Justine is the first volume in The Alexandria Quartet, four interlinked novels set in the sensuous, hot environment of Alexandria just before the Second World War. Within this polyglot setting of richly idiosyncratic characters is Justine, wild and intense, wife to the wealthy businessman Nessim, a Mari complaisant. Her emotional and sexual wildness fuels a highly charged atmosphere which, caught famously by Durrell's poetic language, made Justine (1957), and the three novels that complete the Quartet—Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960)—both a critical and a popular success.