Description
Title: Mountolive
Author: Durrell, Lawrence
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: E. P. Dutton & Co., New York
Publication Date: 1959
Edition: First Edition
Book Condition: VG
D-j Condition: VG
Comments: D-j lightly soiled with a small chip near top of spine. D-j has wear on front. Front board has a few spots. Wear to headcap and tail. Front pastedown tanned. Stain on FFEP. Wear to bottom of back board.
Synopsis: The novel’s tensions begin with young David Mountolive on the Hosnani estate, where he has begun an affair with Leila Hosnani, mother of Nessim and Narouz. This leads to a recollection of Mountolive’s maturation and career as a diplomat, a career which in time returns him to Egypt, leading up to the present day of the novel series, at which point Mountolive recontextualizes the materials that appeared previously in Justine and Balthazar. Mountolive retains Pursewarden as his chief political adviser. Mountolive then introduces a Coptic gunrunning plot in support of Zionism. This plot development has been criticised as unrealistic,[2] but more recently scholars have demonstrated the intensely political and well-informed background for Durrell’s notions. [3] Pursewarden kills himself; Nessim is warned to act to curb his brother Narouz, whose subversive rhetoric has become dangerously extravagant.
The novel ends with the Copt wake for Narouz. The Pasha has disingenuously pretended to believe he is the Hosnani in the incriminating papers so he can continue to receive bribes from Nessim. Mountolive, meanwhile prepares to turn his back on Egypt, totally disillusioned.
