Author: Albert Cossery
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590174631
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Early in Proud Beggars, a brutal and motiveless murder is committed in a Cairo brothel. But the real mystery at the heart of Albert Cossery’s wry black comedy is not the cause of this death but the paradoxical richness to be found in even the most materially impoverished life. Chief among Cossery’s proud beggars is Gohar, a former professor turned whorehouse accountant, hashish aficionado, and street philosopher. Such is his native charm that he has accumulated a small coterie that includes Yeghen, a rhapsodic poet and drug dealer, and El Kordi, an ineffectual clerk and would-be revolutionary who dreams of rescuing a consumptive prostitute. The police investigator Nour El Dine, harboring a dark secret of his own, suspects all three of the murder but finds himself captivated by their warm good humor. How is it that they live amid degrading poverty, yet possess a joie de vivre that even the most assiduous forces of state cannot suppress? Do they, despite their rejection of social norms and all ambition, hold the secret of contentment? And so this short novel, considered one of Cossery’s masterpieces, is at once biting social commentary, police procedural, and a mischievous delight in its own right.
Proud Beggars
Author: Albert Cossery
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590174631
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Early in Proud Beggars, a brutal and motiveless murder is committed in a Cairo brothel. But the real mystery at the heart of Albert Cossery’s wry black comedy is not the cause of this death but the paradoxical richness to be found in even the most materially impoverished life. Chief among Cossery’s proud beggars is Gohar, a former professor turned whorehouse accountant, hashish aficionado, and street philosopher. Such is his native charm that he has accumulated a small coterie that includes Yeghen, a rhapsodic poet and drug dealer, and El Kordi, an ineffectual clerk and would-be revolutionary who dreams of rescuing a consumptive prostitute. The police investigator Nour El Dine, harboring a dark secret of his own, suspects all three of the murder but finds himself captivated by their warm good humor. How is it that they live amid degrading poverty, yet possess a joie de vivre that even the most assiduous forces of state cannot suppress? Do they, despite their rejection of social norms and all ambition, hold the secret of contentment? And so this short novel, considered one of Cossery’s masterpieces, is at once biting social commentary, police procedural, and a mischievous delight in its own right.
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590174631
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
Early in Proud Beggars, a brutal and motiveless murder is committed in a Cairo brothel. But the real mystery at the heart of Albert Cossery’s wry black comedy is not the cause of this death but the paradoxical richness to be found in even the most materially impoverished life. Chief among Cossery’s proud beggars is Gohar, a former professor turned whorehouse accountant, hashish aficionado, and street philosopher. Such is his native charm that he has accumulated a small coterie that includes Yeghen, a rhapsodic poet and drug dealer, and El Kordi, an ineffectual clerk and would-be revolutionary who dreams of rescuing a consumptive prostitute. The police investigator Nour El Dine, harboring a dark secret of his own, suspects all three of the murder but finds himself captivated by their warm good humor. How is it that they live amid degrading poverty, yet possess a joie de vivre that even the most assiduous forces of state cannot suppress? Do they, despite their rejection of social norms and all ambition, hold the secret of contentment? And so this short novel, considered one of Cossery’s masterpieces, is at once biting social commentary, police procedural, and a mischievous delight in its own right.
The Parker Society...
Author: Parker Society, London
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Reformation
Languages : en
Pages : 676
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Reformation
Languages : en
Pages : 676
Book Description
Publications
Author: Parker Society (Great Britain)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Reformation
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Reformation
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
Select Works of John Bale, D.D., Bishop of Ossory
Author: John Bale
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bible
Languages : en
Pages : 672
Book Description
The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe
Author: John Foxe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian martyrs
Languages : en
Pages : 828
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian martyrs
Languages : en
Pages : 828
Book Description
The Colors of Infamy
Author: Albert Cossery
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811217957
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
A gentleman pickpocket, elegant to the bone, plies the best cafes of Cairo. Ossama is a thief: "not a minister, banker or real estate developer - a modest thief". His country may be a disaster but he is a hedonist, convinced that "nothing on this Earth is tragic for an intelligent man". In one fat victims wallet, he discovers a highly compromising letter, revealing bribery, corrupt ministers, and lethally shoddy building practices. He decides he must act...
Publisher: New Directions Publishing
ISBN: 0811217957
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
A gentleman pickpocket, elegant to the bone, plies the best cafes of Cairo. Ossama is a thief: "not a minister, banker or real estate developer - a modest thief". His country may be a disaster but he is a hedonist, convinced that "nothing on this Earth is tragic for an intelligent man". In one fat victims wallet, he discovers a highly compromising letter, revealing bribery, corrupt ministers, and lethally shoddy building practices. He decides he must act...
An English Garner ...
Author: Edward Arber
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
English Garner
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 662
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 662
Book Description
Fifteenth century prose and verse
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse
Author: Alfred William Pollard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 362
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 362
Book Description