Recently Published Books: "Mayy in Her Troubled Life" by Mr. Jamil Jabr

Recently Published Books

Modern Arabic letters have known no woman who worked upon the world of thought and beauty as Mayy did. A woman of letters who, through her writing, had a profound effect on the guidance of women and on the human heritage in general, just as, thanks to her well-ordered salon, she helped stir the Arab renaissance in Egypt and in all the Arab lands.

Yet this woman of letters has remained to this day unknown in her life, except in its major stages; and now Jamil Jabr, in his new book, comes to acquaint us in detail with the life of this singular woman of letters.

In his book "Mayy in Her Troubled Life," this writer of smooth expression does not recite to us dry facts of history or scattered incidental reports; he unrolls before us a speaking, pulsing film of the life of our great woman of letters, picturing her in her many aspects—in her rebelliousness in her school days, in her dense meditations, in the flood of her literary activity, in her anguish at the loss of her dear ones—so that he carries us to share her alarm, her joy, her rapture, and her pain.

The literature of biography enjoys wide currency in world letters because, in Mr. Jamil Jabr's phrase, it joins to the pleasure of subject found in the novel and in psychological analysis the delight of coming to know a personality that actually lived, and felt, and acted. And in his life of Mayy the author has succeeded even more than he succeeded in his life of Rihani, in grace of presentation and precision of analysis, thereby illuminating an important point in literary history that ought not to have been left open ground for the whims of imagination.

Perhaps the best thing we can say of this book is to repeat some of its passages, remarkable for their vitality and force of meaning. Let us hear him describe Mayy's estrangement in the world of men:

"A stranger you came, Mayy, to this world, and a stranger to it you departed. You arrived thirsting and you went away thirsting. You thirsted for a knowledge that would open for you a window onto the unknown, and you took from culture a great deal. You thirsted for liberation, for release, and you shattered every chain and made sport of every convention. You thirsted for fame—far-reaching, long-enduring fame—and your renown spread through all the lands. You thirsted for hearts to yearn toward you, and of them you had a portion such as few girls have ever known. You thirsted for exaltation and acclaim, and you were the focus of all eyes and the pilgrim-goal of dreams. You thirsted, believing that once you had quenched a thirst you would grow at home in this world; yet every time you attained a goal, a fiercer and more stubborn thirst pressed upon you—and the estrangement grew harsher, and the tragedy was renewed."

New and revealing lights have shone from this book upon Mayy's troubled life, at once instructive and delightful to the student. "Mayy in Her Troubled Life" is one of those books that are not read once only.