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[5], + vii + 712 pp. + 26 pp. + [8], Arabic text, index, introduced by Professor Yusuf Quzma Khouri. A facsimile edition of the1855 Paris first edition. Mint condition, New. We would like to point that, this is the first time, in about 153 years, that the Arab reader is able to read the complete version of this book uncensored. Published in Paris in 1855, al-Saq 'ala al-saq fi ma huwa al-Faryaq (One Leg Crossed Over The Other) is a literary masterpiece that transcends and surpasses the purely "documentary". It is a work in four parts, nearly 700 pages long, and the fourth section deals mainly with the periods spent in Europe by the author. It also cuts across all genres: not a classical traveller's tale, not really an autobiography and not a pure lexicographical study, Shidyaq's book yet manages to be all these things at once. The protagonist's name is "Faryaq", easily decipherable as a compound made up of the author's abbreviated first and last names. The book describes his life, but it also offers discussions on philosophical and social matters, and descriptions of places visited, as well as linguistic and literary excurses. These multifarious themes are often presented in the form of arguments between Faryaq and Faryaqiyya, his intelligent, cultivated and self-assured wife. In a work bristling with irony and self-irony, both the achievements and the negative aspects of modern European civilisation are subjected to a critical examination; and the social conditions in Europe during the Industrial Revolution are not left out. Shidyaq was undoubtedly a combative intellectual, and he was never deterred by taboos. His work includes criticisms of the Bible, erotic descriptions, defences of the rights of woman, arguments favouring a separation of Church and State, caustic critiques of the Christian clergy in the Lebanon, and condemnations of large landowners and religious sectarianism. For the period in which he was writing, this was extremely provocative - and it still is, in part. This is surely why Shidyaq has never been granted proper recognition in the Arab world. A full appreciation of his substantial work is long overdue. #30192. Seller Inventory # 009911
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