PRISON OF LIFE (H)

Tawfig al-Hakim (1899-1987) was one of the great formative figures of twentieth-century Egyptian literature, along with such writers as Naguib Mahfouz and Taha Hussein. Immensely prolific and versatile, he was the first Arab to acquire a literary reputation as a dramatist. He was the author of more than seventy plays of remarkable variety, as well as a number of novels, short stories, and essays. This autobiography, covering the early part of al-Hakim's life until the mid-1930s, is an attempt by the author to understand himself. Besides the self-revelations, the book is a rare witness to the character of family and social relations of a not-too-distant generation. But even more valuable are the author's reminiscences about the Egyptian theatre in the first quarter of this century.