Paradise of Thorns - Taha Hussein

In this book, Taha Hussein endeavors to revive an ancient literary art form known as "epigram" (meaning "inscription" in Greek). He believes that this literary genre is well-suited to our fast-paced modern life, with its numerous responsibilities that make people prefer brevity over verbose and elaborate expressions steeped in artificiality or emotion. Thus, epigrammatic texts return anew after having long resided on ancient library shelves and been inscribed by past generations on the walls of Greek temples and tombs. We find them in prose or poetry, provided they adhere to the form recognized by the Greek and Latin masters of this art; that is, the text must meet the conditions of concise intensification of an idea using elegant, unhackneyed words, creating a complete literary entity dominated by a clear spirit of irony, thereby stimulating both the reader's intellect and emotions.