Hedayat's Blind owl as a Western novel /

Beard writes about Iran's most celebrated novel, Buf-i kur, first printed in a limited mimeographic edition in Bombay, India, in 1937 and issued in Iran (then Persia) in 1941. Its author, Sadiq Hidayat, gained international recognition in the 1950s when it was translated into English (by D.P. Costello, 1957) and French (by J. Corti, Paris, 1953). For scholars like M. Hillman, the novel is "essentially Iranian in terms of characterization, plot and theme" (Iranian Culture, CH, Feb'91). By contrast, Beard rightly wants to underscore "Hedayat's participation in an esthetic system that is international." He means both that Hedayat drew on non-Persian sources (e.g., E.A. Poe, R.M. Rilke, the gothic) and that he is the focus of critical debate in non-Persian contexts where different interpretations arise. This is a complex and persuasive work; like two other studies published by Princeton--M. Layoun's Travels of a Genre (CH, Nov'90) and V. Lambropoulos's Literature as National Institution (CH, Jan'89), it enriches one's understanding of a major writer and of the transnational aesthetic and interpretive practices that are today more important then ever. Recommended for advanced undergraduates studying world literature; essential to research libraries. -K. Tololyan, Wesleyan University