Kelidar,’ by ,Mahmoud Dolatabadi, has been translated into Arabic, published by Cairo
The world’s second-longest novel ‘Kelidar,’ by Iranian author Mahmoud Dolatabadi, 82, has been translated into Arabic, published by Cairo Publications.
Iranart:Announcing this, prominent Arabic language and literature professor Mohammad Ali Azarshab said contemporary Persian novels are becoming popular in Arab states, IRNA reported.
The publishing of ‘Kelidar’, the longest Persian novel written to date, in the Egyptian capital is in line with and an indication of its growing popularity, he added.
‘Kelidar’ consists of ten books in five volumes. The book was written in 15 years, and includes Iranian folklore themes. It has been translated into different languages. Kelidar refers to the name of a mountain and a village in northeastern Iran, where the events of the novel take place.
The story is about the life of a Kurdish family in Sabzevar, faced with the hostility of neighboring villagers despite their cultural similarities. It is set against the highly charged political climate in Iran after World War II, between 1946 and 1949.
French author Marcel Proust’s elephantine ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ is the world’s longest novel.
This early 20th-century work is a novel in seven volumes and the author’s most prominent, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory.
The novel gained fame in English in translations by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin.
‘Remembrance of Things Past’ follows the narrator’s recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood in the late 19th century and early 20th century high-society France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world. The novel began to take shape in 1909. Proust continued to work on it until his final illness in the autumn of 1922 forced him to break off.
Proust established the structure early on, but even after volumes were initially finished, he continued to add new material and edited one volume after another for publication.