Most people believe Lawrence Durrell's first novel to be The Black Book, published in 1938 by the Obelisk Press in Paris (it was considered obscene by UK publishers, and not published in this country until 1977). In fact, Durrell's first novel had been published three years earlier by Cassell. It was titled Pied Piper of Lovers. Unfortunately, it sold badly, was savaged in a review in Janus magazine by John Mair, and few copies survived the Blitz. Durrell himself also refused to allow the book to be reprinted - perhaps because it was a little too autobiographical. As a result, copies are very hard to find - in fact, "barely a dozen copies survive in libraries around the world".

But now the Canadian University of Victoria's ELS Editions has, after 73 years, finally published a new edition of Pied Piper of Lovers. And a very nice edition it is too. There is an excellent introduction by editor James Gifford - from which the above quote about "barely a dozen copies" is taken. The text itself is copiously footnoted - perhaps too copiously in places: I should have thought it unnecessary to point out, for example, that "Portsmouth, England, is a coastal city in Hampshire", as only the dimmest of readers is going to blithely ignore context and confuse it with the many Portsmouths in the USA.

Read the rest of the review at: http://justhastobeplausible.blogspot.com/2009/01/worth-seventy-three-year-wait.h... ( )