From our contemporary manners

Between the old and the new, between authenticity and modernity, the eyes of critics seek, and comparisons are made. And "Taha Hussein" — the novelist and critic who explored the main books of heritage — did not immerse himself completely in the past to the extent that it isolates him from his present, but was concerned with following the modern literary movement and evaluating and correcting it; so in the book we have before us, he presents distinguished critical reviews of a number of books written by his contemporaries, such as: Muhammad Hussein Haykal and his story "Thus Was I Created," Naguib Mahfouz and his novel "Between the Two Palaces," Abdullah Al Faisal and his poetry collection "Revelation of Deprivation," and Tharwat Abaza and his novel "Fleeing from the Days." The author also discusses literary and critical issues such as renewal in poetry, realism as a literary school, the stagnation and renewal of language, and the development of literary taste, as he also critically examines the performance of the Arab language academies.