The black book Book

I read this book after I had read "The Alexandria Quartet" by Lawrence Durrell, about life in Alexandria and I just loved it. To this day it still remains one of my two favourite books. I've read all of his other books (well I thought I had until yesterday!) and "The Black Book" was the penultimate one that I read. Durrell was only twenty-four when he wrote this in 1936 and still feeling his way through his writing.

The book is somewhat "raw" in style and the story is relatively simple. I had always believed that this was his first book to be published, but he also had two others published: "Pied Piper of Lovers" and "Panic Spring". I haven't read either of these.

Knowing Lawrence Durrell's exquisite style of writing both in his novels and travel books, I could see why he had reservations about this book and even about throwing it away. However thanks to his friend Henry Miller (good or bad in this case for an author's reputation?) the book was published in Paris. I am pleased to see that it still sees the light of day in both the bookstores and online.

To quote the blurb it is " 'A kind of angry young man's attack on literature and 'the English death','a savage battle conducted in the interests of self-discovery, an ocean of sustained writing', it has always been regarded by him ... as the first of his major novels.' "

I'm not so sure that I agree with that. Durrell had just escaped from living in London and had gone to live with his family on Corfu. He was thus writing about London as an expatriate, as had been the case with James Joyce.

I believe the story is rather banal, It is about a small residential hotel in London; based around a diary written by Gregory which he had left behind in his room and which had subsequently been found by Lawrence Lucifer, who had taken up residence there. The other individuals who lived there included Tarquin, Clare, to name but a few.

It is worth mentioning that at the time this book would never have been published in England as it would have been considered obscene. Due to Miller, it was published in Paris in 1938 and at the time was considered to be on a par with D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce and Henry Miller. How times have changed. Nowadays these books would be considered as perfectly "normal".

I really would like to hear what other readers think of this book. I personally feel that his style at the time he wrote the "Black Book" was not on a par with "The Alexandria Quartet". The only two words I can add for that book are "sublime" and "exquisite".

I am, however, planning to reread "The Black Book" in depth. My hardback version is by Faber and Faber, London and I see that it was not published in the UK until 1973, even though it was published in Paris in 1938, followed by the U.S. in 1960.