Ahmet Midhat Efendi's famous 1875 novel Felatun Bey and Rakim
Efendi takes place in late nineteenth-century Istanbul and follows
the lives of two young men who come from radically different
backgrounds. Rakim Efendi is an erudite, self-made man, one who is
ambitious and cultivated enough to mingle with a European crowd. In
contrast, Felatun Bey is a spendthrift who lacks intellectual
curiosity and a strong work ethic. Squandering his wealth and
education, he leads a life of decadence. The novel traces Rakim and
Felatun's relationships with multiple characters, charting their
romances and passions, as well as their foibles and amusing mishaps
as they struggle to find and follow their own path through the many
temptations and traps of European culture. The author creates a
rich portrait of stratified Ottoman life through a diverse and
colorful cast of characters-from a French piano teacher and an Arab
nanny, to a Circassian slave girl-each deftly navigating the
shifting mores of their social class. Written during the Ottoman
Empire's uneasy transition to modernity, the novel's protagonists
embody both the best and worst elements of two worlds, European and
Ottoman. The novel provides readers with an elegant yet powerful
appeal for progressive reforms and individual freedoms. Levi and
Ringer's fluid translation of this Ottoman classic stands as a
landmark in the history of Turkish literature in translation.
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