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The Coffeehouse (Paperback)
Naguib Mahfouz; Translated by Raymond Stock
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R406
R338
Discovery Miles 3 380
Save R68 (17%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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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.
Translated by Raymond Stock
Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz reaches back millennia to his
homeland's majestic past in this enchanting collection of early
tales that brings the world of ancient Egypt face to face with our
own times.
From the Predynastic Period, where a cabal of entrenched rulers
banish virtue in jealous defense of their status, to the Fifth
Dynasty, where a Pharaoh returns from an extended leave to find
that only his dog has remained loyal, to the twentieth century,
where a mummy from the Eighteenth Dynasty awakens in fury to
reproach a modern Egyptian nobleman for his arrogance, these five
stories conduct timeless truths over the course of thousands of
years. Summoning the power and mystery of a legendary civilization,
they examplify the artistry that has made Mahfouz among the most
revered writers in world literature.
Translated by Raymond Stock
This paperback compendium edition combines Naguib Mahfouz's first
three novels, all set in ancient Egypt, which skillfully explore
recurring themes within human relationships: the balance between
destiny and individual agency, the sanctity of the bonds to the
land and religion, and the constant power struggles that affect
human lives at multiple levels. In Khufu's Wisdom, translated by
Raymond Stock, Pharaoh Khufu is battling the Fates. At stake is the
inheritance of Egypt's throne, the proud but tender heart of
Khufu's beautiful daughter Princess Meresankh, and Khufu's legacy
as a sage, not savage, ruler. Rhadopis of Nubia, translated by
Anthony Calderbank, follows the powerful love that grows between
Rhadopis, a courtesan whose ravishing beauty is unmatched in time
or place, and youthful, headstrong Pharaoh Merenra, worshiped by
his people as a divine presence on earth, against the background of
the high politics of Sixth Dynasty Egypt. Finally, in Thebes at
War, translated by Humphrey Davies and written in 1937 - 1938 when
Britain and Turkey held sway over Egypt, Mahfouz dramatically
depicts the Egyptian people's undying loyalty to their land and
religion and their refusal to bow to outside domination. After two
hundred years of occupation, the Hyksos leader in his capital in
northern Egypt tells Pharaoh in the south that the roaring of the
sacred hippopotami at Thebes is keeping him awake at night and
demands that they be killed, galvanizing Egypt into hurling its
armies into a struggle to drive the barbarians from its sacred soil
forever.
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