 First UK edition | |
| Author | Lawrence Durrell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The Alexandria Quartet |
| Publisher | Faber and Faber |
Publication date | 1958 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Paperback and Hardback) |
| Preceded by | Balthazar |
| Followed by | Clea |
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.
According to biographer Ian MacNiven, Lawrence Durrell regarded Mountolive as the clou, the nail holding together the entire structure of the Quartet. And Durrell gave to David Mountolive, his English ambassador, details from his own life: "Mountolive had been born in India, had left it at age eleven, had had an affair with a Yugoslav dancer. Mountolive had not seen his father again after leaving India, and this Larry joined to his own myth of abandonment, a myth he came absolutely to believe, that he had not seen his father after coming to England."[1]
- ^ Ian MacNiven, Lawrence Durrell, A Biography, Faber 1998, p.466-468