Faber Books – Part 2 – Lawrence Durrell, Ellen Gilchrist, William Golding, Nikolas Kazantzakis

To continue with Faber books, and Lawrence Durrell first of all…

I cannot claim to have read either Bitter Lemons or Tunc, or maybe I have, in the dim distant past, but here are the old Faber editions of the books in question, editions published respectively in mcmlix (1960) and 1969.

Two books from Durrell’s humorous stories of the diplomatic service, Stiff Upper Lip & Esprit de Corps, very funny books indeed!

Next Ellen Gilchrist, a wonderful American novelist and short story writer from the southern state of Mississippi. Her collection In The Land of Dreamy Dreams, which I have in a first edition hardcover, was my introduction to her fiction. It introduces the character of Rhoda Manning who featured in many of her short stories. But as I am showing only paperback Faber publications, I’ll get to that book later.

The Annunciation (1983) was her first published novel and Net of Jewells was published in 1992.

Victory Over Japan is another collection of short stories, won the National Book Award in 1984, and is quite marvellous from what I can recall.

William Golding is famous for his novel Lord of the Flies, which I have in a Penguin Modern Classic. The Scorpion God is a lesser known work, that no doubt I read way back in the past, and is set in Ancient Egypt.

Finally for this entry, two novels by Nikos Kazantzakis, well known for his novel Zorba The Greek that was made into an immensely popular film in the early 1960s and thus thrust him into the spotlight. I have only two of his novels, Zorba The Greek, of course, and Christ Crucified.

The last of the Faber books will be posted shortly and include works by Garrison Keillor and Charles Williams.

Faber Books – Part 1 – Paul Auster

Faber & Faber are an interesting imprint, and they were adventurous in the authors they chose to publish. Always, you could rely on a Faber & Faber book to be out of the ordinary.

I suppose I discovered the writings of Paul Auster when a friend, who happened to be the Faber rep for Australia gave me the proof copy of The New York Trilogy in 1987 and I was subsequently blown away by it.

I sporadically collected his novels thereafter, and though they failed to thrill me after a time, I did enjoy In the Country of Last Things and Moon Palace.

An author you don’t hear much about these days is Djuna Barnes. Her most famous novel, Nightwood, was a must have novel if you in any way embraced the counter culture of the 1960/1970s. The cover is typical of Faber books of the 1960s...

…as is the case of the paperback editions of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet , a series that was immensely popular in the 1960s. I reread them about five years ago, and found them to be surprisingly well worth the effort.

Durrell’s other great sequence of novels was the Avignon Quintet which also has references to the Alexandrian series.

Monsieur, Livia & Constance are all paperback editions, but Sebastian and Quinx are first edition hard covers. The delicate cover art is by David Gentleman.

That’s it for tonight, but I will continue with more Lawrence Durrell next time.