At night when the wind roars and the child sleeps quietly in its wooden cot by the echoing chimney-piece I light a lamp and limp about, thinking of my friends–of Justine and Nessim, of Melissa and Balthazar. I return link by link along the iron chains of memory to the city which we inhabited so briefly together: the city which used us as its flora–precipitated in us conflicts which were hers and which we mistook for our own: beloved Alexandria!
I had to come so far away from it in order to understand it all! Living on this bare promontory, snatched every night from darkness by Arcturus, far from the lime-laden dust of those summer afternoons, I see at last that none of us is properly to be judged for what happened in the past. It is the city which should be judged though we, its children, must pay the price.
Justine (The Alexandria Quartet #1) by Lawrence Durrell
Vauquer Boarding House 
One day I will dig out my copy of this big fat book and actually read it
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I hear that! The Alexandria Quartet is relatively new on my TBR. A Scots Quair is the one I’ve had for ages.
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Dagny,
Great quotation!
It’s the major premise: Alexandria is the main character, and the hapless and deluded humans are only acting out their parts as assigned by the city.
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Thanks, Fred. If this bit from the first page doesn’t convince everyone to keep reading, nothing will. 🙂
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Great quote! Thanks for sharing.
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You’re welcome. There are so many great quotes. He really is masterful at the use of words and adjectives.
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