Durrell, Lawrence

Lawrence Durrell
natal chart (Placidus)
natal chart English style (Equal houses)

Lawrence Durrell

Name	Durrell, Lawrence Gender: M
Birthname	Durrell, Lawrence George
born on	27 February 1912 at 01:00 (= 01:00 AM )
Place	Jullundur Punjab, India, 31n19, 75e34
Timezone	IST h5e30 (is standard time)
Data source	Bio/autobiography Rodden Rating B Collector: Blackwell
Astrology data	06°52' 19°54 Asc. 02°13'

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Biography

Irish writer born in India, a novelist, playwright and travel writer. First published in 1938 with "The Black Book," he is perhaps best known for his four-volume "Alexandria Quartet," 1957-1960. He was the first to popularize travel books with his stories about Greece, and his novels centered on Egypt, Greece and France.

Durrell was born into a family that had a tenuous relationship to both India and it's homeland. They dealt with the caste system and the lack of a correct university system, which were obstacles to employment in the Indian Civil Service. His Indian-educated father was an engineer employed by the railway and later, a partner in a construction firm. Wanting his son to have the education of an English gentleman he packed the boy off the England, where Durrell failed to pass entry exams. Later he wrote that, "Intellectually, I was brilliant, but failed the exams because of subconscious resentment."

Durrell grew up with anxieties about his social class and felt that he secured social distinction by being an artist, in his case, the writer as the center of a creative universe.

From 1935 he lived intermittently on Corfu, gathering material and writing. His imagination was such that, as a boy, he was characterized in a school report as a "mine of disinformation," perceived as someone who distorted facts of his and other's lives.

His first wife, Nancy, left him, as did all of his wives except one, Claude-Marie, who died. With his second wife, Yvette, he had a daughter he named Sappho who described his intense psychological tormenting of her and of his wives in her journal, and hanged herself in 1985. When he threatened his fourth wife, Ghislaine, with a revolver, publicly describing her as "the French whore I live with," she walked out. Durrell was a wife-beater who insisted on using women for the purpose of establishing his pretensions of superiority. His sexuality was voracious and cruel, and alcohol was a close companion.

He was lifelong friends with Henry Miller, but frequently betrayed friendships. Durrell's final years were spent in France, working, traveling, pursuing intermittent affairs, and drinking. He seemed unable to derive meaning from his experiences, and his life ended a melancholy tale of obsessive cruelty to others, alcoholism and betrayal.

Link to Wikipedia biography

Events

• Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released 1938 ("The Black Book")

• Work : Published/ Exhibited/ Released 1957 ("Alexandria Quartet")

• Death of Child 1985 (Daughter hanged herself)

Source Notes

(Data Plus UK No.1, 10/1997, quotes Gordon Bowker, "Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell," Sinclair-Stevenson, 1996, p.7. for 2/27/1912)

(Formerly, LMR quoted Arthur Blackwell from him in "Durrell and Miller, a Private Correspondence," 1963 for 2/26/1912. This was in error: Frank Clifford confirms 2/27/1912 from his copy of Blackwell.)

Categories

• Vocation : Writers : Playwright/ script

• Family : Childhood : Disadvantaged (Born into caste system)

• Lifestyle : Home : Expatriate (Ireland to France)

• Traits : Mind : Other Mind (Extremely active imagination)

• Passions : Sexuality : Other Sexual (Voracious and cruel sexuality)

• Family : Relationship : Widowed (Once)

• Family : Relationship : Stress - Chronic misery (All wives left except for one, who died)

• Passions : Criminal Perpetrator : Assault/ Battery (Wife-beater)

• Lifestyle : Social Life : Travel

• Lifestyle : Social Life : Friends (Frequently betrayed friendships)

• Lifestyle : Work : Work alone/ Singular role

• Notable : Extraordinary Talents : For Imagination

• Passions : Criminal Perpetrator : Torturer/ Sadist (Sadist, beat his wives, tormented daughter)

• Vocation : Writers : Textbook/ Non-fiction (Travel writer)

• Diagnoses : Psychological : Abuse Alcohol

• Family : Parenting : Kids -Traumatic event (Daughter hanged herself)

• Traits : Personality : Difficult/ mean spirited (Cruel)