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‘This is not a political book’: Bitter Lemons as British propaganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

David Russel
David Russel*
Affiliation:
Washington D.C.
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Extract

‘This is not a political book, but simply a somewhat impressionistic study of moods and atmospheres of Cyprus during the troubled years 1953-6.’ (11)

The first sentence of Bitter Lemons, Lawrence Durrell’s book about Cyprus, has always intrigued me for the multi-layered contradictions that it contains. There is the internal contradiction within the sentence itself — how can a work which claims to be a ‘study of the moods and atmospheres of Cyprus during the troubled years of 1953-6’ not be a ‘political book’? Don’t we immediately think of political troubles when we read ‘the troubled years 1953-6,’ after all, what else makes those years troubled? There is the contradiction between the first sentence and the rest of the book, for a major part of Bitter Lemons, indeed the final third, directly addresses the political situation on Cyprus.

Type
Short Notes
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 24 , 2000 , pp. 235 - 245
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2000

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References

Works Cited:

Lawrence, Durrell. Bitter Lemons. London: Faber and Faber, 1957.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Durrell ‘The Letters of Lawrence Durrell to Austen Harrison.’ Deus Loci ns 3 (1994) 3-34.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Durrell Prospero’s Cell. London: Faber and Faber, 1945 Google Scholar
Lawrence, Durrell Reflections on a Marine Venus. London: Faber and Faber, 1953.Google Scholar
Ian, MacNiven. Lawrence Durrell: A Biography. London: Faber and Faber, 1998.Google Scholar
Rodis, Roufos. The Age of Bronze. London: Heinemann, 1960.Google Scholar
Rodis, Roufos ‘Sour Grapes: A Suppressed Section of The Age of Bronze .’ Deus Loci ns 3 (1994): 134-38.Google Scholar