The Thief and the Dogs is a novel written by Naguib Mahfouz. The novel was published in 1961, and is seen as a political statement about the 1952 Egyptian revolution and the disappointment Mahfouz and many others felt after the revolution.
The Thief and the Dogs is one of six short novels that critics often group together as examples of how Mahfouz’s style began to shift away from the naturalistic, 19th-century-style novel to a style that was more experimental, complex, and modern. In a 1964 interview Mahfouz explained, “When I was preoccupied with life and its significance, the most suitable method for me was the realistic one. That was the tradition I followed for many years. Details of background, character, and plot are important in a technique that sets out to mirror or reflect life as a whole; ideas may proceed as an indirect result. When I was interested in thought and ideas, neither characters, incidents nor background seemed important in themselves. Character became more or less a symbol or a type. Details of background were discarded and incidents were plotted to contribute to the main idea.”
The novel was very successful, and was adapted for Egyptian film and television in 1962 and 1975, respectively. The Publishers Weekly review stated “The Nobel laureate writes here with remarkable clarity and eloquence...In just 176 pages, he offers a complex psychological portrait of a man hell-bent on ruining himself.”
