Sergüzeşt-In Contemporary Turkish

“Compare Sergüzeşt to a building built by a young, diligent and skillful architect before he had any experience. We hope you will not be deceived.” Sergüzeşt, the first and only novel of Samipaşazade Sezai, who brought a new breath to our literature with his book Mizancı Murat Küçük Şeyler, is accepted as the harbinger of a transformation in our literary history with both its fiction and narrative. The adventure of Dilber, who was brought from the Caucasus when she was a child and sold in Istanbul, dates back to the 19th century. The author masterfully explains the destruction caused by human trafficking, which was still ongoing in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the century, in individual and social life, and also sheds light on the socio-cultural structure of the period. We hope that Sergüzeşt, which offers impressive scenes from one hundred and fifty years ago to today's readers, will be read and appreciated more and more as the years go by.

Samipaşazade Sezai (1859-1936) Born in Istanbul, Sezai also served as the Minister of Education during his childhood and adolescence. It takes place in the large mansion of his father, Sami Pasha, in Taşkasap. This mansion is an important meeting point that hosts the famous intellectuals, writers and poets of the period. Sezai meets many writers and poets here. He takes Arabic, Persian and French lessons from private teachers. Sezai, who adopted the innovative ideas of Namık Kemal and his close friend Abdülhak Hamit, whom he was greatly influenced by in his youth, was appointed as the second secretary of the London Embassy in 1880. Here he has the opportunity to study Western literature, especially Shakespeare's works. This time spent in London expanded his world of thought and literary horizons. He served as an assistant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Istanbul until 1901. During the years he spent in Istanbul between 1886 and 1901, he published Sergüzeşt, Küçük Şeyler and Rumüzü'l-Edeb. The first radical determinations about the European world of Istanbul appear in his works. His treatment of the concepts of captivity and freedom in Sergüzeşt caused him to fall into the government's surveillance circle, and he escaped to Paris in 1901, where he joined the Young Turks. We will continue to include selected works of Samipaşazade Sezai, one of the pioneers of innovative literature in the Tanzimat period, in our Turkish Literature Classics Series.

(From the Promotional Bulletin)

Dough Type: 2. Dough

Size: 12.5 x 20.5

First Printing Year: 2019

Print Number:1. Edition

Language : Turkish