to be fair the narrator is really just following the intensity of the story.

Beautifully written

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