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Palace Walk

Naguib Mahfouz

Start date: April 1, 2025

Finish date: May 1, 2025

Discussion: Classics Corner

Discussion leader: spoko

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What Members Thought

Jan 18, 2011 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: hf-egypt, egypt, bookmooch, historical-fiction, 3ms, family-saga, read-2011, nobel-prize

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Page 56:
"The important thing is to rid ourselves of the nightmare of the English and for the caliphate to return to its previous grandeur. Then they will find the way prepared to us."

Page 322:
"Amazing news is spreading among the students. A delegation or "wafd" composed by the nationalist leaders Sa'd Zaghlul Pasha, Abd al-Aziz Fahmy Bey, and Ali Sha'rawi Pasha went to the British Residency in Cairo yesterday and met with the High Commissioner, requesting that the British protectorate over Egypt Page 56:
"The important thing is to rid ourselves of the nightmare of the English and for the caliphate to return to its previous grandeur. Then they will find the way prepared to us."

Page 322:
"Amazing news is spreading among the students. A delegation or "wafd" composed by the nationalist leaders Sa'd Zaghlul Pasha, Abd al-Aziz Fahmy Bey, and Ali Sha'rawi Pasha went to the British Residency in Cairo yesterday and met with the High Commissioner, requesting that the British protectorate over Egypt be lifted and independence declared."

Page 235:
Tell me, brother, what can Sa'd do against a nation that now considers itself the unrivaled mistress of the world?"
The mother nodded her head in agreement, as though he had been addressing her. She stated: "The revolutionary leader Urabi Pasha was one of the greatest men and one of the most courageous. Sa'd and the others are nothing compared with him. He was in the cavalry, a fighting man. What did he get from the English, boys? They imprisoned him and then exiled him to a land on the other side of the world."

Page 353:
"If we don't confront terrorism with the anger it deserves, may the nation never live again. It's unthinkable for the nation to be at peace when its leader who has sacrificed himself for it suffers the torments of captivity."

Page 358:
"Down with the Protectorate!"
"Our fathers have been imprisoned. We don't study law in a land where the law is trampled underfoot.:

Page 373:
A revolution was raging in all areas of the Nile Valley from the extreme north to the extreme south. Fahmy recounted what he knew about the railroads and telegraph and telephone lines being cut, the outbreak of demonstrations in different provinces, the battles between the English and the revolutionaries, the massacres, the martyrs, the nationalist funerals with processions with tens of coffins at a time, ant the capital city with its students, workers, and attorneys on strike, where transportation was limited to carts. He remarked heatedly, "Is this really a revolution? Let them kill as many as their savagery dictates. Death only invigorates us."

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3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2025 spoko rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy-religion, history, fiction, book-club, politics, race

A really engrossing novel. Fully developed characters, richly drawn interpersonal relationships, compelling and intriguing societal upheaval—there was a lot to invest in, as a reader, and it paid off. I’m going to be thinking about this one for some time.

1 like · Like · see review