Durrell Balthazar: Alexandria Quartet Ii CD

The politics of love, the intrigues of desire love and murder, moved obscurely in the dark corners of Alexandria's streets and squares, brothels and drawing-rooms moved like a great congress of eels in the slime of plot and counter-plot in Balthazar, the second volume in Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, the story and the characters come more clearly into focus. Darley, the reflective Englishman, receives from Balthazar, the pathologist, a mass of notes which attempt to explain what really happened between the tempestuous Justine, her a husband Nessim, Clea the artist, Pursewarden the writer; new figures emerge and play key roles. Balthazar, in his Interlinear, explains and warns.

1. A Memory Catches Sight of Itself in the Mirror 2. Balthazar Returns with a Large Packet 3. The Interlinear - New Truths, Painful Truths 4. The Literary Society in the Ptolemaic Parlour 5. Scobie and Some Secrets 6. Nessim, Mountolive - and Justine 7. Balthazar Warns Clea 8. Justine - a Painting and a Kiss 9. The Most Dangerous Thing in the World Is a Love Founded on Pity 10. Nessim Leaves for Karm Abu Girg 11. Narouz - the Younger Brother 12. Their Mother, Leila 13. Leila, Once Beautiful and Rich 14. A Gallop - Nessim Confides in Narouz 15. Nessim Leaves for the City 16. The Interlinear: 'To Imagine Is Not Necessarily to Invent' 17. Pursewarden - the Writer 18. Justine - a Love Affair Begins 19. Love - a Whole Vocabulary of Adjectives 20. Justine's Laughter 21. Narouz Decides to Act 22. Magzub and a Vision 23. Narouz Reports to Nessim 24. The Death of Scobie 25. Pombal's Complications 26. Balthazar's Interlinear Continues 27. The Carnival in Alexandria 28. With Dominoes in Place, They Set Out for Fun 29. Toto, Pursewarden, Spumante, Mountolive 30. An Expected Surprise - a Death 31. Justine's Echo: Time Immemorial 32. Clea Reveals Her Encounter with Narouz 33. A Letter from Clea 34. A Letter from Pursewarden 35. The Oil in the Lamp Is Low