Esprit de Corps by Lawrence Durrell

This is a slight collection in every way. The Faber and Faber edition that I read clocks in at 89 pages. Each of the nine stories is short, and the tone is always light. I picked it up because I had enjoyed the parts of the Alexandria Quartet, especially in Mountolive, that deal with diplomacy, which is the subject of these tales, too: the "Corps" in question is the diplomatic corps.

The stories didn't exactly scratch the itch for more Mountolivian diplomacy, because the tone of these slight sketches is entirely different from anything in the novels. One imagines that at least some of these tales were written at the same time that Durrell was working on the Quartet, and it's hard not to guess that they were what Durrell, having poured himself a drink, turned to after a full day of Justine, Nessim, Balthazar, and all the rest.

Much of the humor is built around national stereotypes and as such, can seem dated. A lot of it, though, still works. Take, for example, this description of the butler at the British Embassy in communist Yugoslavia: 

 . . . a strange, craggy Welsh Baptist with long curving arms as hairy as a Black Widow. A moody sort of chap. He had a strange way of gnashing his dentures when he spoke on religious matters until flecks of foam appeared at the corners of his mouth. For many years he had been a fairly devout fellow and always took a prominent part in things like the servants' prayers. He also played the harmonium by ear at the English church—a performance to be carefully avoided on Sundays.

 The stories are presented as the recollections of one Antrobus, "a regular of the career . . . a heavily padded senior" shared with "an impoverished writer" who had been a contract officer. When I first heard about these stories I put an anthology called Antrobus Complete on my wish list. Now, though I enjoyed the incomplete Antrobus presented in this collection, I feel no need to seek out the rest.