Cairo Modern [Hardcover]

Naguib Mahfouz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2008

The novelist's camera pans from the dome of King Fuad University (now Cairo University) to students streaming out of the campus, focusing on four students in their twenties, each representing a different trend in Egypt in the 1930s. Finally the camera comes to rest on Mahgub Abd al-Da'im. A scamp, he fancies himself a nihilist, a hedonist, an egotist, but his personal vulnerability is soon revealed by a family crisis back home in al-Qanatir, a dusty, provincial town on the Nile that is also a popular destination for Cairene day-trippers. Mahgub, like many characters in works by Naguib Mahfouz, has a hard time finding the correct setting on his ambition gauge. His emotional life also fluctuates between the extremes of a street girl, who makes her living gathering cigarette butts, and his wealthy cousin Tahiya. Since he thinks that virtue is merely a social construct, how far will our would-be nihilist go in trying to fulfill his unbridled ambitions? What if he discovers that high society is more corrupt and cynical than he is? With a wink back at Goethe's Faust and Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews, Mahgub becomes a willing collaborator in his own corruption. Published in Arabic in the 1940s, this cautionary morality tale about self-defeating egoism and ill-digested foreign philosophies comes from the same period as one of the writer's best-known works, Midaq Alley. Both novels are comic and heart-felt indictments not so much of Egyptian society between the world wars as of human nature and our paltry attempts to establish just societies.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This new translation of an affecting early novel about love and social climbing by deceased Egyptian Nobel laureate Mahfouz (the Cairo trilogy) follows the fortunes of a Cairo university graduate eager to make his way in a venal 1930s imperialist society. When new graduate Mahgub Abd al-Da'im learns his father is at death's door and his monthly stipend will soon be terminated, he accepts a ministry position out of desperation. There is also a very large string attached: he must marry the minister's beautiful young mistress. The dishonor of this Faustian bargain is further underscored by the revelation that the young woman, Ihsan, was the ideal love of one of Mahgub's university friend's, and the two intended to marry before she was encouraged by her calculating family to accept the minister's seduction. Fallen characters, Mahgub and Ihsan set out on their single-minded path toward material advancement. Mahfouz is a master at depicting shifting forces of motivation, and despite some dated stereotypes, he offers a keen psychological portrait of a complex society in the midst of radical transformation. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Though initially published in 1945, the themes that permeate Cairo Modern written by Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz still resonate today. In 1930s-era Cairo, race, class, religion, and gender are all burning issues in a traditionally stratified society teetering on the cusp of modernity. At the heart of the story is Mahgub Abd al-Da’im, a struggling young student with Nihilistic pretensions, whose desperate attempts to overcome his poverty and lack of status culminate in an arranged marriage to the mistress of a high government official. In a startling twist, he discovers that his bride-to-be is Ihsan, a beautiful acquaintance and the former girlfriend of one of his best friends. Though Mahgub and Ihsan initially think their sham marriage will fulfill their social aspirations and material desires, they find that walking through doors previously closed to them exacts a huge moral and spiritual toll. When their delicately erected house of cards begins to collapse, their fairly palpable despair defines the parameters of their hopeless situation. This tragic tale has withstood the test of time and will especially appeal to contemporary readers interested in the subtle nuances of Middle Eastern culture. --Margaret Flanagan --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: American University in Cairo Press (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9774161564
• ISBN-13: 978-9774161568
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #781,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the end, you are exactly--what you are, August 22, 2008

By 

Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cairo Modern (Hardcover)

Put on a wig with a million curls,
put the highest heeled boots on your feet,
yet you remain in the end just what you are.

Goethe, Faust.

"Cairo Modern", written in 1945, is one of the great Naguib Mahfouz's earlier works. It is set in Cairo in the 1930s, a turbulent time when the old, decaying monarchical order and British dominance of Egypt entered its last stages. The social order was changing and burgeoning Egyptian nationalists, political radicals and religious zealots rubbed elbows with each other in a society on the edge of a radical transformation. Mahfouz took a snapshot of that society and the result is a book that seemed as entertaining as it was informative.

As noted accurately in the Product Description, the book unfolds like the beginning of a movie. It begins with a long-range view of the King Fuad University. It is evening and the sun shines off the golden dome of the main building. Slowly we zoom into the campus as student leave at the end of the day. It then zooms to a group of friends who, we soon discover in the next few brief chapters, represent a cross-section of modern Cairo (at least that section able to attend university.) The story eventually turns its focus upon Mahgub Abd al-Da'im. Mahgub is hungry in every sense of the word. He is hungry for success or at least the trappings of success and as his family's modest economic means are destroyed by an illness in the family he also finds himself hungering for a decent meal. He also hungers for a beautiful girl, Ihsan, who barely knows he exists. He settles instead for renting affection from a girl on the streets. Ihsan is a modern girl, with modern aspirations. She is also an admirer of western art and literature, including Goethe. This reference is not accidental as Ihsan and Mahgub are asked to enter into a Faustian bargain that on its face seems to provide them with what they each feel they most need. The rest of the novel deals with the consequences of their bargain.

"Cairo Modern" was a wonderful book. As with Mahfouz's most famous work, The Cairo Trilogy Palace Walk (Cairo Trilogy), Palace of Desire (Cairo Trilogy II), and Sugar Street (The Cairo Trilogy, 3), I found myself swept into the streets of Cairo and felt as if I had a real sense of the place and people Mahfouz wrote about. I could feel the aspirations of the primary characters and had a real sense of the changing world that they lived in. I've read most of Mahfouz's work and, even if it is smaller in scope than Cairo Trilogy or Children of the Alley, it is still a brilliant vignette of Cairo during a tumultuous moment in time. It is well worth reading. L. Fleisig

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cynicism, audacity and ambition without limits, June 9, 2009

By 

Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cairo Modern (Hardcover)

In this novel dominated by a selfish and vicious character, Naguib Mahfouz paints a blackish portrait of his home country, Egypt. The country is undermined by the cancer of poverty (the chasm between the haves and the have-nots), of corruption (the completely biased nomination process of civil servants, bid rigging, fraudulent elections) and of nepotism (the crucial questions are: do you have someone to pull the strings to get you this job? Can you ask the hand of the daughter of a powerful civil servant?)

His world vision is also pessimistic: only money is important and protects a powerful cartel of corrupted people in high places.
For him, religion is only a tiny varnish: a small minority of believers is exploiting the sufferings of many millions of fellow believers.

In this story of the merciless struggle for survival by a destitute, but cynical and opportunistic, student Naguib Mahfouz depicts frankly the violent personal and familial confrontations and the biting and obscene schemings of those in power. He also has no fear to revile bluntly social institutions, like marriage or the civil bureaucracy.
This book is a must read for all lovers of world literature.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1940's and still so fresh, June 2, 2008

By 

George Hopcraft "Steve" (SYDNEY, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cairo Modern (Hardcover)

This is a well translated classic and an enthralling read. The book itself is beautifully printed on excellent paper and a joy to handle.
The story is worthy of a Hitchcock film and has the reader reaching for more.