The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street; Introduction by Sabry Hafez (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series Book 248)

by Naguib Mahfouz

Husbands are rational men, very rational, even when it goes against the grain. But a wife’s madness commences with her wedding day, because nothing less than devouring her husband will satisfy her. It seems to me that crazy people become lovers because they’re crazy. Lovers don’t go insane just because they’re in love. You’ll observe these lunatics talking about a woman as though she were an angel. A woman’s nothing more than a woman. She’s a tasty dish of which you quickly get your fill. Let those crazy lovers share a bed with her so they can see what she looks like when she wakes up or smell her sweat or other odors. After that are they going to talk about angels? A woman’s charm is a matter of cosmetics and other seductive devices. Once you fall into her trap, you see her for the human being she really is. The secret forces holding marriages together aren’t beauty or charm but children, the dowry’s balance demanded in exchange