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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating Look into A Most Influential Woman, December 2, 2003
This review is from: Seraglio: A Novel (Hardcover)
Judging from the reviews for this book here on amazon.com, my expectations for this book weren't very high. However, last week I needed something to read and got this book from my library, not expecting a wonderful read but at least something to get me through the next few days or weeks. Was I wrong. Seraglio is an excellent book. The story centers on Aimee du Buc de Rivery, a refined young lady on her way home to Martinique from France whose ship is plundered by pirates. The thirteen-year-old fair beauty is presented to the bey of Algiers, who presents Aimee to the Ottoman sultan. Refined and educated in the ways of the Western world Aimee is renamed Nakshidil and enters her golden prison. The Seraglio. At first, Aimee is stubborn and refuses to follow the rhythms and rules that operate the harem, a world within itself. However, she soon learns that if she behaves that way longer, she will meet a horrible fate. And so Nakshidil sets out to be educated in the ways of the harem and Islam, mastering the many forms of dance and seduction and how to please the sultan both sexually and through cooking and charm. The narrator of the story is Nakshidil's closest friend, the black eunuch, Tulip. Eventually, Nakshidil is called to the sultan's bed but soon enough, the sultan is dead and Nakshidil must set out for the Old Palace, a miserable palace set-aside for the harem girls after their sultan dies and a new sultan moves in with his own harem. Nakshidil believes her career is over but the new sultan, Selim III, is enthralled and enchanted with Nakshidil's French ways, her French ideas, and her French cooking. Instead of bedding Nakshidil, the two converse for hours on end each night about Western ideas. However, the idea of Western ideas entering the Ottoman Empire strikes fear into the hearts of many of the Turkish people, endangering both Selim and Nakshidil. And so the story unfolds, an epic of danger, deceit, murder, and a glitzy and extravagant life showered in satin and jewels. I enjoyed reading Tulip's account of his closest friend and the only harem girl who showed him compassion, Nakshidil. There were some glitches in the plot. Sometimes the huge gaps were puzzling, sometimes years at a time were skipped over which meant we lost that much of Nakshidil's life. Sometimes characters arrived and disappeared quickly and often characters could be confused do to their infrequent mentioning and their titles they were known by. Their were other little things, such as Nakshidil corresponding with her cousin, Rose de Beauharnais (the later Josephine Bonaparte), which probably would not have happened but it lended to the plot of the story and depicted a more sneaky and secretive side of Nakshidil. But overall, the story was wonderful. You really did feel for the characters. You can't help but feel sad at the point of Peretsu's shocking and barbaric death or hate the despicable Aysha, Nakshidil's lifetime rival in the harem. You feel for the characters and their losses and loves and emotions. Also, the descriptions were wonderful. Everything down to the tiling of the harem floors was described and most extravagantly Nakshidil's outfits were described from her emerald earrings to her blue kaftans to her high-heeled bath shoes. The settings and the language also made the book enjoyable. The exotic and sultry harem and the new Turkish vocabulary all made the story more cultural and enjoyable. I liked this book a lot and was happy I did get it after all. I finished it in only six days...I couldn't put it down!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Enjoyable, yet Flawed Read, April 15, 2003
This review is from: Seraglio: A Novel (Hardcover)
Janet Wallach's Seraglio is an enjoyable, engaging read--the story of a young woman, 13 year old Aimee, who is kidnapped and becomes a slave in the Turkish sultan's seraglio. She befriends Tulip, the eunuch who serves as the novel's narrator, and ultimately works her way up in the seraglio over the course of many years. The story of the novel is an interesting, easy read. The choice of Tulip as the narrator is a curious one. In certain parts of the novel, he essentially must spy on Aimee to get events into the narrative, which can be clunky. The natural narrator for the novel would have been Aimee--but for whatever reason, Wallach chose Tulip. All in all, this is a nice, interesting, easy read. Enjoy.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sultry, Salacious, Sordid, Seraglio, January 20, 2007
These are the things that comes to mind when we think of a seraglio, but it's nothing compared to the rich decadence, the luxury, the subtle sensuality of Wallach's story, which takes place inside the forbidding walls of the celebrated Topkapi Palace in the heart of Istanbul, the capital of the Turkish Empire.
Wallach's little book transports us to the forbidden world of a Turkish harem, where in spite its alluring splendor, it's also a dangerous place ridden with secret intrigues, betrayals, and deadly secrets. The story is told by Tulip, the eunuch slave who becomes Nakshidil's best friend and confidant.
Nakshidil journey from a noble girl born in Martinique (when she was Aimee), captured by pirates in the Atlantic, sold as a slave in Algiers, and given as a present to the Sultan himself, where she becomes a concubine and ending her life as the mother of the future sultan of Turkey is truly a remarkable.
Giving the nature of this novel and its surroundings, Wallach resists the temptation of making this story too graphic or too vulgar or otherwise obscene. The descriptions of the Topkapi palace are described with fantastic details, but the story spins around Nashkidil and her immediate friends and enemies.
In spite of her amazing story, for some reason, I tend to like Tulip better than Aimee/Nashkidil, whose life have had some amazing turns too.
Father Chrysostomos is not the same Father Chrysostomos of Smyrna, the unfortunate metropolitan of the Orthodox Church who was brutally assassinated by a Turkish mob in 1922.
An interesting book indeed, better than I had anticipated. I hope someone makes a move based on this story.
5 "decadent" stars
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