Sadegh Hedayat (Biography, Books, Quotes)

Sadegh Hedayat is one of the founders of contemporary Iranian novels and short stories and one of the best authors in Iran. Among other Iranian authors, Sadegh Hedayat had an eccentric perspective, as depicted in his novels, drawing the culture and traditions of society in his works. Sadegh Hedayat introduced an original yet innovative view in modern Persian story writing. It is believed that he could be the heir of great Persian poets such as Khayyam and Hafez.

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About Sadegh Hedayat

Sadegh Hedayat is one of the greatest and most popular Iranian authors who specialized in more modern aspects of literature. His best works include the “Blind Owl” and “Stray Dog”. Hedayat is an exponent of the modernist style in Iranian fiction and is considered one of the pioneers of modern Iranian fiction writing.

The number of works published about his works and life shows his deep influence on the Iranian intellectual movement. Sadegh Hedayat’s writings indicate his deeply pessimistic worldview and his love for his motherland, Iran.

Sadegh Hedayat Biography

Sadegh Hedayat was born on Wednesday, February 18, 1903, into a renowned family. His father, Hedayat Qoli Khan Itezad al-Mulk, was a Qajar politician (Qajar Dynasty), and his mother, Zivar al-Maluk, the daughter of Hossein Qoli Mokhbar al-Dawlah, was one of the famous politicians of Naser al-Din Shah’s era (ruler in Iran). Sadegh was the penultimate child of his family, who had only one younger sister.

Education

At the age of 6, Sadegh Hedayat started his elementary education at Tehran Seminary. At the same time, he unveiled his literary talent with the publication of the wall newspaper “Call of the Dead.” His high school career at Dar al-Funun School was stopped due to an eye disease, and he was forced to leave the school. But a year later, he resumed his studies at the “Saint Louis” school, which belonged to the French.

Sadegh Hedayat Biography

The beginning of Hedayat’s writing was first seen in this period, following his interest in strange sciences and metaphysics. A little later, by publishing his first article in the weekly newspaper, he took the first step on the way to being a renowned author.

Journey To Europe

After graduating from Saint Louis school in 1924, Sadegh Hedayat traveled to Belgium with the first group of students sent to Europe and began his studies in pure mathematics. However, due to his lack of interest in his field of study and the attractiveness of France as the cradle of Western civilization, he emigrated to France. In the same years, he published a story titled “Death” in Iranshahr magazine and wrote an article titled “Witchcraft in Iran.”

Vegetarianism

Sadegh Hedayat became a vegetarian in his youth. The primary reasons for this change in him were due to his childhood and his deep feelings toward animals and nature.

During his high school studies, he published a booklet entitled “Man and Animal”, and three years later his book “Benefits of Vegetarianism” was published in Berlin. He, who remained a vegetarian until the end of his life, considered the use of flesh food to be an obstacle to the moral progress of man and a cause of bloodshed and cruelty.

Sadegh Hedayat Death

The last days of Sadegh Hedayat’s life were spent in a rented apartment in Paris. He burned his unfinished and unpublished stories and ended his life on April 19, 1951, by turning on the gas valve and closing all the openings in his house.

His death has many ambiguities because as a social intellectual, he had many enemies around. Yet, the works of the remaining 48 years of Sadegh Hedayat’s life are very fruitful in Persian literary texts.

Sadegh Hedayat Books

The Blind Owl: The blind owl known as Sadegh Hedayat’s greatest masterpiece, is one of the most significant literary works of the last century of contemporary Iranian literature. This book is a love story, but this love is doomed. The Blind Owl is a work far beyond a simple love story. The book is compared to the works of Kafka, Rilke, and Poe.

The Stray Dog: Sadegh Hedayat went to Paris to complete his education after finishing elementary school and spent most of his life traveling between Paris and Tehran. These trips had made him more and more sensitive to the suffering of others, especially animals.

Sadegh Hedayat Books

The novel Stray Dog published in 1942 is a collection of 11 short stories. This proves this claim and looks at the world from the perspective of a stray dog; An animal that was considered “unclean” in this author’s hometown according to the religious and social beliefs of that time and was cruelly persecuted.

Three Drops of Blood: Three Drops of Blood published in 1932 follows the increasing and unstable mental crisis of the protagonist through the repeated repetition of three drops of blood. The book deals with his sense of alienation and the idea of self-destruction.

Fictional Works

Buried Alive – 1930
Mongol Shadow – 1931
Sampingé (written in French) – 1936
Lady Alaviyeh – 1943
The Elixir of Life – 1944
Tomorrow – 1946
The Pearl Cannon – 1947

Drama Works

Parvin, Sassan’s Daughter
Māzīyār
The Fable of Creation

Criticisms, Studies, and Other Works

Man and Animal – 1924
Death – 1927
The Advantages of Vegetarianism – 1927
The Story with a Moral – 1932
The Songs of Khayyam – 1934
Tchaikovsky – 1940
A New Method of Literary Research – 1940
New Trends in Persian Poetry – 1941
Literary criticism on the Persian translation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector – 1944
The Message of Kafka – 1948

Sadeq Hedayat Iranian Writer

Travelogues

Isfahan: Half of the World
On the Wet Road (unpublished Work) – 1935

Book Translation

Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov – 1931
In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka – 1948
Before the Law by Franz Kafka – 1944
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka – 1950

Sadegh Hedayat Blind Owl

The Blind Owl novel is Sadegh Hedayat’s most famous work. The book is written in the style of surrealism and was published for the first time with a slight change in 1936 in fifty manuscripts. According to some scholars, the Blind Owl is one of the world’s top literary masterpieces and one of the 20 best works of the 20th century.

The Blind Owl novel follows the life of a narrator who is dealing with delusions and mental disturbances. It is the most important book of contemporary Iranian literature, using the excellence of art, and dealing with the concept of a self-aware human being in layers of fear, isolation, tyranny, censorship, and superstitious society. The publication of The Blind Owl in 70 countries and its translation into 22 living languages of the world proves the popularity of the novel.

Sadegh Hedayat Quotes

“What is love? For all men, it is a temporary debauchery, a transient folly. The love of men must be sought in the vulgar compositions, in the obscene and crude expressions that they repeat in the realm of intoxication and sobriety.”

“We are the children of death, and it is death that saves us from the deceptions of life.”

“I thought to myself: if it’s true that every person has a star in the sky, mine must be distant, dim, and absurd. Perhaps I never had a star.”

“Only with my own shadow can I speak well; it is the one that compels me to speak, only it can recognize me, it surely understands… I want to pour, no, the bitter wine of my own life, drop by drop, into the dry throat of my shadow, and say to it:

“This is my life!”

Sadegh Hedayat Quotes

“Death is the best refuge for pains, sorrows, sufferings, and the cruelties of life.”

― Sadegh Hedayat

Sadegh Hedayat House

Sadegh Hedayat’s father owned a house in Tehran, built by Atizad al-Molk, which is part of the historical houses of the capital. It is marked in the list of national monuments. However, the current ownership of this work belongs to Amir Alam Hospital.

Until 2002, this historic house was used as a kindergarten, and after the protests and efforts of “Jahangir Hedayat”, the nephew of Sadegh Hedayat, its use was changed to a library.

In 2013, the rooms and grounds of Sadegh Hedayat’s house were used as a hospital waste warehouse, and although Amir Alam Hospital cleaned the building, it caused irreparable damage to this historical house.

Sadegh Hedayat House Address: Tehran, Saadi St., above Manouchehri St., southwest side of Amir Alam Hospital, Taqvi St. (Hedayat St.), No. 3, next door by the house of the Great Ambassador of Denmark.

Sadegh Hedayat Grave

After Sadegh Hedayat’s body was discovered by one of his Armenian friends in a rented apartment on Championnet Street, an investigation was conducted regarding the reason for his death. Sadegh Hedayat’s body was buried in the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise – Cemetery of Paris.

Cimetière du Père-Lachaise is one of the most famous cemeteries in Paris, which is the burial place for famous authors, artists, and many politicians.

Final Word

Sadegh Hedayat is one of the most influential and leading Iranian storytellers. He left his everlasting masterpieces and they can still be read decades after his death. The content of his works is so rich that even the change in the taste of generations in Iran has not prevented the readers of newer generations from reading his works. Sadegh Hedayat expressed himself freely without any fears and criticisms about the society are found in many of his works.

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