The Alexandria Quartet: Justine. Balthazar

The four parts of the tetralogy novel The Alexandria Quartet are named after their main characters for a reason. The reader can view the same events – the life of Egyptian Alexandria before and during World War II – through the eyes of completely different people. The first book – Justine – tells the story of a complex and eccentric romance between a young British writer, Darley, and the European wife of an Egyptian millionaire, Justine, which took place in Alexandria in the 1930s. The second – Balthazar – offers a unique perspective from another angle on the relationship between Darley and Justine, along with an engaging chronicle of the anti-British conspiracy of the Egyptian aristocracy. The text of this edition has been revised by the translator V. Mikhailin and supplemented with an article and comments.