The Avignon Quintet

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The Avignon Quintet is a five‑book series by British author Lawrence Durrell, written from 1974 to 1985. Like his earlier Alexandria Quartet, the novels are metafictional and use experimental storytelling, including multiple narrators who sometimes describe the others as if they were fictional characters. The action takes place before and during World War II, mainly in France, Egypt, and Switzerland, and explores themes such as mysticism (Gnosticism and Catharism), mortality, fascism and Nazism, Holy Grail myths, metafiction, ideas from quantum theory, and questions of sexual identity.

The five novels are: Monsieur; Livia; Constance; Sebastian; and Quinx. Durrell called the series a quincunx—tightly connected yet independent books, with the same characters moving through each volume as if reincarnated. The first book, Monsieur, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1974, and the middle book, Constance, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1982. Although the books were published separately, the complete quintet appeared together in 1992, after Durrell’s death in 1990. A possible inspiration for the character Livia is Unity Mitford, a real historical figure associated with fascism. The work is complex, non-linear, and richly allusive.