New and old..

The first edition of this book, published in 1954 by the Lebanese writer and critic Maroun Abboud, presents an analytical and critical study of the works of some ancient and modern poets. It addresses Arabic satirical literature and its development, from the pre-Islamic era, which was characterized by the fanaticism of its poets, as if they had rituals that they practiced devoutly and never deviated from, through the first Abbasid era, which witnessed a revolution in Arabic literature, known for its dissolute poets, who opened their eyes to luxury and debauchery, until the mid-nineteenth century and the revival of satirical literature at the hands of Al-Shidyaq. He devotes a chapter to the writer Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, in which he compares him to the French writer Victor Hugo, as their tendencies were similar. Both satirized, in both poetry and prose, the tyrants of their time, and both excelled in their writings. However, al-Shidyaq did not receive the appreciation he deserved from his Arab homeland, unlike Hugo, for whom France erected statues and all of Europe sang in his memory.