Balthazar

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 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 husband Nessim, Clea the artist, and Pursewarden the writer. New figures emerge and play key roles, while Balthazar interprets Darley’s views from a philosophical and intellectual viewpoint.