Naguib Mahfouz's Miramar: Book Review

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Many writers have talked about the Cosmopolitan Alexandria. These writers spoke about the Cosmopolitan Alexandria and how it was a thriving time for Alexandria. They also spoke about the ending of the Cosmopolitan time and how it affected Alexandria greatly. Among these writers are Naguib Mahfouz in his famous book Miramar and Lawrence Durrell in his famous book Justine. Miramar is a book written by Naguib Mahfouz in 1967 but some of the characters represent an earlier period. Miramar is considered to be a turning point in the history of Naguib Mahfouz as he changes his style of writing from being realistic to modernist. The novel talks about the aftermath of the revolution. It also talks about the political and social results of …show more content…

He has sympathy for the Wafd Party. The second resident is Tolba Marzouk, who was one of the wealthy landowners and he lost all his money and lands during the revolution. The third resident is Hosni Allam, a wealthy landowner, whose lands were not confiscated from him during or after the revolution, and he wants to start a business. He also did not continue his education. The fourth resident is Mansour Bahy. He is about twenty-five years old. He works as a radio broadcaster and he is a Marxist. Another resident is Sarhan Al –Beheiry, who is from a family that profited from the revolution. Moreover, there is the Greek owner of Miramar named Mariana. Finally, there is Zohra. Zohra is a peasant woman who came from the countryside to Alexandria in order to escape from her grandfather’s oppression and to escape an arranged marriage. She is a beautiful, strong and independent woman who hopes to start her life in the city by having a job. Mariana, the owner of Miramar, gives Zohra a job as a servant hoping that she could help her. After that the place get filled with customers who are from different social class, have different ideologies, but they all notice Zohar’s beauty and try to seduce and abuse her. Amer Wagdi was the only one defended Zohra from the abuse of Mariana without making use of her beauty. He was the only one that treated Zohra with respect along with Mansour Bahy and he treated her as …show more content…

Zaki 3 و إنك لطفله يا زهره" (Mahfouz 47)
This quotation shows how Amer Wagdi treats and takes care of Zohra as if she was his daughter.After that, Mahmoud Abou el Abas, the newspaper seller, proposed to Zohra to marry her, but she refused him as she was determined and ambitious and wanted to marry someone better than him (McLennan 2012). Zohra then fell in love with Sarhan Al –Beheiry. Moreover, she tries to improve herself by looking for a teacher to teach her as she is illiterate and in order to be able to find a better job. She finds a teacher, but she then realizes that Sarhan Al-Beheiry is cheating on her with this teacher. Zohra confronts Sarhan but he gets angry and hit her and she hits him back. Mariana then tells Zohra that all these violent acts in the Pension happened because of her beauty and that she has to leave the Pension. Zohra leaves the Pension determined as she has always been that she will be able to continue her education and find another job in Alexandria (McLennan

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