The book charts the beginnings of an Arab and Middle Eastern intellectual presence in Paris and the complex network exchanges between the Arab world and France which gradually formed after Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1978. These changes are seen against the backdrop of the emergence of Paris as the world capital of literature in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, the book also offers a study of the geographical location of literary networks and the inequality of cultural exchanges. It shows how the dominant discourse of French orientalism traditionally privileged the translation of specific genres of “classical” Arabic literature, at the expense of more contemporary literature, well into the 1970s. The author also discusses the significance of translation for Arabic language authors and points out that there is increased interest within the Arab press in the translation of national literary production, and that for many Arab writers to be translated is to gain recognition and financial reward.