The second volume of the highly acclaimed Cairo Trilogy from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Filled with compelling drama, earthy humor, and remarkable insight, Palace Of Desire is the unforgettable story of the violent clash between ideals and realities, dreams and desires.
في هذه الرواية الجذابة، يروي محفوظ التاريخ الدرامي لعائلة النّاجي - عائلة تنتقل، عبر أجيال عديدة، من قمة السلطة والمجد إلى قاع الانحلال وال decay. تبدأ "الحرافيش" بقصة أشور النّاجي، رجل ينمو من أصول متواضعة ليصبح قائدًا عظيمًا، أسطورة بين الناس العاديين - الحرافيش في العنوان. ومع ذلك، فإن أحفاد أشور يبتعدون أكثر فأكثر عن مثاله الأسطوري، ويفقدون الاتصال بأصولهم ويبددون ثرواتهم الكبيرة، ويتزوجون من بائعات الهوى ويطورون تنافسات مريرة وفي النهاية قاتلة. ومع ذلك، تبقى هناك أمل صغير دائمًا في أن ينتجوا يومًا ما نَاجي يمكنه استعادة اسمهم إلى مجده السابق.
Originariamente pubblicata in arabo tra il 1956 e il 1957, la Trilogia narra la storia dell'Egitto attraverso gli occhi di una famiglia, dai primi anni del '900 al golpe militare che nel 1952 rovesciò il governo di Re Faruk e portò al potere Gamal Abd el Nasser.In questo primo romanzo, Mahfuz intreccia magistralmente la società cairota della fine del secolo con personaggi che sono allo stesso tempo obbedienti e meravigliosamente sensuali, le loro vite austere e affascinanti. Qui i rigorosi principi delle donne "rispettabili" e dei loro uomini sono osservati scrupolosamente, in contraddizione alla cultura notturna delle danzatrici del ventre e delle bevande alcoliche, tra la presenza delle forze inglesi e australiane al Cairo.
At the center of Khufu’s Wisdom, Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s majestic first novel, is the legendary Fourth Dynasty monarch Khufu (Cheops), for whom the Great Pyramid of Giza was built. When a seer prophesies the end of Khufu’s dynasty and the ascension to the throne of Djedefra, son of the High Priest of Ra, the pharaoh must battle to preserve his legacy against the will of the Fates. But in the face of the inexorable attraction between Djedefra and Princess Meresankh, Khufu’s beautiful daughter, Khufu must consider not only his personal ambition and the opposing decree of the heavens, but also how the wisdom he prides himself on as a ruler will guide him in determining the fate of his daughter’s heart.