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Justine

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Justine

By: Lawrence Durrell
Narrated by: Nigel Anthony
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About this listen

Justine is the first volume in The Alexandria Quartet, four interlinked novels set in the sensuous, hot environment of Alexandria just before the Second World War. Within this polyglot setting of richly idiosyncratic characters is Justine, wild and intense, wife to the wealthy business man Nessim, a mari complaisant. Her emotional and sexual wildness fuels a highly charged atmosphere which, caught famously by Durrell's poetic language, made Justine (1957), and three novels that complete the Quartet - Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960) - both a critical and a popular success.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

(P)1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd,; ©1995 NAXOS AudioBooks Ltd. Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Romantic Suspense Suspense
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Justine is part 1 of the Alexandria Quartet. It was recommended by a friend, however, it took a while to get into it, and I found it quite difficult to connect with the characters. Having said that, it was fairly easy listening, about colonial, bohemian lives set in Alexandria just as the war broke out. It became more interesting as it went along and I did like it enough to download the next book in the series. The author (Lawrence Durrell - the older brother featured in My Family and Other Animals) just didn’t seem to give enough details so I could understand why everybody in the story was obsessed with Justine. You just had to take his word for it, and imagine why she was just so irresistible. I thought the narration by Nigel Anthony was OK but not amazing.

Easy listening, good but not brilliant

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Heavily abridged, but still brilliant. I am always puzzled why it is not on any 100 best works of literature lists.
Anatomy of a doomed love affair against the (beautifully described) backdrop of 1930s Alexandria.

Beautifully read by the wonderful Nigel Anthony.

Brilliant book, brilliantly read

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This is a wonderful book, the first in the Alexandria Quartet. Sadly, it has been very cruelly abridged, leaving out whole passages and deleting great chunks of Durrell's poetic flowing prose. It is very well read by Nigel Anthony, and I wish they had done the complete novel and not just bits and pieces.

Heavily abridged

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