IstanbulFrom the Nobel Prize winner and acclaimed author of My Name is Red comes a portrait of Istanbul by its foremost writer, revealing the melancholy that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire. "Delightful, profound, marvelously origina.... Pamuk tells the story of the city through the eyes of memory." —The Washington Post Book World A shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world’s great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy—or hüzün—that all Istanbullus share. With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters—both Turkish and foreign—who would shape his consciousness of his city. Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges’ Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving. |
Contents
3 | |
9 | |
18 | |
The Destruction of the Pashas Mansions | 26 |
Black and White | 34 |
Exploring the Bosphorus | 47 |
Mellings Bosphorus Landscapes | 62 |
My Mother My Father | 76 |
Gautiers Melancholic Strolls | 224 |
Under Western Eyes | 234 |
The Melancholy of the Ruins | 245 |
The Picturesque and | 254 |
Painting Istanbul | 265 |
Painting and Family Happiness | 273 |
Flaubert in Istanbul East West | 286 |
Fights with My Older Brother | 294 |
Another House Cihangir | 83 |
Hüzün | 90 |
Four Lonely Melancholic Writers | 108 |
The Joy and Monotony of School | 121 |
Dont Walk down the Street with | 139 |
Conquest or Decline? | 170 |
The Rich | 188 |
Nerval in Istanbul Beyoğlu | 218 |
A Foreigner in a Foreign School | 302 |
To Be Unhappy Is to Hate | 317 |
First Love | 325 |
The Ship on the Golden Horn | 342 |
A Conversation with My Mother | 355 |
About the Photographs | 371 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abdülhak Şinasi Hisar Ahmet Ahmet Rasim apartment buildings Ara Güler artist asked back streets beautiful Beşiktaş Beyoğlu black-and-white Bosphorus brother century child childhood Cihangir city's crowds culture dark dolmuş dream empty eyes Eyüp father feel felt ferry film Flaubert friends Galata Bridge Gautier gaze girl Golden Horn grandmother happy harem Hisar hüzün Istan İstanbullus Kızkulesi knew Koçu Koçu's later lived look lycée mansions melancholy Melling Melling's meyhane mosques mother Nerval never newspaper night Nişantaşı once Orhan Orhan Pamuk Ottoman Empire painting Pamuk pashas perhaps photographs play pleasure poet poor neighborhoods Rasim Reşat Ekrem rich Robert Academy ruins Rumelihisarı ships Şişli sitting room smile smoke soccer someone sometimes story strange Sultan Taksim Tanpınar thing took Turkish uncle Üsküdar walk walls watch western travelers wooden houses writers Yahya Kemal yalı