Through the Dark Labyrinth: A Biography of Lawrence Durrell

Gordon Bowker's Through the Dark Labyrinth is a biography of the British author, Lawrence Durrell. Like Durrell's other major biographer, Ian MacNiven, Bowker discusses the charge that Durrell committed incest with his daughter, Sappho. Like MacNiven, Bowker regards the charge as unproven. He points out that Sappho did not make a specific charge against her father in her journals concerning physical incest, but rather spoke there (and elsewhere)of "mental" or "psychological" incest. This does not mean that Bowker defends Durrell's mean-spirited and psychologically damaging behavior toward Sappho (and many others). But it does mean that Bowker--like MacNiven--refrains from sensationalistic accusations. Durrell's behavior toward his daughters, wives, lovers, and friends sheds a lot of light on the creation of his great, four-novel opus, The Alexandria Quartet, as well as on his other works, in particular his last giant work, the Avignon Quintet. In many of his novels, Durrell is obsessed with incest as well as death, time, and the relativity of knowledge. He thought truly great thoughts, and Bowker, like MacNiven, discusses them very well. It ought to be possible to separate Durrell's ideas and art from the less appealing aspects of his personality, just as we separate Wagner's great music from his proto-Nazi ideas. Bowker helps us do this, especially in regards to the charge of incest.

Gordon Bowker's biography of Durrell is an easy read and has plenty of references to Durrell's 'dark side' to satisfy the reader who is looking for pure entertainment. As an academic biography it is hindered by not being able to quote from Durrell's own works or from unpublished materials, since it was released very shortly before the more thorough official biography. Moreoever the attention to accuracy is not nearly as close as that of Ian MacNiven's work (the official biography), and Bowker has a tendency toward omitting important details which would alter to 'glamour' of the biography. One such point of difference is the allegations of incest which were posthumously levelled against Durrell and his daughter by the *publicist* for his deceased daughter's journals. Noteably, these journals do not contain this allegation and were being published in the wake of Nin's "Incest". Bowker treats these as fact, despite the problems involved, & does not reveal that the allegations were not made by the daughter nor that the 'friend' who made them had waited ten years before raising the issue (which surely helped publicity). Bowker's biography is fun and popular, but for accuracy, detail and literary merit Ian MacNiven's new biography "Lawrence Durrell; A Biography" is a far better value. Nonetheless, anyone interesting in Durrell's works would benefit from both. Feel free to email me to discuss this book.