Mahfouz Trilogy Three Novels of Ancient Egypt

Three Novels of Ancient Egypt Khufu's Wisdom, Rhadopis of Nubia, Thebes at War 
Translated by Raymond Stock, Anthony Calderbank and Humphrey Davies 
Introduction by Nadine Gordimer 
 
 
"If the urge to write should ever leave me", Mahfouz said in an interview recently, "I want that day to be my last."

Who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind

The earliest novels are set in the Pharaonic milieu of ancient Egypt. But here already there are side-long glances at today's society.

Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arab winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the most prominent literary figure in the Arab world of the Twentieth Century. Best known for his Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Walk), which became an international bestseller, he was born in Cairo in 1911 and lived in the suburb of Agouza with his wife and two daughters for the rest of his life. He published more than thirty novels as well as many collections of short stories, plays and screenplays.  In 1994, after he published a novel that led him into trouble with Egypt's religious authorities, an attempt was made on his life, but he died peacefully in 2006, aged 94.

The books' titles are taken from actual streets in Cairo, the city of Mahfouz's childhood and youth. 
The trilogy follows the life of the Cairene patriarch al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad and his family across three generations, from World War I to the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952.

From the Nobel Prizewinning author

Palace Walk

The first volume in the celebrated Cairo Trilogy.

It is Mahfouz's wonderful ability to delineate human beings from their outer appearances which gives Palace Walk its universal appeal. I shall read it again and again

There is nothing in world literature quite like Palace Walk... This is writing worthy of a Tolstoy, a Flaubert or a Proust

Naguib Mahfouz's CAIRO TRILOGY puts all contemporary writers in the shade. He is the Arab Tolstoy

Luminous... All the magic, mystery and suffering of Egypt in the 1920s are conveyed on a human scale

Naguib Mahfouz's wonderfully readable family saga provides a riveting and accurate portrait of Egyptian society

Naguib Mahfouz was most prominent literary figure in the Arab world of the Twentieth Century, best known for his Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire and Sugar Walk), which became an international bestseller. He was born in Cairo in 1911 and lived in the suburb of Agouza with his wife and two daughters for the rest of his life. He published more than thirty novels as well as many collections of short stories, plays and screenplays. In 1988, Mr Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Arab writer to win it. In 1994, after the publication of a novel that led him into trouble with Egypt's religious authorities, an attempt was made on his life, but he died peacefully in 2006, aged 94.

THE ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER BY THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR. 
 
'A masterpiece' - The Times 
'The Arab Tolstoy' - Simon Sebag Montefiore 
'Shamelessly entertaining' - Guardian 
'Luminous' - New York Times 
 
A sweeping and evocative portrait of both a family and a country struggling to move toward independence in a society that has resisted change for centuries. Set against the backdrop of Britain's occupation of Egypt immediately after World War I, Palace Walk introduces us to the Al Jawad family. 
 
Ahmad, a middle-class shopkeeper runs his household strictly according to the Qur'an while at night he explores the pleasures of Cairo. A tyrant at home, Ahmad forces his gentle, oppressed wife and two daughters to live cloistered lives behind the house's latticed windows, while his three very different sons live in fear of his harsh will. 
 
The first book of the classic Cairo Trilogy, the greatest and best loved work by the 20th century's most important Arab novelist.

Palace Of Desire

The second volume in the celebrated Cairo Trilogy.

A magnificent, Tolstoyan saga... unmissable

An engrossing work, whose author can take his place alongside any European master you care to name

Teeming with life and contention... it promises riches

Brilliantly combines the secret vocabulary of Islamic metaphysics with the techniques of the Egyptian novel

THE ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER FROM THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR. 
 
'A masterpiece' - The Times 
'Shamelessly entertaining' - Guardian 
 
The sensual and provocative second book in the classic Cairo Trilogy, Palace Of Desire follows the Al Jawad family into the awakening world of the 1920's and the sometimes violent clash between Islamic ideals, personal dreams and modern realities. 
 
Having given up his vices after his son's death, ageing patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad pursues a bewitching lute-player - only for her to marry his eldest son. His rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination as they test the loosening reins of societal and parental control. And Ahmad's youngest son, in an unforgettable portrayal of unrequited love, falls for the sophisticated daughter of a rich Europeanised family. 
 
A vivid portrait of a family and a country in a time of upheaval, the Cairo Trilogy is the greatest and best loved work by the 20th century's most important Arab novelist.

Sugar Street

The final volume in the celebrated Cairo Trilogy.

Naguib Mahfouz's CAIRO TRILOGY puts all contemporary writers in the shade. He is the Arab Tolstoy.

Proust, Tolstoy and Balzac are the names most frequently flung around in company with that of Mahfouz...I thought of Galsworthy, reading Sugar Street

Mahfouz's scope is vast and his concerns are not only still evident today, but crucial

Sugar Street is a marvellous novel, with many messages, open and concealed, for those who will be instructed

The Cairo Trilogy has made its mark on Anglo-American literary tastes because of its unusual grandeur, a technically "Good Read" - recalling Dickens, Flaubert, Zola, even Galsworthy - which still engages the dynamic society of Egypt in the first half of the century

Mahfouz's sequence telescopes a family chronicle into an unparalleled picture of Egypt under the British Protectorate

THE ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER BY THE NOBEL PRIZE WINNING AUTHOR. 
 
'A masterpiece' - The Times 
'The Arab Tolstoy' - Simon Sebag Montefiore 
 
Sugar Street, the climactic final book in the classic Cairo Trilogy, is the captivating story of a family struggling to change with the rise of modern Egypt. As Cairo shrugs off the final vestiges of colonialism, Ahmad Al Jawad has lost his power and surveys the world from a latticed balcony. Unable to control his family's destiny, he watches helplessly as his dynasty and the traditions he holds dear disintegrate before his eyes. 
 
But through Ahamd's three grandsons we see modern how Egypt takes shape. One grandson is a communist activist, another a Muslim fundamentalist, both working for what they believe will be a better world. And Ridwan, the inheritor of his father's charms, launches a political career aided by a homosexual affair with prominent politician. 
 
A vivid portrait of a family and a country in a time of upheaval, the Cairo Trilogy is the greatest and best loved work by the 20th century's most important Arab novelist.

Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street

The Cairo Trilogy

Naguib Mahfouz

Full Cast

Omar Sharif

Complete Series

Omar Sharif leads an all-Egyptian cast in this three-part drama, recorded entirely in Egypt's capital. 
 
Adapted from the novels of Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz, this gripping family saga chronicles the life of a downwardly-mobile middle class family as Egypt emerges from colonialism and adjusts to the modern world. 
 
The Cairo Trilogy traces three generations of the family of tyrannical patriarch Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad, who rules his household with a strict hand while living a secret life of self-indulgence. We are introduced to his gentle, oppressed wife, Amina, his cloistered daughters, Aisha and Khadija, and his three sons-the tragic and idealistic Fahmy, the dissolute hedonist Yasin, and the soul-searching intellectual Kamal. As his rebellious children struggle to move beyond his domination, the world around them opens to the currents of modernity and political and domestic turmoil brought by the 1920s. 
 
Throughout the trilogy, the family's trials mirror those of their turbulent country during the years spanning the two World Wars, as change comes to a society that has resisted it for centuries. 
 
Cast: 
Old Kamal...........Omar Sharif 
Young Kamal.......Karim Fouda 
Kamal............Amr Waked 
Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawab.....Ihab Sakkout 
Amina..............Caroline Khalil 
Fahmy..............Mena Reda 
Yasin................Tamer Nasrat 
Miriam..............Ola Roshdy 
Aida...............Shirine El Ansari 
Zanuba...........Maryam El Khoshed 
Zubayda..........Zeinab Moubarak 
Ahmad................Sedky Sakhar 
Munim.................Ahmed Nour 
Sawsan...............Dina Nadim 
Badur..................Radwa Elgabry 
Other cast members: Rena Malak, Yara Goubran, Nairy Avedissian, Ekram Zalat, Sherif Nour, Salah Fahmy, Yeve Youssef, Saymaa Shalan, Mika Thabet, Hany Seef, Hugh Sowden. 
 
Dramatised by Ayeesha Menon 
Directed by John Dryden 
Music by Sacha Puttnam 
A Goldhawk Production for BBC Radio 4

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