A translation of “Seviyye Talip” by Department of English Professor Ici Vanwesenbeeck has been published by the University of Texas Press.
“Seviyye Talip,” by Halide Edib Adivar, considered the most acclaimed Turkish woman writer of the 20th century, is a novel of violent political uprisings, opera, adultery, polygamy, modernity, liberty and exile in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Set in the early 20th century, “Seviyye Talip” follows Fahir, a philosopher, idealist and reformist who graduates from Oxford University and returns to Istanbul after a voluntary (but possibly compulsory) exile. In the midst of political turmoil and social upheaval, Fahir finds himself embroiled in a love triangle with Macide, a traditional Muslim Turkish woman, and Seviyye, a rebellious Turkish soprano who defies social and religious norms.
A bestseller in Turkey in 1910, the novel features the first-ever Turkish soprano protagonist and is interwoven with operatic references and landscapes from turn-of-the-century Istanbul and Cairo.
