&sq=&lang=&file=File:Monsieur_(Lawrence_Durrell_novel_-_cover_art).jpg) First UK edition | |
| Author | Lawrence Durrell |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | The Avignon Quintet |
| Publisher | Faber & Faber (UK) Viking (US) |
Publication date | 1974 |
| Publication place | Great Britain |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 296 p. (Faber edition) |
| ISBN | 0-571-10660-9 (paperback edition) |
| OCLC | 1109339 |
| 823/.9/12 | |
| LC Class | PZ3.D9377 Ml PR6007.U76 |
| Followed by | Livia |
Monsieur, or The Prince of Darkness (1974), is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet. Published from 1974 to 1985, this sequence of five interrelated novels explore the lives of a group of Europeans before, during, and after World War II. Durrell uses many of the experimental techniques of metafiction that he had integrated into his Alexandria Quartet, published 1957 to 1960. He described the later quintet as a quincunx.
Monsieur is based on a metafictional narrative in five major sections, each with a competing narrator. The novel does not resolve which narrative is 'real' and which are 'fiction.' The novel was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1974.