My Uncle Napoleon
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| My Uncle Napoleon | |
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| Author | Iraj Pezeshkzad |
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| Original title | Da'i-i jan Napuli'un دایی جان ناپلئون |
| Translator | Dick Davis |
| Country | Iran |
| Language | Persian |
| Genre(s) | Fiction |
| Publisher | Mage Publishers |
| Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print hardcover |
| Pages | 512 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-934211-48-5 |
My Uncle Napoleon (Persian: دایی جان ناپلئون, transliteration: Da'i-i jan Napuli'un, literal translation: Dear Uncle Napoleon) is a coming of age novel by Iranian author Iraj Pezeshkzad published in Tehran in Persian in 1973. The novel was adapted to a highly successful TV series in 1976 directed by Nasser Taghvai. Though the book and the TV series have been banned since the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran, both the book and television serial have thrived underground (Nafisi 2006). To this day, it is cited as "the most important and well-loved work of Iranian fiction since World War II" (Ryan 2006) and "a testament to the complexity, vitality, and flexibility of Iranian culture and society" (Nafisi 2006). It is noted for its lampooning of the widespread Iranian belief that the English are responsible for events that occur in Iran. The novel has been translated by Dick Davis to English.
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[edit] Plot summary
The story takes place at the time of Iran's occupation by the Allied Forces during World War II. Most of the plot occurs in the narrator's home, a huge early 20th-century-style Iranian mansion in which three wealthy families live under the tyranny of a paranoid patriarch Uncle. The Uncle --who in reality is a retired low-level brigadier from the Persian Cossack Brigade under Colonel Vladimir Liakhov's command-- claims, and in latter stages of the story actually believes that he and his butler Mash Qasem were involved in wars against the British Empire and their lackeys such as Khodadad Khan, as well as battles supporting the Iranian Constitutional Revolution; and that with the occupation of Iran by the Allied Forces, the English are now on course to take revenge on him. The story's narrator (nameless in the novel but called Saeed in the TV series) is a high school student in love with his cousin Layli who is Dear Uncle's daughter. The story evolves around the narrator's struggles to stall Layli's pre-arranged marriage to her cousin Puri, while the narrator's father and Dear Uncle plot various mischiefs against each other to settle past family feuds. A multitude of supporting characters, including police investigators, government officials, housewives, a medical doctor, a butcher, a sycophantic preacher, servants, a shoeshine man, and an Indian or two provide various entertaining sequences throughout the development of the story.
[edit] Literary significance and reception
My Uncle Napoleon was written by Iraj Pezeshkzad and published in 1973. Loosely based on the author's real life experiences and his love for the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, the story instantly became a cultural reference point and its characters national icons of the '70s. The novel was translated in 1996 to English by Dick Davis and published by Mage Publishers, a translation that manages to evoke the richness of the original text and is faithful without being literal (Asayesh 1996). The English translation has since been re-published by Random House in 2006 with an introduction by Azar Nafisi and an afterword by the author, Iraj Pezeshkzad.
The novel is a rich and comic representation of the Iranian society of 1940s, though many characteristics of the story's various characters can arguably still be seen in today's Iranian society. The garden in which the story takes place, "in more ways than one becomes a microcosm of modern Iranian society" (Nafisi 2006). The novel, at its core a love story, unfolds around the young narrator's delicate and pure love for his cousin Layli, a love which is constantly jeopardized by an army of family members and the hilarious mayhem of their intrigues and machinations.
Many phrases and colloquialisms first introduced in the novel have since found their way into daily Persian usage. The most notable of which is "Uncle Napoleonism" or to call someone "Uncle Napoleon", which refers to a belief or a person who believes in conspiracy theories that foreigners, specially the English, are responsible for Iran's misfortunes. Also of note are "going to San Francisco", a euphemism for having sex and "to the grave it's ah... ah...", a phrase used to mock a person who is visibly lying.
[edit] Adaptation as a TV series
| My Uncle Napoleon Da'i-i jan Napuli'un دایی جان ناپلئون |
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|---|---|
 Dear Uncle played by Gholam-Hossein Naghshineh |
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| Format | Soap Opera, Dramedy |
| Created by | Iraj Pezeshkzad |
| Starring | Gholam-Hossein Naghshineh Parviz Fannizadeh Nosrat Karimi |
| Narrated by | Saeed Kangarani |
| Country of origin | Iran |
| No. of episodes | 14 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Nasser Taghvai |
| Running time | 55 minutes (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | National Iranian Radio and Television |
| Original run | 1976 – 1976 |
In 1976 Nasser Taghvai turned the novel into a mini TV series, compiling the story in 14 episodes. The setting was a 1940s-era mansion in Lalehzar Ave., a then prestigious suburb of Tehran. The series was a huge success both financially and with the critics and topped the ratings in every airing of its episodes.[citation needed] Many consider the series to be the father of modern television comedy in Iran[citation needed]. The production cost has been estimated to be 50 million Rials (equivalent to U$770.000 in 1976) while the broadcaster paid about 200 million Rials, four times the production cost, to buy the rights for broadcasting the series. Due to its extreme popularity, reruns of the series were frequent in the National Iranian Radio and Television until the Islamic revolution of 1979.
[edit] TV series cast
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[edit] Primary characters
- Dear Uncle: The eldest of the family. Dear Uncle is a paranoid, imaginative and delusional character who believes he was involved in many wars against the English army and their "lackeys". The title Uncle Napoleon is sarcastically given to him by his nieces and nephews due to his admiration of the French Emperor to battle the English.
- Mash Qasem: Dear Uncle's butler from a small town, Ghiaasabad near Qom. Strongly devoted to his Master, his claim to fame is to have been involved in battles against the British Army alongside Dear Uncle, the most important of which are the Battle of Mamasani and the Battle of Kazerun. Overly proud of his native town Ghiaasabad, he has a tendency to give himself away when hiding the truth by starting his sentences with "why should I lie? To the grave it's ah... ah...". Mash Qasem becomes the messenger between the narrator and Layli at times when the two cannot meet, partly as a favour to the narrator and partly to satisfy his own unbounded inquisitiveness.
- The Narrator/Saeed: The narrator of the story and Dear Uncle's nephew. The narrator, who remains nameless and rather arcane in the story despite being the central figure around whom the story develops, falls in love with Dear Uncle's daughter Layli, one hot summer day on 13 August at quarter to three in the afternoon.
- Father: The narrator's father, a pharmacist who is the brother-in-law of Dear Uncle. After years of being ridiculed by Dear Uncle for not belonging to an aristocratic family, he takes his revenge by strengthening Dear Uncle's belief that the English are after him.
- Asadollah Mirza aka Uncle Asadollah: a member of the extended family and a playboy, Asadollah Mirza doesn't spare any opportunity to seduce the opposite sex with his charms, irrespective of the subject matter's maritial/social status, though his utmost standard of beauty is Jeanette MacDonald. He is an employee of the Iranian foreign ministry and becomes a close friend of the narrator during the course of the novel, often trying to help him in his efforts to reach his love and eventually taking the narrator to Beirut with himself.
[edit] Supporting characters
- Colonel: Dear Uncle's younger brother. A paranoid retired army officer, he retired from the army with a rank much lower than a Colonel, but is referred to as Colonel by the family.
- Dustali Khan: Dear Uncle's brother-in-law who is inept at nearly everything and is constantly made fun of by the other members of the family, especially by Asadollah Mirza. His wife once tries to cut his penis off with a kitchen knife after finding out that he has cheated on her. He also gets shot by his wife in the bottom when he (allegedly) impregnates his step daughter.
- Aziz al-Saltaneh: Dustali Khan's wife, a domineering and demanding figure armed with a rich vocabulary of uncultivated slang. Her first husband simply went "missing" one day.
- Dr. Naser al-Hokama: An old doctor who is a close family friend. He has been married three times and apparently is unable to have sex and has been treating himself for 40 years. His mostly rudimentary knowledge of medicine is often ridiculed in the book.
- Shamsali Mirza: The older brother of Asadollah Mirza. A discharged/retired District Attorney. Believes all problems can be solved by interrogation.
- Layli: The only child of Dear Uncle. She and the narrator fall in love but her marriage has been prearranged by the family.
- Puri: The rather clumsy son of Colonel who is destined to marry Layli. A subject of ridicule by the narrator, he is conscripted by the army to fight the Allied invasion, but faints in the battle after hearing a gun shot. He loses one of his testicles in a fight with the narrator, becoming a subject of Dr. Naser al-Hokama's treatments.
- Qamar: The mentally challenged, overweight daughter of Aziz al-Saltaneh from her first marriage. The family goes to great lengths to find her a husband and save her honour after she is found pregnant, the father of which is never convincingly revealed.
- Deputy Taymur Khan: An "internationally renown" detective famous for his aggressive methods of deduction.
- Cadet Officer Ghiaasabadi: An old opium addicted detective and Deputy Taymur Khan's assistant who eventually marries Qamar and wins her inheritance money, overcoming Dustali Khan's assorted tussles in the process.
- Akhtar: Cadet Officer's sister. A promiscuous woman who is a dancer at a nightclub.
- Asghar the Diesel: Akhtar's boyfriend, a street lump and a nincompoop.
- Farokh Laqa: A bitter old woman who has never been married and is always in search of funerals to attend.
- Shir Ali the Butcher: A giant, violent butcher, very protective of his wife's honour, but too much of a simpleton to realise what's going on in his house.
- Tahereh: Shir Ali's lascivious wife whom everyone in the neighbourhood from Dustali Khan to Asadollah Mirza fancy to sleep with, with various degrees of success.
[edit] English translation publication history
- 1996, USA, Mage Publishers ISBN 0-934211-48-5, Hardcover
- 2006, USA, Random House, ISBN 0-8129-7443-3, Paperback
[edit] References
- Nafisi, A. (2006). "The Secret Garden". The Guardian. May 13, 2006
- Ryan, V. (2006). "My Uncle Napoleon: Something funny is going on in Tehran". The Seattle Times. May 5, 2006
- Asayesh, G. (1996). "Frolicking in a Persian garden". The Washington Post. Sep 29, 1996; WBK4
