my private Alexandria

From the vantage-point of this island I can see it all in its doubleness, in the intercalation of fact and fancy, with new eyes; and re-reading, re-working reality in the light of all I know now, I am surprised to find that my feelings themselves have changed, have grown, have deepened even. Perhaps then the destruction of my private Alexandria was necessary ('the artifact of a true work of art never shows a plane surface'); perhaps buried in all this there lies the germ and substance of a truth -time's usufruct- which, if I can accommodate it, will carry me a little further in what is really a search for my proper self. We shall see.

L. Durrell, p.370