حضرة المحترم

When Othman Bayyumi is employed as a grade 8 clerk, he is just one of many new employees welcomed by the Director General. But his ambition to attain that lofty position himself is no idle fancy: for him achieving promotion and serving the government become a religious obsession, "the path of glory". So he studies after hours, does extra translation work, cultivates his superiors, saves like a miser, and spurns politics, climbing steadily towards his goal. It is only desire for women which can draw him out, but he denies himself love and marriage until it is almost too late. Respected Sir (Hadrat al-Muhtaram, 1975) is an intense psychological study which never leaves it not particularly attractive central subject, but Mahfouz makes it almost into a fairy-tale, told with a light and (even in translation) inimitable prose. It is effortlessly readable, with dramatic episodes covered in short chapters which flow easily one after the other, just like the years of Othman's life, and the result is an absolute gem of a novel.