Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Durrell, Lawrence. The Black Book, The Complete Book. Pocket Books., New York., 1962.
Price: US$6.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. Mass-market paperback. 223 p. 16 cm. Black covers w/ pink, olive green, white titles; gold spine. Subtitle: "Now, after twenty years, this brilliant, lusty, Rabelaisian novel is at long last available in the United States and Canada". Long-banned novel by British author. Reviewed by the New York Herald Tribune, "There is anger in the writing, and agony, and delirium, and sudden flashes of mordant humor; there are obscenities and blasphemies and touches of unexpected tenderness". Author of The Alexandria Quartet. Very good. Light spine creasing. Back cover minor scuffing. Clean text pages w/ age-toning. Tight binding. e Giant Cardinal Edition, GC-769. 1st Pocket printing. 1
Seller: Hedgehog's Whimsey BOOKS etc., Newport, NH, U.S.A.
Durrell, Lawrence. THE DARK LABYRINTH. E. P. Dutton, New York, New York, 1962.
Price: US$30.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: With inevitable glue browning near the inside hinge, else fine under a near-mint jacket. A novel of post-war lost souls, by the author of The Alexandria Quartet.
Seller: MARIE BOTTINI, BOOKSELLER, Cotati, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$34.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: Hardcover, no jacket. One-volume edition, 1962. Front hinge broken. Some pencil marks in margins and rear endpapers. An owner's stamp inside. Exterior lightly worn, but titles and decorations on spine rubbed. Photos available. We ship daily. Expedited shipping available! (Heavy books & sets may require extra shipping charges.)
Seller: Big Star Books, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A.
Price: US$34.50 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Text/New & Bright. Illustrated softcover/NF w/light edge wear & faint creasing to upper front corner. Gift inscription to fEP. Celebrated British novelist, poet, dramatist & travel writer Lawrence Durrell (1912 - 1990) of The Alexandria Quartet fame, was eldest brother of naturalist Gerald Durrell (1925 - 1995). This 1962 anthology presents 2 of his memorable travels. Both testimonials of re-vitalization when natural surroundings, lore & social manners are gentle ans in accord. Visit to islands of Corfu & Rhodes in pre- and post World War II. "PROSPERO'S CELL: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corcyra" tells of leaving a gray, industrialized England for sunny Corfu of 1930's Greece when a young writer. Written in diary form of days w/his new 2nd wife, of freedom to swim, fish, sail, read, and write at will along making new friends, good food & wine, brought to an end by World War II and retreat to Egypt. In "REFLECTIONS ON A MARINE VENUS: A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes"Reflections on a Marine Venus", Durrell, after 4 wartime years in Egypt, is posted to Rhodes. There, with a very first morning dip in frigid sea waters, he feels fully alive again --- friendships with villagers, new foods, he learns to discard infinite ouzo bottles as everyone else did, it was as if the War had never happened.
Seller: 100POCKETS, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$35.00 + shipping
Description: Gray cloth, no dust jackets. Boards uniformly rubbed, all very good clean copies in very good publisher's slipcase.
Seller: THE HERMITAGE BOOKSHOP, Denver, CO, U.S.A.
Price: US$50.00 + shipping
Description: Octavo. 884 pp. First American one-volume edition. As issued, in publisher's salmon cloth with title in gold on the spine; lacking the dust jacket. Binding is lightly rubbed at the spine and edges; generally it presents well; some foxing to the endpapers and some minor and limited staining to the bottom edge of the first blank; contents are clean. A nice edition of this modern classic.
Seller: Michael Pyron, Bookseller, ABAA, Conshohocken, PA, U.S.A.
Durrell, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet. E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1962.
Price: US$65.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: 884pp. First U.S. printing of the 4 vols-in-one. Durrell's brief Preface mentions very minor changes to each of three volumes, plus name of C.P. Cavafy as having produced a new translation of Clea. Red cloth with turquoise decorative title box on spine for bright gilt-stamped lettering; edges lightly age-toned; single short ink brackets on margins of each of pages 193, 195, 198, else clean text. Purple, green, and blue front cover of dustwrapper, not price-clipped ($10.00); rear panel has full length black and white photo-portrait of author; small hole in dw on right spine edge at 3" up from bottom (NO impact on red cloth itself); corners worn, spine ends worn, with chips across bottom; worn down right front cover gutter (not rear gutter), down right edge front cover and down rear cover left edge (backed now with Archival tape): now in mylar which forgives these sins graciously. No previous owner names. Heavy, large volume may require extra shipping.
Seller: Theoria Books, Andover, MA, U.S.A.
Lawrence Durrell. The Alexandria Quartet. E.P. Dutton & Co, New York, 1962.
Price: US$75.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1962. First Omnibus Edition. Octavo; 884pp. Printed dust jacket with $10.00 price intact; book in red cloth with gilt lettering and blue title square to spine. Jacket shows a few shallow tears along edges, with a 1.5" crease at bottom front, wear to corners and spine ends, and some general toning and smudging, mostly to white back panel. Boards are clean with some fading along edges. Spine slightly cocked. Endpapers foxed. Opens easily between a few gatherings, but binding is sound. Pages unmarked. First omnibus edition of Durrell's Quartet, consisting of the novels Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea.
Seller: Capitol Hill Books, ABAA, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
Durrell, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet in One Volume. E.P. Dutton & Co, 1962.
Price: US$85.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: DJ has edge wear on all folds.
Seller: Unique Books, Lexington, KY, U.S.A.
Durrell, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet. E.P. Dutton and Company, New York, 1962.
Price: US$125.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Very Good in a Near Fine jacket, clipped, faintly toned and rubbed. Red buckram, rubbed at the bottom edge, pushed at the head and foot of the spine. Square, bound with some reading wear, former owner's signature inside the front board, clean otherwise. The first complete one-volume edition that brings together Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, and Clea. The Modern Library named the quartet as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Seller: Carpetbagger Books, Woodstock, IL, U.S.A.
Price: US$750.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: Signed limited edition; number 167 of a limited 199 copies signed by Lawrence Durrell. Bound in publisher's marbled paper-covered boards over blue cloth spine lettered in gilt; lacking acetate wrapper and slipcase. Near Fine with light rubbing to binding, minor sunning to spine. Evidence of bookplate removal to first blank sheet. Three-quarter-inch exposure to front inner hinge at bottom. Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, containing the novels Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea; Signed by the author.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
DURRELL, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet. E.P Dutton, New York, 1962.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: First American edition of the first one-volume edition, limited and signed issue. About fine in near fine original unprinted acetate dustwrapper with tiny nicks and tears, in a modestly age-toned, near fine original cardboard fine slipcase. Copy number 45 of 199 numbered copies Signed by the author. A very scarce edition. By comparison the limited English edition was 500 copies. An excellent copy of a scarce title.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Durrell, Lawrence. The Alexandria Quartet [signed limited edition]. E.P. Dutton, New York, 1962.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: 884 pp. Beveled marbled paper boards over deep blue cloth backstrip, lettered and ruled in gilt, in publisher's slipcase. Spine slightly sunned, boards slightly rubbed at bevel, slipcase shows handling wear but is solid. One of 199 signed copies for distribution in the United States; the British edition published by Faber was 500 copies. A beautiful copy of Durrell's magnum opus and a high spot of twentieth century literature.
Seller: Triolet Rare Books, ABAA, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.