In this Book
- Leg Over Leg: Volume One
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: NYU Press
summary
Leg over Leg recounts the life, from birth to middle age, of ‘the Fariyaq,’ alter ego of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England and France, provide the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular establishments, freedom of conscience, women’s rights, sexual relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between contemporary European and Arabic literatures. Al-Shidyaq also celebrates the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.
Akin to Sterne and Rabelais in his satirical outlook and technical inventiveness, al-Shidyaq produced in Leg Over Leg a work that is unique and unclassifiable. It was initially widely condemned for its attacks on authority, its religious skepticism, and its “obscenity,” and later editions were often abridged. This is the first English translation of the work and reproduces the original Arabic text, published under the author’s supervision in 1855.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Table of Contents
- pp. vii-viii
- A Note on the Text
- pp. xxxi-xxxiii
- Notes to the Frontmatter
- pp. xxxiv-xl
- LEG OVER LEG, VOLUME ONE
- pp. 1-4
- Contents of the Book
- pp. 5-6
- Author’s Notice
- pp. 9-16
- BOOK ONE
- Chapter 1: Raising a Storm
- pp. 37-64
- Chapter 3: Various Amusing Anecdotes
- pp. 73-84
- Chapter 4: Troubles and a Tambour
- pp. 85-92
- Chapter 6: Food and Feeding Frenzies
- pp. 109-116
- Chapter 8: Bodega, Brethren, and Board
- pp. 125-134
- Chapter 11: That which Is Long and Broad
- pp. 163-174
- Chapter 12: A Dish and an Itch
- pp. 175-190
- Chapter 14: A Sacrament
- pp. 203-212
- Chapter 15: The Priest’s Tale
- pp. 213-222
- Chapter 16: The Priest’s Tale Continued
- pp. 223-244
- Chapter 17: Snow
- pp. 245-254
- Chapter 18: Bad Luck
- pp. 255-282
- Chapter 19: Emotion and Motion
- pp. 283-312
- About the Typefaces
- p. 367
Additional Information
ISBN
9781479883929
Related ISBN(s)
9781479875757
MARC Record
OCLC
870969962
Pages
416
Launched on MUSE
2014-02-24
Language
English
Open Access
No