ABSTRACT
If Mahfouz had not written any of his novels, he would still have merited a place of high prominence in the history of modern Arabic letters on account of his short stories alone, of which he has written some 200 spread across fourteen collections1 and a lifetime. As it happens he has also written, as we have seen, thirtythree novels,2 many of which are masterpieces of craft and vision. The inevitable result of this has been that his short stories have mostly been accorded second place in the study of the author’s work and treated all too often as footnotes to the novels. The fact that this brief chapter occurs at the end of this book is unfortunately as ‘good’ an illustration as any of the situation. One critic has described the relationship of the short stories to the novels in terms of ‘the little pieces of clay left over after the manufacture of earthenware…the remainder of characters, events and thoughts from his long works’.3 This statement should not be taken as dismissive of the short stories; it only seeks to point out that both the stories and novels draw from the same intellectual substance. Indeed, while the novels will always remain the critic’s main source for composing the jigsaw of the author’s worldpicture, the short stories will be immensely valuable in highlighting particular aspects of his vision and reassuring the critic on the soundness of his interpretation of the novels. It is in this sense (and only in this sense) that the stories may be seen as subordinate to the novels. But as works of art to be read and enjoyed, and as edifiers of the human soul, their independence and importance in their own right can only be self-evident.
