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Introduction: Naguib Mahfouz's Palace Walk
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17643 |
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BOOK WORLD
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6 / 1990 |
279 Words |
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This month, Book World features Palace Walk, the long-awaited English translation of the first volume of Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy. Recognized internationally as his masterwork and considered the cornerstone of contemporary Arab literature, the trilogy chronicles the lives of a Muslim family in Cairo from 1917 to the end of the World War II. It portrays an Egypt humiliated by British forces of occupation and straining to retain its traditional Islamic culture in the face of constant modern intrusions.
The central figure of Palace Walk, Ahmed, is a man of contradictions: a pious paterfamilias and stern disciplinarian at home but, on his own at night, an ardent sensualist and womanizer. His devout wife, Amina, reconciled to a life of security based upon submission, is a willing prisoner in a society that forbids a virtuous woman to show her face to any man outside her immediate family. As fires of nationalist fervor ignite in the street outside their door, Ahmad, Amina, and their grown children are obliged to adapt their faith to the political realities of changing Egypt.
Two representative chapters from Palace Walk are excerpted in this issue, followed by commentaries on the trilogy by Egyptian-born critic Ihab Hassan and translator Trevor Le Gassick. Hassan ("The First Arab Laureate," p. 357) assays the novel's literary virtues and describes the Nobel laureate's early education and some of the sources of his inspiration. Le Gassick ("Trials of Faith," p.367) surveys the varied incarnations of Islamic faith in the lives of the main characters and details the political nuances of many Mahfouz's works; his commentary also explains the context and motivation of Mahfouz's allegorical short stories.
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