Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb72
I had quite a bit of contempt for the narrator. He wasn't even an amateur historian, just a romantic. From the start you could sense that the queen alone in her palace enticed him into his quest more than any genuine search for truth. It was no surprise to me at all when he confessed his bias at the end. I wasn't so concerned about lack of differentiation in the voices because I assumed that Mahfouz was trying to deliver the work in the voice of this incompetent.
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I think this was reading to me as a boy because of the involvement of his father, but sheer incompetence works also. The callow youth in love with his vision and unwilling to examine the evidence critically explains the flatness of the account. The end is a foregone conclusion and the narrator is in a rush to get there, abandoning nuance and evaluation; the title and expressed intent are therefore ironic. Thanks! With this as Mahfouz's intent, the execution of the story has to be seen as successful. It's still not a very compelling read, but I can't argue if he achieved what he intended.
Great insight.