Quinx (novel)
Encyclopedia
Quinx, published in 1985 and sub-titled The Ripper's Tale, is the 5th and final volume in Lawrence Durrell
's "Quincunx" of novels, The Avignon Quintet
, following the activities of Constance, Blanford, Sutcliffe, Lord Galen, and most of the other surviving characters (including some of those who are theoretically fictional from Blanford's novel) as they return to Provence and Avignon in the immediate aftermath of the war. Information about the whereabouts of the Templar treasure, long sought by Lord Galen, is provided by the ex-Nazi double agent Smirgel. Gypsies are congregating to take part in a Camargue festival, leading to the climax of the book in a scene below the Pont du Gard, where the treasure is expected to be found. The novel develops further the process of deliberate breakdown of logical narrative, as in the earlier novels of the series. Time sequences are often contradictory, and there are numerous anachronistic references to events during and after World War Two. More than in the previous four volumes, Durrell deliberately includes allusions and homages to the culture of the 1980's in a narrative which is supposedly occurring in 1946.
As throughout the Quincunx series, Durrell's themes include death, orgasm, doubleness (and tripleness), religious fervor, homosexuality, and novel-writing itself. The lead female character, Constance--Duchess of Tu--over the course of the series enjoys seven different lovers. And Durrell doesn't shy from incest, underage sex (the peasant boy who mounts Constance), bartered sex (with a Gestapo chief!), and rape (the Gypsy woman with child at breast who is coursed by hunting dogs for the pleasure of an Austrian nobleman).
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...
's "Quincunx" of novels, The Avignon Quintet
The Avignon Quintet
The Avignon Quintet is a five-volume series of novels by British writer Lawrence Durrell, published between 1974 and 1985. The novels are openly metafictional and reflect the developments in experimental fiction following after Durrell's previous The Alexandria Quartet...
, following the activities of Constance, Blanford, Sutcliffe, Lord Galen, and most of the other surviving characters (including some of those who are theoretically fictional from Blanford's novel) as they return to Provence and Avignon in the immediate aftermath of the war. Information about the whereabouts of the Templar treasure, long sought by Lord Galen, is provided by the ex-Nazi double agent Smirgel. Gypsies are congregating to take part in a Camargue festival, leading to the climax of the book in a scene below the Pont du Gard, where the treasure is expected to be found. The novel develops further the process of deliberate breakdown of logical narrative, as in the earlier novels of the series. Time sequences are often contradictory, and there are numerous anachronistic references to events during and after World War Two. More than in the previous four volumes, Durrell deliberately includes allusions and homages to the culture of the 1980's in a narrative which is supposedly occurring in 1946.
As throughout the Quincunx series, Durrell's themes include death, orgasm, doubleness (and tripleness), religious fervor, homosexuality, and novel-writing itself. The lead female character, Constance--Duchess of Tu--over the course of the series enjoys seven different lovers. And Durrell doesn't shy from incest, underage sex (the peasant boy who mounts Constance), bartered sex (with a Gestapo chief!), and rape (the Gypsy woman with child at breast who is coursed by hunting dogs for the pleasure of an Austrian nobleman).
External links
- The International Lawrence Durrell Society Official website of ILDS
- Durrell 2012: The Lawrence Durrell Centenary Centenary event website and Durrell Journal
- The Durrell School of Corfu School dedicated to the works and lives Lawrence and Gerald Durrell
- The Literary Encyclopedia