Published 3rd March 2016

World Book Day: Books Inspired by Cyprus

In honour of World Book Day, we have put together a trio of books that have been inspired by or set in Cyprus. Poolside reading that also serves to enrich one’s worldly knowledge? Yes, please!

1. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier  Synopsis: First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is credited as being a compelling read infused with immense intelligence and elegance. A winner of the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

Working as a lady’s companion, Rebecca’s orphaned heroine’s life appears bleak. Until, one day, she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage sees her life uprooted from the south of France and utterly transformed.

Relocating to his brooding estate, Manderley, on the Cornish Coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man, with the memory of his dead wife, Rebecca, haunting her every step, casting a shadow over her seemingly fairy tale ending.  Connection with Cyprus: Born in London in 1907 to a prominent, well-connected family, du Maurier enjoyed a prolific writing career during her lifetime, spanning short stories, novels, and essays.

The majority of her most famous work, Rebecca, is believed to have been written whilst she was staying in the village of Platres in the Troodos mountain range in Cyprus, with the vastness, seclusion, and enigmatic landscape of her surroundings credited as serving as the creative source for the eerie Manderley estate to which the novel’s heroine becomes relegated.

2. Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell   Synopsis: Bitter Lemons is Lawrence Durrell’s unique account of his time in Cyprus, during the 1950s ‘Enosis’ movement for freedom of the island from British colonial rule. Winner of the Duff Cooper Memorial Prize, it is credited as being at once personal, poetic and subtly political: a masterly combination of travelogue, memoir and treatise.

Connection with Cyprus: A self-professed ‘cosmopolitan’ as opposed to strictly British national, Lawrence Durrell’s life began in Jalandhar, British India (the eldest son of Indian-born British colonials Louisa and Lawrence Samuel Durrell).

During his lifetime, Durrell travelled extensively across Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Argentina, Serbia, and more.

He arrived in Cyprus in 1952 at the age of 41. He bought a house in the village of Bellapais and supported himself by writing advertising copy for a wine company and teaching English to schoolgirls who, he wrote, fell madly in love with him. He also served, for a time, as a press advisor to the British governor in Cyprus.

3. Othello by Shakespeare   Synopsis: Believed to have been written in 1603, Othello endures as one of Shakespeare’s most profound tragedies.

Desdemona’s love for Othello, the Moor, transcends racial prejudice; but the envious Iago conspires to devastate their lives. In its vivid rendering of racism, sexism, contested identities, and the savagery lurking within civilisation, Othello is arguably the most topical and accessible tragedy from Shakespeare’s major phase as a dramatist.

Connection with Cyprus: Whilst Othello’s tale commences in Venice, the eponymous character is soon sent to Cyprus to command the Venetian garrison against the invading Turkish army. His wife, Desdemona, his new lieutenant Cassio, his ensign Iago, and Iago’s wife, Emilia, all accompany him on this journey, with the plot’s dramatic twists and turns all transpiring on the island.

Today, the site known as ‘Othello’s Castle’ still stands in Famagusta. Originally built by the Lusignans in the 14th century, the Republic of Venice bought the island in 1489, and modified the castle’s structure, renaming it after a Venetian governor, Othello, in 1506. Written close to a century later, it is believed that Shakespeare drew inspiration from Othello’s Castle in naming his protagonist.