Leg over leg

by Shidyāq, Aḥmad Fāris

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Title Statements

Full title :Leg over leg. / Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq ; translated by Humphrey Davies.

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, all the while celebrating the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language. Volumes Three and Four see the peripatetic Fariyaq fall in love and convert to Catholicism for twenty-four hours in order to marry. Although the narrative revolves around a series of debates over the nature of male-female relationships, opportunities also arise for disquisitions on the physical and moral significance of such diverse topics as the buttocks, the unreliability of virginity tests, and the human capacity for self-delusion. Lengthy stays in England and France allow for animadversions on the table manners and sexual aberrations of their citizens, but the discussion, whether it involve dance-halls, pleasure gardens, or poetry, almost always ends up returning to gender relations. 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 complete English translation of this groundbreaking work.

Edition Statements

Publication Date:2015.

Publication Statements

Publisher(s):New York University Press
Place of Publication:New York
Language:eng
Publication Date:2015.

The Physical Object

Description:1 online resource

Edition Identifiers

ISBN:9781479839162, 1479839167, 9781479822935, 1479822930, 147981329X, 9781479813292
DOI:10.18574/9781479839162
oclc:on1100847402
LC Classification:PJ7862.H48
Dewey Decimal:892.7/8503

Book three: Letter from the General Editor; About this Paperback; BOOK THREE; Contents of the Book; Chapter 1: Firing Up a Furnace; Chapter 2: Love and Marriage; Chapter 3: Contagion; Chapter 4: Analepsis; Chapter 5: Travel, and the Correction of a Common Misconception; Chapter 6: A Banquet and Various Kinds of Hot Sauce; Chapter 7: That Stinging Sensation You Feel When You Get Hot Sauce up Your Nose; Chapter 8: Dreams; Chapter 9: The Second Dream; Chapter 10: The Third Dream; Chapter 11: Physicking the Foul of Breath; Chapter 12: A Voyage and a Conversation

Chapter 13: A Maqamah to Make One StandChapter 14: Raveningly Ravenously Famished; Chapter 15: The Journey from the Monastery; Chapter 16: Ecstasy; Chapter 17: An Incitement to Nudity; Chapter 18: A Drain; Chapter 19: Assorted Wonders; Chapter 20: A Metropolitan Theft;

Book four: Chapter 1: Unleashing a Sea; Chapter 2: A Farewell; Chapter 3: Assorted Pleas for Mercy; Chapter 4: The Rules for Retelling; Chapter 5: The Superiority of Women, including a Description of London on the Authority of the Fariyaq; Chapter 6: A Discussion; Chapter 7: Compare and Contrast; Chapter 8: A Voyage Festinate and Language Incomprehensibly and …

Subjects

Arabe (Langue) -- Lexicographie Arabic language -- Lexicography Electronic books HISTORY / Middle East / General Middle East Middle East -- Description and travel Shidyāq, Aḥmad Fāris travel