Prospero's Cell

Introduction by Simon Winchester

Summary

Prospero’s Cell is a diary of Lawrence Durrell’s life on Corfu just before World War II. Early in 1937, at the age of 25, he and his new wife took an old fisherman’s house on the north end of the island and began to explore and describe the enchanted world that they found. They swam, fished, sailed, harvested olives, savored wine and foods unknown in England, visited sites of interest and beauty, and enjoyed meeting a procession of uniquely colorful locals. This island idyll came to an abrupt end in 1941, as the Germans prepared their invasion of Greece. Durrell left Corfu “with a regret . . . luxurious and . . . deep.” He was evacuated by sea to Alexandria where he worked for the British government, published a literary journal called Personal Landscape, and gathered impressions that would eventually take shape as The Alexandria Quartet.

About the Author

Lawrence Durrell was born of British parents in India in 1912 and died living in France in 1990. He is best known as the author of The Alexandria Quartet, a series of four novels set in Egypt, but wrote many other novels, travel memoirs, poems, plays, and humorous sketches. Prospero’s Cell is regarded by many as his masterpiece and describes his affectionate relationship with the Island of Corfu and with Greece in general.