Darrell, Lawrence

Darrell's first literary publication took place in 1932 , it was a collection of poems "Bizarre fragment." In 1933, Bromo Bombast, a literary parody of Bernard Shaw , was released (under the pseudonym Geffer Pislake). In 1935, Lawrence Darrell and his family moved to the Greek island of Corfu. In the same year, Kassel publishes its first novel, dubbed the Pied Piper of Lovers. A year later, the novel Panic Spring is released (the name contains a play on words that cannot be translated into Russian: it’s both panic [that is, related to Pan] spring, and the spring of the catapult). In parallel with the Panic Spring, Darrell writes The Black Book, his first “serious” novel, which was published in 1938 in the Villa Seurat Series, and then in the infamous Obelisk Press (not without the help of Henry Miller with whom Darrell had been friends all his life until the death of Miller in 1980 ).

In 1939, Darrell began working as an English teacher in a Greek school under the patronage of the British Council . In 1941 , right before the Germans captured Corfu , the Darrell family split up, the mother, together with her middle son Leslie and the younger Gerald (later also becoming a famous writer) return to England, Margot’s daughter first hides on Corfu, then she is taken out by one of the English pilots, who became subsequently her first husband. Lawrence and his wife flee - first to Crete , from there - to Cairo . At the same time, Darrell breaks off relations with his first wife, Nancy Myers, and moves to Alexandria . Here he works in the British consulate as a press attaché, here he meets the Alexandrian Jewess Eva Cohen, who served as the prototype of the main character of the novel Justine, the first part of the Alexandria Quartet . In 1947, Darrell marries her. In 1951, a daughter was born in this marriage - Sappho-Jane (committed suicide in 1985).

In 1945, Laurence Darrell was released from the "Egyptian prison" to return to Greece again. He spends two years in Rhodes as director of public relations at the Dodecanese Islands. In 1947, the writer left for Cordoba ( Argentina ) to take the post of director of the British Council. He later moved to Belgrade ( Yugoslavia ), where he worked as a press officer for the British embassy from 1949 to 1952 .

In 1952, Darrell moved to Cyprus to devote himself to literature. During this period, he makes a living teaching English. But a year later, a war begins between the Greek Cypriots, eager for reunion with continental Greece, the Turkish Cypriots, who fought for independence, and the British, who sought to control the island. Darrell left teaching at this time and worked as a public relations officer in Nicosia . The book Bitter Lemons (Bitter Lemons, 1957) is a Darrellian vision of the events of those tragic years.

In Cyprus, Darrell began writing Justine, the first book of the Alexandria Quartet . Finally, all four novels were completed in France, where the writer moved to 1956. The Quartet was published in 1957-1961 and was a wild success with both critics and readers. Over the next 35 years, Darrell writes two more great prose cycles: The Revolt of Aphrodite (The Revolt of Aphrodite), which includes the novels Tunc ( 1968 ) and Nunquam ( 1970 ), and Avignon Quintet ( 1974 - 1985 ). None of these books will be greeted with such enthusiasm as The Alexandria Quartet. Lawrence Darrell continues to study poetry. A collection of his best poems Collected Poems comes out in 1980 .

Darrell will marry twice more. His third wife, Claude-Marie Vincendon, dies in 1967 . In 1973, he marries Gislin de Boisson (this marriage ended in 1979 ). On November 7, 1990, Lawrence Darrell died in his home in the French city ​​of Sommeier ( department of Gard ).

Despite the popularity and recognition of his literary talents in the world, Lawrence Darrell is better known in Russia from the autobiographical books of naturalist writer Gerald Darrell.

Lawrence Darrell was also the screenwriter of several films: Actis (TV) (1964), Judith (1966), Stiff Upper Lip (TV) (1968), Justine (1969). He starred in the films Sir Henry with the Rawlson End (1980) and Stille Tage in Sommières (1987). And in “World at War” (TV series) (1974) and “Henry Miller, poète maudit” (TV) (1974) he played himself.

• L. Darrell Interview with The Paris Review
• L. Darrell Interview with The Paris Review Magazine (Russian translation)
• Essay on Lawrence Darrell's Justine novel