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The beginning and the end
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The beginning and the end

Author: Najīb Maḥfūẓ; Ramsīs ʻAwaḍ; Mason Rossiter Smith
Publisher: New York : Doubleday, 1989, ©1985.
Edition/Format:   Book : Fiction : English : 1st Doubleday edView all editions and formats
Summary:
With this realistic 1949 novel, Najib Mahfouz reveals to Western readers the woes of a petit bourgeois family thrust into poverty in WW II Cairo. The Kamels' private battles, relayed here in engrossing detail, are a microcosm of the Egyptian nation's birth pangs in gaining independence. When their father dies, age-old conventions crumble--one social-climbing son reneges on a betrothal; drugs and illicit sex numb the  Read more...
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Details

Genre/Form: Fiction
Named Person: Mason Rossiter Smith
Material Type: Fiction
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Najīb Maḥfūẓ; Ramsīs ʻAwaḍ; Mason Rossiter Smith
ISBN: 0385264577 9780385264570 0385264585 9780385264587 0385269315 9780385269315
OCLC Number: 19669565
Notes: Translation of: Bidāyah wa-nihāyah.
Description: 412 p. ; 22 cm.
Other Titles: Bidāyah wa-nihāyah.
Responsibility: Naguib Mahfouz ; translated by Ramses Awad ; edited by Mason Rossiter Smith.
More information:

Abstract:

With this realistic 1949 novel, Najib Mahfouz reveals to Western readers the woes of a petit bourgeois family thrust into poverty in WW II Cairo. The Kamels' private battles, relayed here in engrossing detail, are a microcosm of the Egyptian nation's birth pangs in gaining independence. When their father dies, age-old conventions crumble--one social-climbing son reneges on a betrothal; drugs and illicit sex numb the grief of two self-hating siblings. Redolent of a culture verging on modernity, the work illumines courting rituals, weddings, funerals, food, dress, interior decor and and entertainment. According to Mahfouz, the plight of Egyptian women in the 1940s was complex. The widow Samira is respected, wise and controlling; her daughter Nefisa's physical ugliness is a virtual death sentence, and her skill at needlework a source of embarrassment, not pride.

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