Product Description

In paperback for the first time, Nobel Prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz's bestselling Palace of Desire will be published to coincide with Doubleday's publication of Sugar Street, the third and final volume of the Cairo Trilogy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116350 in Books
• Published on: 1991-12-01
• Released on: 1991-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780385264686
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
In this second volume of Nobel laureate Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, a tyrannical father discovers that his mistress has secretly married his just-divorced son. "A masterpiece, albeit a wordy, very leisurely one, this family saga is well served by a scintillating translation that exposes English-language readers to an Egyptian Balzac," said PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Al-Sayyid Ahmad is mellowing as he leaves middle age. As this second novel of "The Cairo Trilogy" opens, he is ending his self-imposed abstention from liquor and women, begun five years earlier upon the death of his son, Fahmy. With shouts of joy, his friends welcome him back to their nightly revels, and al-Sayyid Ahmad promtly begins a new love affair. Meanwhile, his children are struggling with life beyond their father's domination. Yasin is twice divorced and incapable of resisting any woman. The two married daughters are split by an open feud. And Kamal, the intellectual center of this novel, enters college, where he suffers the three furies of religion, science, and romance. Through all these avenues, Mahfouz pursues his fascinating examination of Cairo's Islamic culture as it opens to modern influences. This novel continues the outstanding quality of this trilogy, leaving readers anxious for the final volume.
-Paul E. Hutchison, Pequea, Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Arabic

Customer Reviews

One man's family . . .
Although published as a trilogy, Mahfouz' story of a Cairo family was originally written as a single novel. "Palace of Desire" is one-third out of roughly the middle of it. The time is now the 1920s, and the focus is chiefly on three characters, the father, Al-Sayyid Ahmad, and his two sons, Yasin and Kamal. Desire as a theme runs strongly through the entire trilogy, and it emerges here in three very different ways. The older man feels the beginnings of age interfere with his extramarital dalliances and his life of nightly good fellowship with friends and female company. The older of his two sons is a heedless Don Juan, bored with his wives soon after he marries them. The younger son experiences his first true love and is tormented night and day, first by her teasing interest in him and then in the discovery of her real feelings. Meanwhile, there is a kind of high comedy in the ongoing conflicts between the father's two daughters and their mother-in-law.

Mahfouz also explores class differences in this part of his story, where Kamal, the younger son, is introduced through a school friend to a wealthy, westernized family. His coming of age, loss of innocence, and discovery of a world very different from the sheltered life he has known make this part of the story especially poignant. References to the changing political climate in post-WWI Egypt reflect the theme of national independence from British dominance that Mahfouz has followed from the beginning of the trilogy. Altogether, Mahfouz' family saga, with its interwoven threads of related storylines is a joy to read.

The best of three and all
A marvellous sequel to "Palace Walk". It's a book about love, religion, despair, love, life and love once more. Moreover, the Kamal character gives signs of young Mahfouz who passed first half of his life unmarried. The best and most disturbing Mahfouz novel I've ever read.

Worthy of the Nobel Prize
It's tough to think of Palace of Desire as a stand-alone book. It wouldn't make any sense outside of the context of the trilogy that it's a part of. A reader would be lost if he simply picked this off the shelf and started reading without having read Palace Walk. And likewise, you would feel unsatisfied if you stopped at the end of this book instead of continuing on with the final installment of the trilogy.

Of course, no one (least of all the author) would argue that point. This was all meant to be one book from the start, and that's pretty obvious. But since there aren't all that many people out there with the patience to read an eleven-hundred-page book....well, that's why this is three books and not one huge one.

Part two of the trilogy is just as fascinating as part one. Each of the characters is up to his same old tricks. Yasin is getting married, and divorced, and married again, and still visiting prostitutes - sometimes the same ones that his dad is visiting. Kamal is enrolling in the Teachers' School, against his father's wishes, and starting to lose his faith in religion as he learns more about science, philosophy, and the world around him. And throughout it all, Egypt is portrayed as a country very much in transition. The traditional elements of society are precariously juxtaposed against the liberal forces of change. And this inevitably causes sparks to fly.

It's easy to see why Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize. He's more than just a great writer; he's also an eloquent voice speaking on behalf of a fascinating country in a fascinating time.