Palace of Desire [Paperback]

Naguib Mahfouz (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday & Company; First Edition edition (1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385402082
• ISBN-13: 978-0385402088
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,787,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Naguib Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was seventeen. A student of philosophy and an avid reader, he has been influenced by many Western writers, including Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, Camus, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and, above all, Proust. He has more than thirty novels to his credit, ranging from his earliest historical romances to his most recent experimental novels. In 1988, Mr Mahfouz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He lives in the Cairo suburb of Agouza with his wife and two daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One man's family . . ., January 17, 2006

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Palace of Desire: The Cairo Trilogy, Volume 2 (Paperback)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of the Nobel Prize, January 14, 2006

By 

Matthew Krichman (Durango, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Palace of Desire: The Cairo Trilogy, Volume 2 (Paperback)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of three and all, June 11, 1999

By 

Ahmet E. Gumrukcuoglu - See all my reviews

This review is from: Palace of Desire: The Cairo Trilogy, Volume 2 (Paperback)

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.