EZZA AGHA MALAK 

(LEBANON)

Front Cover Art Design:
Ana Maria Calatayud

2015

ISBN: 978-2-343-07491-7

EZZA AGHA MALAK WITH CYNTHIA HAHN IN PARIS, JUNE 2018
 

Translated by:

PERETTE MICHELLI

(LAKE FOREST COLLEGE,

IL, USA)

 

The Sinking of HMS Victoria

Tripoli, 22 June 1893

 

The foundering of the British battleship HMS Victoria in the territorial waters of Tripoli, taking with her 358 souls, has captivated historians. Following the orders of Queen Victoria, the fleet commanded by Admiral Sir George Tryon should have carried out military maneuvers in the port of Al-Askalah, ostensibly taking advantage of its fairly shallow waters. The underlying reasons were, in fact, were to impress the Ottomans and to protect the sea route to India against the threats of France and Italy. As the maneuvers began, and against all expectation, the Victoria was struck by another ship of the British fleet, the Camperdown, and sunk.

Efforts were made to consign this important episode in British history to oblivion. The catastrophe resulting from the miscalculation of a great admiral of the Royal Navy has remained a gaping hole in the history of Britain, a Pandora’s Box best left closed by the British. It took the efforts of a young Lebanese diver to unravel the great puzzle that has enveloped the wreck for 111 years.

Based on primary sources, this richly eventful historical narrative strips bare Victorian English society at the end of the 19^th century, in full industrial ascendancy and dominated as much by its traditions as by the hidden inclinations represented by Oscar Wilde.

In fact, this is a history of a ship that rivals that of the Titanic.

                                                                         

 

EZZA AGHA MALAK

(Lebanon), recipient of the French government distinction Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and prolific francophone author of over thirty creative works including novels, short story and poetry collections, is Professor Emerita of the Université Libanaise and the Université Saint-Joseph (Lebanon), where she taught French linguistics, stylistics, language and literature, and directed doctoral research at the University of Lebanon.

Ezza Agha Malak received her Doctorat d’Etat ès Lettres et Sciences humaines from the University of Lyon II, France (1983), as well as the Doctorat de 3ème cycle in French Linguistics and Semiology from the same university (1977).

In 2001, Ezza Agha Malak was awarded the Lebanese Parliamentary Commission's Ordre du Mérite.

Ezza Agha Malak speaks of literature as a kind of engagement and of the French language as her outlet and existential need. Her novels, in which she artfully utilizes suspense, vary in their themes and messages. Tolerance, love, falling out of love, problems of the couple, women's rights, macho society, abusive childhood, corruption, war, etc. are recurrent themes in her work which have been the subject of much criticism  (masters' and doctoral theses) and some hundred articles gathered into five collective studies and Acts of colloquia. Living between her two "eldorados", France and Lebanon, participating in the literary life of her two countries, Ezza continues to pursue her career as a writer and French-speaking lecturer across the world.

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