Paperback
978-1-77212-051-6Size: 6" x 9"
Pages: 440
epub
978-1-77212-059-2Pages: 440
Kindle
978-1-77212-060-8Pages: 440
Pages: 440
From the Elephant's Back
Collected Essays & Travel Writings
By Lawrence Durrell
Edited by James Gifford
“…the proverb says that whoever sees the world from the back of an elephant learns the secrets of the jungle and becomes a seer. I had to be content to become a poet.”
—Lawrence Durrell
Best known for his novels and travel writing, Lawrence Durrell defied easy classification within twentieth-century Modernism. His anti-authoritarian tendencies put him at odds with many contemporaries—aesthetically and politically. However, thanks to a compelling recontextualization by editor James Gifford, these thirty-eight previously unpublished and out-of-print essays and letters reveal that Durrell’s maturation as an artist was rich, complex, and subtle. Durrell fans will treasure this selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, Modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford’s fine editorial work.
“Gifford’s scholarly command of the archives shows—especially his working intimacy with the unpublished archived words of Durrell’s editors, publishers, and collaborators. I have no doubt that this collection will serve as a starting point for any number of new critical ventures into the life and writing of Lawrence Durrell.”
—Charles Sligh, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Book details
Publication date: March 2015Features: Preface, notes, bibliography, index
Keywords: Literary Essays;Cultural Studies;Travel Writing
Subject(s): LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, Literary Studies, Literary Studies / Literary Criticism, Literary Essays / Cultural Studies / Travel Writing, Essays, Literary Criticism, Modernist Studies, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literature: history & criticism, Literary Essays;Cultural Studies;Travel Writing, Humanities
Publisher(s): The University of Alberta Press
Book details
Publication date: March 2015Features: Preface, notes, bibliography, index
Keywords: Literary Essays;Cultural Studies;Travel Writing
Subject(s): LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays, Literary Studies, Literary Studies / Literary Criticism, Literary Essays / Cultural Studies / Travel Writing, Essays, Literary Criticism, Modernist Studies, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literature: history & criticism, Literary Essays;Cultural Studies;Travel Writing, Humanities
Publisher(s): The University of Alberta Press
Lawrence Durrell. Born in Jalandhar, British India, Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) was a critically hailed novelist, poet, and travel writer best known for the Alexandria Quartet novels, which were ranked by the Modern Library as among the greatest works of English literature in the twentieth century.
James Gifford. James Gifford is Professor of English and the director of the university core at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Vancouver.
Peter Baldwin.
"Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, From The Elephant's Back is an outstanding collection of masterfully crafted essays organized into four major sections: Personal Positions; Ideas About Literature; Eternal Contemporaries; and Spirit of Place: Travel Writings. Very highly recommended for academic library collections, From The Elephant's Back will prove to be engaging, memorable, thought-provoking reading, and ultimately rewarding."
"...buy the book for Durrell’s wit, elegance, philosophy, joie de vivre and flaming intelligence."
"A century after Durrell's birth, readers will find Gifford's reconsideration necessary to that century's understanding of itself."
"The result is that this edition promises to open up new approaches to interpreting Durrell's more famous work. Durrell fans will treasure the book's selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford's fine editorial work."
"[T]he interest of this volume does not only lie in the immeasurable wealth of Durrellian archives that are brought to the reader’s knowledge: it also sketches out the fascinating portrait of an artist engaged in the creative production of his generation so that readers of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Richard Aldington, Cavafy, and Seferis will discover fascinating pieces of critical analysis where they may least have expected to.... The final part devoted to travel writing will similarly edify and stimulate both Durrell’s readers and all those who seek to understand the refinements of the genre." [Full review at http://ebc.revues.org/3502]
VII Foreword
PETER BALDWIN
XI Acknowledgements
XIII Introduction
JAMES GIFFORD
1 From the Elephant’s Back
PERSONAL POSIT IONS
27 A Letter from the Land of the Gods
29 Airgraph on Refugee Poets in Africa
37 No Clue to Living
47 This Magnetic, Bedevilled Island That Tugs at My Heart
53 Lamas in a French Forest
IDEAS ABOUT LITERATURE
63 The Prince and Hamlet
A Diagnosis
73 Hamlet, Prince of China
83 Prospero’s Isle
To Caliban
99 Ideas About Poems
101 Ideas About Poems II
103 The Heraldic Universe
107 Hellene and Philhellene
123 A Cavafy Find
129 A Real Heart Transplant into English
135 Introduction to Wordsworth
149 L’amour, Clef du Mystère?
ETERNAL CONTEMPORARIES
183 Theatre
Sense and Sensibility
187 The Happy Rock
199 Studies in Genius VI
Groddeck
225 Constant Zarian
Triple Exile
235 Enigma Variations
239 The Shades of Dylan Thomas
247 Bernard Spencer
257 The Other Eliot
271 Richard Aldington
277 On George Seferis
281 Poets Under the Bed
SPIRIT OF PLACE : TRAVEL WRITING
287 Corfu
Isle of Legend
297 The Island of the Rose
311 Can Dreams Live on When Dreamers Die?
317 Family Portrait
325 Letter in the Sofa
331 The Moonlight of Your Smile
337 The Poetic Obsession of Dublin
347 Borromean Isles
353 Alexandria Revisited
359 With Durrell in Egypt
379 Works Cited
391 Index
Lawrence Durrell. Born in Jalandhar, British India, Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990) was a critically hailed novelist, poet, and travel writer best known for the Alexandria Quartet novels, which were ranked by the Modern Library as among the greatest works of English literature in the twentieth century.
James Gifford. James Gifford is Professor of English and the director of the university core at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Vancouver.
Peter Baldwin.
"Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, From The Elephant's Back is an outstanding collection of masterfully crafted essays organized into four major sections: Personal Positions; Ideas About Literature; Eternal Contemporaries; and Spirit of Place: Travel Writings. Very highly recommended for academic library collections, From The Elephant's Back will prove to be engaging, memorable, thought-provoking reading, and ultimately rewarding."
"...buy the book for Durrell’s wit, elegance, philosophy, joie de vivre and flaming intelligence."
"A century after Durrell's birth, readers will find Gifford's reconsideration necessary to that century's understanding of itself."
"The result is that this edition promises to open up new approaches to interpreting Durrell's more famous work. Durrell fans will treasure the book's selection of rare nonfiction, while scholars of Durrell, modernist literature, anti-authoritarian artists, and the Personalist movement will also appreciate Gifford's fine editorial work."
"[T]he interest of this volume does not only lie in the immeasurable wealth of Durrellian archives that are brought to the reader’s knowledge: it also sketches out the fascinating portrait of an artist engaged in the creative production of his generation so that readers of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Richard Aldington, Cavafy, and Seferis will discover fascinating pieces of critical analysis where they may least have expected to.... The final part devoted to travel writing will similarly edify and stimulate both Durrell’s readers and all those who seek to understand the refinements of the genre." [Full review at http://ebc.revues.org/3502]
VII Foreword
PETER BALDWIN
XI Acknowledgements
XIII Introduction
JAMES GIFFORD
1 From the Elephant’s Back
PERSONAL POSIT IONS
27 A Letter from the Land of the Gods
29 Airgraph on Refugee Poets in Africa
37 No Clue to Living
47 This Magnetic, Bedevilled Island That Tugs at My Heart
53 Lamas in a French Forest
IDEAS ABOUT LITERATURE
63 The Prince and Hamlet
A Diagnosis
73 Hamlet, Prince of China
83 Prospero’s Isle
To Caliban
99 Ideas About Poems
101 Ideas About Poems II
103 The Heraldic Universe
107 Hellene and Philhellene
123 A Cavafy Find
129 A Real Heart Transplant into English
135 Introduction to Wordsworth
149 L’amour, Clef du Mystère?
ETERNAL CONTEMPORARIES
183 Theatre
Sense and Sensibility
187 The Happy Rock
199 Studies in Genius VI
Groddeck
225 Constant Zarian
Triple Exile
235 Enigma Variations
239 The Shades of Dylan Thomas
247 Bernard Spencer
257 The Other Eliot
271 Richard Aldington
277 On George Seferis
281 Poets Under the Bed
SPIRIT OF PLACE : TRAVEL WRITING
287 Corfu
Isle of Legend
297 The Island of the Rose
311 Can Dreams Live on When Dreamers Die?
317 Family Portrait
325 Letter in the Sofa
331 The Moonlight of Your Smile
337 The Poetic Obsession of Dublin
347 Borromean Isles
353 Alexandria Revisited
359 With Durrell in Egypt
379 Works Cited
391 Index
