---
product_id: 4733405
title: "Reflections on a Marine Venus: A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes Paperback – May 1, 2009"
brand: "lawrence durrell"
price: "5967 kr"
currency: ISK
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 13
url: https://www.desertcart.is/products/4733405-reflections-on-a-marine-venus-a-companion-to-the-landscape
store_origin: IS
region: Iceland
---

# Reflections on a Marine Venus: A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes Paperback – May 1, 2009

**Brand:** lawrence durrell
**Price:** 5967 kr
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Reflections on a Marine Venus: A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes Paperback – May 1, 2009 by lawrence durrell
- **How much does it cost?** 5967 kr with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.is](https://www.desertcart.is/products/4733405-reflections-on-a-marine-venus-a-companion-to-the-landscape)

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- lawrence durrell enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Dazzling, many-layered vision of Rhodes, and other Greek Islands
  

*by E***T on Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2011*

The `marine Venus' of the title is a statue which was found by sailors in their nets at the bottom of Rhodes harbor and which much appealed to Durrell, who thought of her as the 'presiding genius' of the place. He began this book while assigned to Rhodes as an information officer in 1945, and finally finished it in Belgrade in 1952 while working as a press attaché for the British Embassy.  Before publication, it was chopped almost in half by his editor, Anne Ridler.  She excised most of the passages dealing with the recent war, and "left the descriptions of the landscape and people....She oriented the book to sunlight, blue skies, and clear sea." [quoted from the introduction David Roessel].War still clings like a gray film to the bright fabric of `Venus.'  Durrell writes intense, brilliant descriptions of Mediterranean skies and dazzling Greek villages, but as in all of his works that I've read, there is also a submerged longing for past love, past history,  past glory.Some of his most beautiful passages, both in this book, in "Prospero's Cell," and in the books of "The Alexandria Quartet" take place under water.  Here, the author goes for a midnight swim in the final chapter of "Reflections on a Marine Venus"---"The [moon]light filters down a full fathom or more to where, on the dark blackboard of weed, broken here and there by dazzling areas of milk-white sand, the fish float as if dazed by their own violet shadows which follow them back and forth, sprawling across the sea's floor."Bright surfaces.  Submerged longings.  There is even a ghost story floating just below the surface of a trip to the Island of Patmos.  This chapter has some of the most powerful and eerie descriptions in the book.  It brings together the storms of the `little summer of Saint Demetrius', a lost, lingering voice from the war, and an Abbot who presides over a monastery where St. John was said to have composed the Books of the Apocalypse."Reflections on a Marine Venus" is one of a series of travelogues that Durrell wrote about his pre- and post-war experiences in and around the Mediterranean.  The other books in this series are "Prospero's Cell", "Spirit of Place," "Bitter Lemons," and "Sicilian Carousel."Ultimately, these books defy the description `travelogue'.  Durrell wrote about the peculiar genius of a place, not bound by any moment in time, but for all time.

### ⭐⭐ 2.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Reflections on a Marine Venus: A disappointing book.
  

*by A***R on Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2017*

Laurence Durrell's book is essentially a personal journal of his experiences while living on the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean Sea after World War Two. It is  difficult to read because of his use of the names of places and things related to the British occupation of the Greek island after the war. He writes with a somewhat poetic flair and uses metaphors excessively and usually unnecessary for a smooth reading of the story in my opinion.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    This book made me fall in love with Durrell
  

*by K***X on Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2016*

This book made me fall in love with Durrell.  It is simply wonderful.  Combining elements of old and new Greek travel writing, this paints a wonderful picture of like in Greece.  He does his best to show the rich history of Rhodes, a city of mysticism for its colossus.

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*Product available on Desertcart Iceland*
*Store origin: IS*
*Last updated: 2026-03-08*