The Mediterranean Shore

Fülszöveg

The Mediterranean Shore is a duet for two, a
writer and an artist. What Lawrence Durrell de-
scribes, Paul Hogarth depicts.
and artists, tourists and travellers have
been attracted like migrating birds to the islands and
shores of the Mediterranean. Some never return.
Lawrence Durrell has lived there for the best part of
his life. Its climate and natural beauty make it the ideal
setting for indolent enjoyment - the land of the lotus-
eater; its cities and monuments stir the imagination -
the cradle of Western civilization. Durrell celebrates
both aspects in his novels and travel books. His
writing is inseparable from its romantic landscapes,
cults and mysteries, its famed buildings. He writes of
Provence, his present home, 'The place engulfs one
and its habits and superstitions make one feel the
pagan roots of the marvellous inland sea which
colours our lives.'
Paul Hogarth knows his Mediterranean too; since
the Sixties he has had a house in the verdant hills of... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The Mediterranean Shore is a duet for two, a
writer and an artist. What Lawrence Durrell de-
scribes, Paul Hogarth depicts.
and artists, tourists and travellers have
been attracted like migrating birds to the islands and
shores of the Mediterranean. Some never return.
Lawrence Durrell has lived there for the best part of
his life. Its climate and natural beauty make it the ideal
setting for indolent enjoyment - the land of the lotus-
eater; its cities and monuments stir the imagination -
the cradle of Western civilization. Durrell celebrates
both aspects in his novels and travel books. His
writing is inseparable from its romantic landscapes,
cults and mysteries, its famed buildings. He writes of
Provence, his present home, 'The place engulfs one
and its habits and superstitions make one feel the
pagan roots of the marvellous inland sea which
colours our lives.'
Paul Hogarth knows his Mediterranean too; since
the Sixties he has had a house in the verdant hills of
Majorca. In his water-colours he vividly evokes the
settings of Durrell's novels - the Nile delta and
encompassing desert of The Alexandria
Quartet, the Acropolis and the Golden Horn of
The Revolt of Aphrodite, the Roman and
Mediaeval backdrop for The Avignon Quintet.
The one departure from the Mediterranean setting is
Switzerland but even here the clinical calm of its lakes
and mountains is linked to the more turbulent Sea by
the umbilical cord of the Rhône. Durrells interplay
between reality and fiction is matched by the
disciplined freedom of Hogarth's paintings. Both
have an amused and watchful eye for the unusual and
bizarre.
^Thirteen novels and five travel books on the Greek
Islands, Cyprus and Sicily are illustrated and
introduced with a written impression of each book by
Robin Rook. The illustrations are offset by relevant
extracts so that the artist's vision and the writer's are
juxtaposed. Both Durrell and Hogarth comment on
the paintings. Durrell has written a new and possibly
definitive statement about the Mediterranean which
forms the core of the book. Vignettes from Hogarth's
travels appear alongside Durrell's poems - many
previously unpublished.
Ak^ny evocation of the Mediterranean calls for a
special insight to reveal its elusive spirit behind the
familiar façade. Lawrence Durrell and Paul Hogarth
present a double image of its splendours and miseries
in a work of creative collaboration. Vissza