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Pied Piper of Lovers
Durrell's first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers, was published in 1935, shortly after
he left England to live abroad until his death in 1990. As an autobiographical
Künstlerroman, it traces Walsh Clifton's Anglo-Indian childhood and his struggles
to negotiate a life between "mother" India and "father" England. The trauma of leaving
India for an alien home propels the novel's concerns with colonial life and its wounds,
transitioning from an idyllic rural world to London and Bloomsbury in the 1920s.
Pied Piper of Lovers draws keenly from Durrell's own life and charts the
emotional experiences that would drive the rest of his career. For these reasons,
Durrell never allowed republication, and the novel was largely lost in the London
Blitz. Pied Piper of Lovers prompts significant reconsideration of the impetus
and political tensions behind Durrell's late modernist masterpieces, The Alexandria
Quartet, The Avignon Quintet, and Bitter Lemons. This new edition
allows readers to reevaluate Durrell's complex role as a colonial writer in a
postcolonial world by emphasizing his irony, privileges, and bitterness for a life
always lived in-between.
Reviews
"...combines a high level of scholarship with accessibility, and sets a standard for the
republication of early lost works by major authors.... fascinating to readers and
scholars alike."
—Times Literary Supplement
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