--- product_id: 4790056 title: "Provence" price: "KD 1.30" currency: KWD in_stock: false reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/4790056-provence store_origin: KW region: Kuwait --- # Provence **Price:** KD 1.30 **Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Provence - **How much does it cost?** KD 1.30 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Currently out of stock - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.kw](https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/4790056-provence) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Lawrence Durrell, who was called “one of the [twentieth] century’s great literary pyrotechnicians” (Kenneth McLeish, London Times ), was also one of its most accomplished travel writers. Durrell lived in Provence for thirty years and was its leading literary expatriate long before others discovered that magical wedge of land. In this, his final book, he has left a dazzling testament that distills its essence and conveys its savors as no other work in the English language. Durrell’s Provence is saturated with the spirits of civilizations past. In the countryside, the marketplace, and among the people, he listens to — and conveys for us — echos of the battles of Roman generals like Caesar and Agrippa, the love of Petrarch for Laura, the debates of the medieval Courts of Love, and the lyrics of the troubadours. He relates the significance of ruins strewn across Provence, which for him is nothing less than the crucible where the European sensibility was forged, and he discusses such topics as bull worship, black magic, alchemy, the Provençal language, Buffalo Bill’s friendship with the poet Mistral, who was Provence’s Nobel laureate, the beauty of Arlesian women, and the game of boules. Provence is a monument to the author and to the region, and is essential reading for any traveler seeking to understand the spirit of the place. Review: Five Stars - Haven't read it but the condition received was quite fine. Review: Not what I expected but I still really enjoyed it. - This was an odd book to me. I bought it expecting a pretty straightforward travelogue interspersed with history (and maybe some natural history) of the region of southern France known as Provence. Quickly I found it wasn’t a typical travelogue. First of all, the author made that area his home rather than specifically writing about traveling there, though it was still a travelogue in the sense that it chronicled (not in chronological order though) the author’s experiences in Provence through the years. Another odd thing was that the author didn’t simply describe the cities or the food of this part of France (though there was some of that), but rather told stories about the area that showed some special characteristic of the land or the author’s own experiences (again, as they related to Provence). These stories were as likely to feature say the Roman general Marius and his military campaign there as they were the author’s contemporary companion Aldo and their considerably less martial experiences. The stories often read as fiction, at least from the third person perspective, not always with a lot of dialogue, but were an interesting way to show Provence. The stories really reminded me of the famous line by Faulkner, "The past is never dead. It's not even past;” the past lives on in Provence, as I am sure it does in most lands, whether in the minds of the people of Provence, those who aren’t from Provence but journey there as tourists, or in the author’s own mind. I think the most striking stories had to do with the ancient Greco-Roman world, how even today one can see and feel the presence of them in Provence on a daily basis. Not only of course are there the famous monuments and aqueducts, but the Roman world lives on in more subtle ways, just beneath the surface, such as the name of the village of Pourrieres, which possibly traces its name to the nearby Campi Putridi or Fields of Putrefaction, a place where in about 110 BC perhaps 100,000 Teuton and Ambron opponents, slain in battle, were left where they fell. That chapter was particularly interesting, as the author helped the reader see the land as Marius and his troops (and enemies) saw the land, writing of the “limestone precipices” at Orgon that “rise as walls sheer above the plain, now crowned by a church and a couple of ruined castles,” where Marius and his men watched the invading barbarians file past, or the problems faced by both men in movement through this “land of lagoons,” as much of the region of Provence Marius fought over was a domain where “a network of interlocking lagoons and lakes scribbled the whole verdant surface.” These stories he tells, of magic and mythology and Roman conquest, to the author they seemed to be Provence itself, for “[t]o begin with, Provence seemed to be less of a geographical entity than an idea.” It was for centuries a land of “shifting contours, expanding and contracting in response to wars and migrations…” a land better defined by how the people acted, believed, and the nature of the landscape itself, a place of “cypresses and roasted tile roofs, with its ivy and honeysuckle, sycamore and serene plane trees,” with skies of “wounded blue” that are “unique to Provence,” where one might encounter peasant faces in the Saturday market with “all the poise and gravity of Roman medallions.” As you might gather, Durrell is a poet and twenty poems are included in the book. The vast majority of the book is prose but even in writing prose the author usually saw Provence (and wrote about it) with a poet’s eye. Even it its most vexingly confusing (such as the final chapter of the book) it was always a delight to read. Again and again the images were vivid, Durrell writing of “dusty, sunburnt Arles at the end of its cobweb of motorways,” of the beautiful women of Arles with “their raven hair and flashing looks,” of the site of an ancient Roman battle that is a “quiet plain [that] drowses in the burning summer heat…[where] [e]agles turn in the dazed blue of the sky,” visiting at night “the owl-haunted garden of tombs” of Alyscamps, “once the most coveted burial ground for Christians in all Europe” and Les Baux, a plateau “encrusted with white crags and scrub…its present emptiness invests it with a tremendous and indeed sinister atmosphere,” a plateau where the “whole town seems to have been carved and shaped in lump sugar; the friable whitish stone easily answers to the mason’s chisel.” He had an especially interesting and descriptive chapter describing the differences between French and Spanish bullfighting, a chapter I did not think I would like but did, taken as I was by his description of the French bulls, “spry little Camargue animals so famous for their gallantry and cunning…beautiful creatures [that] drift about like Stone Age messages – as if they had just materialized from the cave drawings of Aurignacian man.” The author, when not telling stories, seemed to ramble a lot, writing about the nature of writing a travelogue, or writing in general, the importance of enjoying a good meal and fine wine, the nature of companionship or love or whether or not modernity was destroying Provence. At first these rambling asides felt distracting, but not only were they easy to read I found I was both captured by the often beautiful imagery of many of these passages and discovered that these rambling asides were in a way telling the reader something about the lifestyle and philosophy of those who call Provence home. Very sly! I don’t think I scratched my itch so to speak to get great information about Provence. I will have to look elsewhere for that. I did come away with an appreciation of one gifted writer’s feel of the spirit of the place, perhaps something that would not be well captured in a more prosaic look at Provence’s history and architecture. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #3,133,244 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1,142 in Historical France Biographies #4,391 in French History (Books) #7,312 in Travelogues & Travel Essays | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 12 Reviews | ## Images ![Provence - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71hhxFq15-L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five Stars *by W***I on January 17, 2016* Haven't read it but the condition received was quite fine. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not what I expected but I still really enjoyed it. *by T***N on September 11, 2016* This was an odd book to me. I bought it expecting a pretty straightforward travelogue interspersed with history (and maybe some natural history) of the region of southern France known as Provence. Quickly I found it wasn’t a typical travelogue. First of all, the author made that area his home rather than specifically writing about traveling there, though it was still a travelogue in the sense that it chronicled (not in chronological order though) the author’s experiences in Provence through the years. Another odd thing was that the author didn’t simply describe the cities or the food of this part of France (though there was some of that), but rather told stories about the area that showed some special characteristic of the land or the author’s own experiences (again, as they related to Provence). These stories were as likely to feature say the Roman general Marius and his military campaign there as they were the author’s contemporary companion Aldo and their considerably less martial experiences. The stories often read as fiction, at least from the third person perspective, not always with a lot of dialogue, but were an interesting way to show Provence. The stories really reminded me of the famous line by Faulkner, "The past is never dead. It's not even past;” the past lives on in Provence, as I am sure it does in most lands, whether in the minds of the people of Provence, those who aren’t from Provence but journey there as tourists, or in the author’s own mind. I think the most striking stories had to do with the ancient Greco-Roman world, how even today one can see and feel the presence of them in Provence on a daily basis. Not only of course are there the famous monuments and aqueducts, but the Roman world lives on in more subtle ways, just beneath the surface, such as the name of the village of Pourrieres, which possibly traces its name to the nearby Campi Putridi or Fields of Putrefaction, a place where in about 110 BC perhaps 100,000 Teuton and Ambron opponents, slain in battle, were left where they fell. That chapter was particularly interesting, as the author helped the reader see the land as Marius and his troops (and enemies) saw the land, writing of the “limestone precipices” at Orgon that “rise as walls sheer above the plain, now crowned by a church and a couple of ruined castles,” where Marius and his men watched the invading barbarians file past, or the problems faced by both men in movement through this “land of lagoons,” as much of the region of Provence Marius fought over was a domain where “a network of interlocking lagoons and lakes scribbled the whole verdant surface.” These stories he tells, of magic and mythology and Roman conquest, to the author they seemed to be Provence itself, for “[t]o begin with, Provence seemed to be less of a geographical entity than an idea.” It was for centuries a land of “shifting contours, expanding and contracting in response to wars and migrations…” a land better defined by how the people acted, believed, and the nature of the landscape itself, a place of “cypresses and roasted tile roofs, with its ivy and honeysuckle, sycamore and serene plane trees,” with skies of “wounded blue” that are “unique to Provence,” where one might encounter peasant faces in the Saturday market with “all the poise and gravity of Roman medallions.” As you might gather, Durrell is a poet and twenty poems are included in the book. The vast majority of the book is prose but even in writing prose the author usually saw Provence (and wrote about it) with a poet’s eye. Even it its most vexingly confusing (such as the final chapter of the book) it was always a delight to read. Again and again the images were vivid, Durrell writing of “dusty, sunburnt Arles at the end of its cobweb of motorways,” of the beautiful women of Arles with “their raven hair and flashing looks,” of the site of an ancient Roman battle that is a “quiet plain [that] drowses in the burning summer heat…[where] [e]agles turn in the dazed blue of the sky,” visiting at night “the owl-haunted garden of tombs” of Alyscamps, “once the most coveted burial ground for Christians in all Europe” and Les Baux, a plateau “encrusted with white crags and scrub…its present emptiness invests it with a tremendous and indeed sinister atmosphere,” a plateau where the “whole town seems to have been carved and shaped in lump sugar; the friable whitish stone easily answers to the mason’s chisel.” He had an especially interesting and descriptive chapter describing the differences between French and Spanish bullfighting, a chapter I did not think I would like but did, taken as I was by his description of the French bulls, “spry little Camargue animals so famous for their gallantry and cunning…beautiful creatures [that] drift about like Stone Age messages – as if they had just materialized from the cave drawings of Aurignacian man.” The author, when not telling stories, seemed to ramble a lot, writing about the nature of writing a travelogue, or writing in general, the importance of enjoying a good meal and fine wine, the nature of companionship or love or whether or not modernity was destroying Provence. At first these rambling asides felt distracting, but not only were they easy to read I found I was both captured by the often beautiful imagery of many of these passages and discovered that these rambling asides were in a way telling the reader something about the lifestyle and philosophy of those who call Provence home. Very sly! I don’t think I scratched my itch so to speak to get great information about Provence. I will have to look elsewhere for that. I did come away with an appreciation of one gifted writer’s feel of the spirit of the place, perhaps something that would not be well captured in a more prosaic look at Provence’s history and architecture. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A beautiful "swan song"... *by J***I on June 21, 2013* Lawrence Durrell was born in British India in 1912, and spent his life as an "expatriate," though he preferred to see himself as a citizen of the world, utilizing the term "cosmopolitan." He was a prolific writer of novels, travel books, poetry, drama and essays. His most famous work is the The Alexandria Quartet Boxed Set: Justine; Balthazar; Mountolive; Clea . He also wrote the The Avignon Quintet: Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian and Quinx . Regrettably, I've read neither, but I did read his excellent account of his stay on Cyprus during the `50's, entitled Bitter Lemons , as well as Reflections on a Marine Venus: A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes on his stay on the island of Rhodes immediately after World War II. He lived in Provence (technically, he lived nearby, in Languedoc) for over 30 years, long before it became the destination for the "au courant." This was his last book, published in the year of his death. Thereafter, the publishers may have played a bit footloose with his final legacy. Certainly it is unclear at Amazon, but this book is the same as "Caesar's Vast Ghost", truly a klutzy ham-fisted title that I cannot believe Durrell would have approved of. At least the French version "L'ombre infinite de Cesar" (the infinite shadow of Caesar) is a bit more poetic. Durrell starts strong, and only grows stronger thereafter. He has a remarkable command of the English language to compliment his incisive observations. He arrived in Provence before the autoroute; his introduction describes driving down the "Routes Nationales," under the plane trees. Provence is generally recognized to begin, coming from the north, at Valance. As Durrell says, that is where "...the cuisine veers from cream to olive oil and spices..." His account of Provence is "truffled" with many a vision-changing bon mots. For example, who could ever again look upon Pont du Gard, and not recall his descriptive: "It is not possible even today to look upon those great mortar-less arches in petrolithic honey without emotion. Petrolithic honey! A unique vision. Or, "Her liquid assets are her silken sighs." Or, "License and frugality were sisters under the skin - like poetry and mathematics." Naturally he brings his lifetime of erudition to the book, and relates tales such as the disappointing meeting that Stendhal had with his "idol", Lord Byron. He quotes from Euxinus' "The Secret Memorials": "She hugged the idea of death to her like his body, imagining how it must be to pass through gravity's rainbow into the treasure of inorganic matter, present and future mingled and combined with the inhuman silence of all time, trodden like grapes in the presses of wishes." Wow! And is that where Thomas Pynchon acquired the title to his magnum opus? Interestingly, and certainly challengingly for me, are his views of Les Baux: "Behind them, to the south, begin the crags crowned by the dusty solitudes of the fortress of Les Baux, by the misery and squalor of these mediaeval ruins that are in such terrible contrast to the sane and beautiful relics of classical antiquity." Ah, sweet Provence is the ideal place for lovers. And that is how Durrell, in his full maturity, chooses to end his survey of this wonderful region: "The young may feel disposed to mock these romantic attitudes, but after the excesses of the sixties and seventies, there are some who have seen the Provencal light, and are reverting to a belief in fine style for loving. No doubt, with some Gigondas. Durrell goes on to translate from the French text of Le Chapelain the "Principal Precepts of Love," and gives more than a nod to the troubadours. And... take this longing from my tongue... `til then, Durrell's is a 5-star visit. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/4790056-provence](https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/4790056-provence) --- *Product available on Desertcart Kuwait* *Store origin: KW* *Last updated: 2026-05-13*