Ruined...

...by the reader. The Alexandria Quartet is a fascinating series of novels, and could have been a delightful listen. But the reader is simply atrocious -- affects such mannered voices for all characters that he spoils the prose. For instance, the voice of beautiful, young Justine sounds like an eighty-year-old woman who has smoked all her life. It would be wonderful if Audible would get these books by another reader.

25 people found this helpful

horrible narration

Would you try another book from Lawrence Durrell and/or Jack Klaff?

I could hardly understand the narrator when he did different characters. It was way over done.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jack Klaff’s performances?

NO!

9 people found this helpful

It is the city which should be judged...

"I see at last that none of us is properly to be judged for what happened in the past. It is the city which should be judged though we, its children, must pay the price."
- Lawrence Durrell, Justine

It feels like reading Henry Miller and John Fowels mixed with Anthony Powell and Paul Bowles, salted, smoked, and flavored with the sex and refuse of Alexandria. It was lush, brutal, beautiful, and horrible all at once. It made me want to go (while knowing Durrell captured a place and time that will never exist again). I felt like a peeping tom and a historian before a disaster. The book was infinitely quotable, with prose that sometimes bordered on almost grotesquely lyrical. It danced, seduced, pounced, and fed on me as I nervously flipped from one page to the next.

Next up: Balthazar.

7 people found this helpful

masterpiece from Mid-20th Century British author

Each one of the Alexandria Quartet novels are for me an absorbing and enthralling journey into
pre World War ll Egypt, mainly Alexandria. That world has changed now entirely. The narrator of
this and all the other novels comes in for some very harsh criticism from some readers. At first I understood
why he was criticized but then I got used to his exalted tone and rather liked it for the otherworldly
atmosphere his hyper-actorly reading offers. What would have helped me is translating some rather
extensive French from the dullest character in the novels. Also, be warned - there are about ten uses of the N-word that
a thoughtful publisher editor would do well to sterilize with a non offensive omission or substitute. Durrell was not in
the least a racist author, but he indulged himself without filter, as Faulkner, during a time when such usage was pardoned if even then actually fairly rare. The epigrams that sparkle throughout and the gorgeous prose style are incomparable and, when combined with the layered and ever shifting unreliable narration, justify these novels selected by one source as the 60th best of 100 best 20th Century novels. Kenneth Rexroth, an American poet and literary critic, contemporary of Durrell's, said that Justine was the best of the four. I would encourage everyone to read all of them as one critic wrote, the end of Clea leaves a beautiful tall spire atop Durrell's cathedral. Each one gave me an interesting twist on the single long story covered in the four novels. The film is also worth seeing: though it is titled, Justine, it is really an attempt to adapt all four novels into one movie adaptation. If one hears the afterward by Mr Mendelsohn and Mr Atlas, it is same interview at the end of each of the four novels. Now that is a waste since Mr Mendelsohn should have something pertinent to say about each of the novels from all of his research into the author and his period.

5 people found this helpful

Beautiful prose ruined by dreadful narrator

Despite Durrell's complete mastery of the language and brilliant evocation of a city and characters now lost to history, I struggled to enjoy this rendition. The narrator used such overblown accents for some of the characters and even his normal voice for the main character was disdainful and patronising. I was constantly alienated from the characters and this spoilt a deeper engagement with the story. I may have struggled with the story in any event as the characters' obsessions were so self indulgent. Nevertheless, it is sublimely beautiful prose presenting provocative and rather cynical perspectives on relationships and one's place in the world. Its world view is not one I find sympathetic.

4 people found this helpful

Justine, The Alexandria Quartet

Would you consider the audio edition of Justine to be better than the print version?

No. Sadly, I didn't care for the reader. I wish for every reader of great literary fiction to revel in his prose.

What other book might you compare Justine to and why?

Justine is one of four sibling novels in The Alexandria Quartet. All are worth a read, as are his other works.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator is an excellent reader of poetry. But for a novel, his eloquence was a distraction. I found it impossible to listen to. I would really like to listen to this novel, but with a straightforward reading. I know that Durrell's work is great literature, but I don't need every other word to be pronounced with deliberate poignance.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Impossible to pick from one sentence more beautiful than another, but here's one:
“These are the moments which are not calculable, and cannot be assessed in words; they live on in the solution of memory, like wonderful creatures, unique of their own kind, dredged up from the floors of some unexplored ocean.”

9 people found this helpful

Awful Narrator

I should have heeded negative reviews. This narrator gets in the way of beautiful prose. Could not finish it!

3 people found this helpful

The Narrator is just wrong for this book

I read the Alexandria Quarter decades ago and wanted to revisit an old friend. The pompous way this narrator lingers over Durrell's words as if it is precious poetry, instead of beautiful prose that moves a dynamic story of unique characters along. He reads way too slowly and sucks the life out of it. Read the books unless you find another narrator. Note: I rarely review and never go out of my way to give a thumbs down. Oh, poor Lawrence.

2 people found this helpful

Horrid Narration!

The dramatization (i.e. the narrator doing 'voices') is so extremely melodramatic ??and annoying that it distracts from the story. ??This is a great book, I cannot recommend this audio version solely because of the narration. ??I hope Audible obtains a different unabridged version of this book with a different narrator.??

8 people found this helpful

Brilliant

I was named after this book... as my Grandmother had an affair with Henry Miller who was best friends with Lawrence Durrell and the character Justine was based off of her... and Jack Klaff could not have done a better job performing this story. Bravo!! Thank you for this gift

1 person found this helpful