The Avignon Quintet [comprising] Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian and Quinx

8vos, 5 vols; publisher’s oat, green, blue, pale yellow and olive-coloured boards, spines lettered in either silver, black or gilt; Vol I with black painted label to spine; together in the unclipped pictorial dustwrappers (£2.75-£8.95); all designed by David Gentleman; Vol I good, with wrapper, prelims and upper edge heavily spotted spine sunned, a little abrasion to the edges of wrapper; the other volumes very good to near fine, a little rubbing to edges and the odd spot, occasional sunning to spines; light creasing to the wrappers in places but otherwise excellent. 

A very good first edition set of Durrell’s popular series. Volumes I and V are signed by the author in black felt pen, and are dated in the year of publication.  

Lawrence Durrell had already achieved great success with the publication of his famous Alexandria Quartet when, in the early 1970s, he embarked on his second major series, The Avignon Quintet. Written while he was living in a small village in Languedoc, France, Durrell employed many of the same techniques which he had used in his previous works, with the central plot following a series of characters living in Europe before, during, and after World War II. The first novel begins in Avignon, and follows a trio of lovers; the diplomat Piers, his sister Sylvie, and the English doctor, Bruce. In Livia two sisters face the outbreak of the Second World War. The central work, Constance, takes as its focus the English mistress of a decaying chateau, who is impacted by the loss of her husband and friends, as well as her Nazi-sympathiser sister. The penultimate work is set just after the war ends, and follows Constance as she travels to Europe to treat survivors of the conflict. And in Quinx the characters return to Avignon and Provence in order to discover the location of Templar treasure. 

A rich and complex work, Monsieur was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Constance was shortlisted for the Booker. The books are "roped together like climbers on a rockface, but all independent” Durrell later wrote, “... a series of books through which the same characters move for all the world as if to illustrate the notion of reincarnation."  

SKU: 1800170