Balthazar
Lawrence Durrell
Wood engraving series, 2025.A series of wood engravings illustrating Lawrence Durrell’s novel, ‘Balthazar’ (1958), the second novel of Durrell’s acclaimed Alexandria Quartet.
‘Balthazar’ rewrites the events of the first novel, ‘Justine’, shining new light on the protagonist, Darley’s explosive love affair with the Alexandrian socialite, Justine.
The wood engravings detail passages of the novel, from Darley receiving a manuscript or ‘interlinear’ from his friend Balthazar which rewrites his recollection of events, to Darley’s memories of roaming the Alexandrian docklands with a colourful company of characters, including Scobie, a seemingly exiled British sailor.
Page 8, Darley’s mirage of Alexandria’s Ras El Tin Palace
Page 195, Darley reading the interlinear
Page 11, Balthazar laying the interlinear ‘upon the scarred old table’
Page 31, Scobie’s Room on Tatwig Street
Page 37, Tatwig Street ‘when the Fleet’s in’
Page 5, ‘Landscape-tones’
Page 5, ‘Landscape-tones’