Lawrence Durrell – broer van de Gerald Durrell, die bekendheid geniet vanwege My family and other animals, over het leven op Corfu, waar Lawrence Durrell zich overigens ook vestigde en ook een boek over schreef: Prospero’s Cell: A guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corfu, met een nuttige Appendix for Travellers, waarin opgenomen ‘Some peasant remedies in common use against disease’ – belandde in de loop van zijn leven in Sommières. Alwaar hij bezoek kreeg van menig schrijvende collega, waaronder Anaïs Nin. Zij ontmoetten elkaar in 1937, maar toen kenden ze elkaar al, want ze correspondeerden sinds 1935 en lazen elkaars vroege werk.
Dat laatste blijkt onder andere uit wat Anaïs Nin in december 1936 schrijft:
‘Henry had a lively correspondence with Lawrence Durrell, the English poet who lives in Greece. He admires Tropic of Cancer and sent Henry the manuscript of his Black Book. I wrote him about my response to The Black Book. We corresponded. He sent me for Christmas a story dedicated to me. It is called “Asylum in the Snow”.
I wrote to him:
DEAR LARRY:
You had done something amazing in “Asylum in the Snow,” reached a world so subtle, almost evanescent, caught a climate so fugitive, the dream life directly through the senses, far beyond the laws of gravity. You use a language which is surrealistic and full of echoes. Magical phrases. You wrote from inside of the mystery, not from the outside. You wrote with closed eyes, close ears, from inside the very shell. You caught the essence of what we pursue in the dream, and which most of the time eludes us. You wrote about the incident which evaporates as we awaken. In answer to “Asylum in the Snow” I am sending you House of Incest, which I consider a woman’s Season in Hell.’
(uit: The Diary of Anaïs Nin: 1934–1939)
Over de keuze voor Sommières als woonplaats zegt hij in 1968 tijdens een interview met Fletcher Markle dit:
‘Now why am I here in Sommières? Well first of all, the name, which is a Roman name, must come from “somnifer” It’s a great tranquilizer for nervous people, people with arthritis, people who want to work, people who don’t want to work. It’s the ideal place; it’s the place of places. It’s “somnifer” on the river Vidourle. And you get somniferous here; that’s why I’m in this awful state. The only thing else I can tell you is that we came here poor, absolutely broke, and we had two enjoyable years camping in a local cottage. I’ve had a great tempête for France ever since I was twenty, and if I’d had enough money I think I would have settled in France some years ago. I adore Greece, and I loved living in Greece. And I love Italy too. But I’ve always had in mind the kind of metallic flavor that France has, you know. It’s very good for brain work. They’re crazy people. They’re like the Irish. You don’t know from which angle they’re going to come off the pitch. I like that. It suits my temperament very well.’
(uit: Telescope: Lawrence Durrell by Himself, als transcriptie onder de titel Teaching Your Characters That They’Re More or Less Free opgenomen in Lawrence Durrell: Conversations)
Zou hij dat overgehouden hebben aan zijn Griekse tijd, dat geloof in de werkzaamheid van planten en kruiden. Want wat hij in het interview over de papaver somniferum zegt, zou niet misstaan in het lijstje van huismiddeltjes in de bijlage bij Prospero’s Cell.
Een mini-documentaire over Lawrence Durrell
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