Daii jan Napelon
English translation first edition hardcover book cover
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| Author | Iraj Pezeshkzad |
|---|---|
| Original title | دایی جان ناپلئون Da'i-i jan Napuli'un |
| Translator | Dick Davis |
| Country | Iran |
| Language | Persian |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Random House |
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Publication date
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1973 |
| Media type | Print hardcover |
| Pages | 512 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 34285166 |
| 891/.5533 20 | |
| LC Class | PK6561.P54 D313 1996 |
| My Uncle Napoleon دایی جان ناپلئون |
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My Uncle Napoleon title screen
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| Created by | Iraj Pezeshkzad |
| Directed by | Nasser Taghvai |
| Starring |
Gholam-Hossein Naghshineh Parviz Fannizadeh Nosrat Karimi Parviz Sayyad Saeed Kangarani |
| Narrated by | Houshang Latifpour |
| Country of origin | Iran |
| Original language(s) | Persian |
| No. of episodes | 18 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Nasser Taghvai Mohsen Taghvai |
| Location(s) | Lalezar, Tehran |
| Camera setup | 16mm film |
| Running time | 45 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | National Iranian Radio and Television |
| Original release | 1976 – 1976 |
My Uncle Napoleon (Persian: دایی جان ناپلئون, Dâ'i jân Nâpol'on, 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 were briefly banned following the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran, it remained popular (Nafisi 2006) and is often regarded as "the most important and well-loved work of Iranian fiction since World War II" (Ryan 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 into English.
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 officer 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 revolves 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.
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Wikipedia