8vo. xii, 237 pp of French text including seven pages summary in English & Arabic, publisher’s original wrappers, biblio, index, Beiruter Texte Und Studien Band 63, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart & Beirut, first edition, 1998.

Synopsis

This study is composed of five chapters. It seeks to analyse how different cities have been a source of inspiration, whether consciously or not, for a variety of authors who have given them moulds of their own.
In the first chapter, the author studies the relationship between the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz and his city, Cairo. This is in contrast to Tayeb Salih, featured in Chapter two who according to the study is attracted but repulsed by the city and longs for the pristine life of the desert. In Chapters three and four, an examination of the works of various authors, Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad, Etal Adnan, Mahmud Darwish amongst them, who describe the apocalyptic fires which burnt Beirut for 15 years (1975-1990) and the suffering and destruction that ensued. Beirut is redeemed through its poets, such as Nadia Tueni. Finally, chapter five examines how George Schehade creates a city of imagination, Paolo Scala, which offers an edenic life to her inhabitants.