The Essential Tawfiq al-Hakim: Plays, Fiction, Autobiography

✍ Scribed by al-Hakim, Tawfiq; Johnson-Davies, Denys (translator)

• Book ID: 108867637
• Publisher: I.B.Tauris
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 421 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9781617971662

✦ Synopsis

The importance of Tawfiq al-Hakim (1898-1987) to the emergence of a modern Arabic literature is second only to that of Naguib Mahfouz. If the latter put the novel among the genres of writing that are now an accepted part of literary production in the Arab world today, Tawfiq al-Hakim is recognized as the undisputed creator of a literature of the theater.

In this volume, Tawfiq al-Hakim's fame as a playwright is given prominence. Of the more than seventy plays he wrote, The Sultan's Dilemma, dealing with a historical subject in an appealingly light-hearted manner, is perhaps the best known; it appears in the extended edition of Norton's World Masterpieces and was broadcast on the old Home Service of the BBC. The other full-length play included here, The Tree Climber, is one that reveals al-Hakim's openness to outside influences--in this case, the absurdist mode of writing. Of the two one-act plays in this collection, The Donkey Market shows his deftness at turning a...