Customer Reviews

The Sultan's Harem

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Even the imaginative Scherazade could not have woven tales more fascinating than the stories revealed by those behind the giant doors of the Sublime Porte during the Ottoman Empire. "The Sultan's Harem" is revisionist historical fiction at its finest, skillfully weaving fact and fantasy to create a tapestry of intrigue and passion. Readers of Colin Falconer's story of Cleopatra, "When We Were Gods," will be equally mesmerized by his portrayal of the absolute ruler Suleyman and the women who were able to bring him down.

Rich with period detail "The Sultan's Harem" is an epic drama whose star is Suleyman the Magnificent. At that time Constantinople knew only one mighty ruler:sultan, Suleyman, "Lord of Lords of this World, Possessor of Men's Necks, Allah's Deputy." He ruled not with an iron fist in a velvet glove but solely with an iron fist.

His home was an opulent palace, and at the heart of the palace was his Harem, the envy of many European kings. Here lived hundreds of women, women of them never even saw their master. Traditionally, a harem was described as the women's portion of a Muslim household. In Suleyman's case it was a small community comprised of hundreds of women, including his mother, his daughters, his favorites, plus countless concubines and slaves. It was a place where power was currency.

Among those who had found favor with Suleyman were Gulbehar, the mother of his heir; Julia, a young Italian woman who had been kidnaped; and Hurrem from the Russian steppes who had been sold as a slave.

Of the trio Hurremwass the most greedy, the most conniving, determined to have total authority in the Harem and even over Suleyman himself. Step by careful step she undercut her rivals just as she ingratiated herself with Suleyman. He becames obsessed by her until she who was once a slave is now t mistress, holding the power.

Falconer's story is taken from a time during the 16th and 17th centuries in Ottoman Turkey which was called The Reign of Women, when the Sultan's mother and his favorites usurped his power and position. Factually little is known beyond that. Leave it to the innovative Falconer to once again bring history to wide screen, full color life.

- Gail Cooke

In sixteenth century Turkey Sultan Suleyman has three hundred women in his harem. Of all these beautiful females his favorite is Gulbehar because she has given him a son. However, truth be told, the weight of empire building and international relations plays heavily on the weary Suleyman so he has little interest in the inner goings-on inside his harem as long as the ladies do not disturb him.

The omega entry in Suleyman's harem is the newcomer the Russian Hurrem, who resents being a slave and worse being the runt amongst a pack of subservient succubae. Her plan to be first in line immediately is to use her body to seduce Suleyman and her wiles to defeat these jackals that surround her. Thus, the ladies of the harem who previously understood their place in the queue now battle for supremacy in a scheming arena of intrigue, blackmail, and homicide. Hurrem is the ruler magically seducing Suleyman over time so that even some of his supporters in the royal court consider emulating the queen of mean to take control of the empire.

THE SULTAN'S HAREM is an intriguing historical work of fiction that highlights four decades in the inner court of Suleyman the Great during the first half of the sixteenth century. The tale crafts a comprehensive (somewhat exhausting) vivid look at the mores of the harem and to a degree the royal court especially the intrigue, treachery, and strange bedfellow politics, but fails to place any of this on the bigger stage of momentous events. Readers who appreciate an interesting solid diligent glimpse at pebbles with no boulders will enjoy the regal intrigue of Suleyman's harem.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book, and it did create an interest in the story for me. The story grabbed my attention pretty quickly, and always seemed to have something exciting happening, so it never really got dull. I did find the last few chapters a little tedious, and didn't particularly care for the war scenes. A few things that would have made this book better would be a pronunciation guide at the beginning (A LOT of unfamiliar/foreign words), and maybe a description of each character at the beginning to help readers keep everything straight (there were also quite a few characters, some who floated in and out of the story so they weren't easily remembered), and I also wish that Hurrems history had been shared with the reader. For instance, why was she so angry, why did she want revenge so badly, etc. Also, I really wanted to know what happened to Hurrem's letter, and a little more closure on Julia. Overall, I was actually relieved to have finally finished this book, and move on to something a little lighter.

The other reviewer is incorrect. this book was published only in the UK and Australia under the title "Harem" over 10 years ago and I'm delighted that it's finally out in the US in this beautiful hardcover, especially since the UK editions are out of print. I suspect the title was changed because there are several books--fiction and non-fiction--called "Harem" in bookstores right now.

Colin Falconer is a wonderfully polished historical novelist whose books would make terrific movies. He has a very vivid, cinematic style of writing that doesn't flinch away from gory or bizarre historical details, but at the same time his writing is usually lush, sensual and often quite funny (I like authors with a good dark sense of humor).

The Sultan of the title is the great Suleyman the Magnificent of Turkey, and the main characters in the book are the women of his harem, including his honored first wife Gulbehar and two new slaves, Hurrem and Julia. Hurrem is a Russian girl, whose blond hair and fair skin makes her a rare commodity in the harem. Julia is a Venetian girl who was kidnapped while fleeing the city with her lover. While Julia is at first terrified and disoriented by life in the harem, Hurrem sees it as an opportunity. She is unusually clever and malicious, and determined that if she will be a slave in the harem, she will be queen of the slaves, and eventually she plots to turn tables on Suleyman himself. It's a tightly woven plot with lots of twists and turns. I highly recommend this book--it's almost unputdownable and the ending is very satisfying.

This would make a great HBO drama series! HURREM!
I could picture the scenes when I was reading the book. I read it in English, yet my native language is Turkish. The author was able to give that native author feel with his choice of vocabulary describing architecture, tradition, etc...It may not be the most accurate account of the historical events during Suleyman the Magnificent's rule, yet the contents are so captivating that you could overlook a few mistakes...Well done Mr. Falconer! And please send a screenplay to HBO, Showtime, BBC...! We need to see this on the tube!

I just finished this book last night. I love historical fiction so I was excited to read something about a region that I haven't read much about.

This book takes place in the 1500's when Suleyman, the Magnificent is Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The books real subject is the "politics" of the Sultan's Harem and what a woman will do to stay in the Sultan's favor to gain power. There are few characters to love in this book as many our on a path to destruction.

Overall I enjoyed this book, it was a quick read, a page turner. It was definitely an interesting subject matter and time in history. My only critcism is that the book could have been a little shorter - towards the end I was ready for it to be over.

I really enjoy reading historical books .... I read this book in Turkish, not in English (would have been little hard for me if it was in English as I am not a native speaker). Until this day, I have read many many books telling stories about the Ottoman Empire, and after Ottoman Empire - especially the period when Great Commander, our Great Leader Ataturk came into the picture. Authors of those books are all Turkish!!! To my great surprise the author of this book is not even Turkish!!! My compliments to the author being able to write such a historical book from another culture and country with almost no mistakes.

This is really the story of three women. Gülbehar, the sultan's favored concubine and mother of his son, the next in line for the throne, Julia, a kidnapped Italian noblewoman who finds herself in the sultan's harem and soon in mortal danger, and finally Hürrem, a ruthless, red-headed Russian who hoodwinks and deceives the sultan to turn him away from Gulbehar and over to her side.

Insanely jealous, deceptive, cunning, and irresistibly beautiful Hurrem soon has no trouble convincing the sultan to break numerous traditions on her behalf and schemes to make her son the next sultan. As Hurrem's victims mount and the sultan's power grows fainter and fainter it soon becomes apparent that Hurrem is in over her head and has made more enemies than friends.

In all honesty, I couldn't get through this book all the way. It really peeved me because I was more than halfway through it too. I picked up this book thinking it would be incredibly sexy and romantic. It was nothing like that. Basically it boiled down to a court battle set in the Middle East.

Soon there were too many characters to keep track of. I never knew who knew what, who was planning what and how some of the characters were interrelated. I got the connection of Hurrem to Gulbehar, but to me Julia was a complete mystery. Her existence did not further the plot at all and this irked me as Julia was one of the few characters I felt had any depth or warmth to her.

"The Sultan's Harem" wasn't awful, it was full of intrigue, color, and historical references that made the general story seem decently real. On the flip side, the novel lacked true excitement, understandable plots, and relatable characters. The reading was slow going and frustrating. Towards the end my patience waned and finally left me completely. I can see why some would like or even love this book...I just wasn't one of them.

Among the dozens of women in the Ottoman Emperor's harem, Colin Falconer introduces us to three: Gulbehar, the complacent mother of Suleyman the Magnificent's heir; Hürrem, the love of his life (who harbors a burning hatred for him); and Julia, a kidnapped Italian girl who shares a bitter secret with the harem's Chief Eunuch.

This is an epic novel that encompasses nearly forty years of Suleyman's rule, although most of the focus is centered on the early years of Hürrem's influence, with some attention paid to her last minute, dying attempts to exact her revenge on the man who owned her and kept her as his slave for most of her life. The great thing is, she succeeds, and so skillfully that it's obvious even some reviewers didn't quite grasp the intricacies of her plot to bring down the Ottoman Empire. (Hint: she never slept with Ibrahim. Duh.) The woman had the brassiest balls I've ever seen, and even if you don't like her, you've got to respect her. I was absolutely taken aback by her audacity and her ingenuity in her final scenes, as she pretty much single-handedly destroyed Suleyman and the Ottomans in a few well-placed final words. Brilliant.

The rest of the book is a mish-mash of court intrigue, tragic love story, and medieval politicking among the powers of the Eastern Mediterranean. I could have done without the Julia/Abbas subplot; I found it a little too sensationalized, and Julia as a character a bit too watery and tepid for the whole mess to be at all compelling. Compared to the hot, bitter espresso that is Hürrem, Julia is weak tea. Blah.

Gulbehar, the third of this little troika of estrogen at the heart of the empire, combines the worst aspects of the other two - bitter *and* bland. While her son Mustapha gets plenty of attention as Suleyman's heir (and thus rival to Hürrem's sons), Gulbehar bitches and moans in exile, boring us as much as she comes to bore Suleyman.

In other words, I wanted more, more, more of Hürrem, and less of, well, everything else. OK, some of the intricacies of the Ottoman Empire were interesting, straddling the worlds of East and West as it did. Suleyman has to contend with Europe on the one hand and Persia (Iran) on the other, and he's pretty obvious about which one he considers worth wasting his time on. The war among his sons for succession, as set in motion by Hürrem's manipulations, is a great ending. Not a *happy* ending, but a dramatic and fascinating one.

I love Falconer's portrayals of women working behind the scenes. Hürrem, like Malinali in "Feathered Serpent", is utterly ruthless, vindictive, scheming - and shockingly effective. If there's a woman who destroyed a civilization out there, I trust Falconer to find her and make us cheer her on.

This novel was first published in 1992, and provides a fictional view of the life and times of Hurrem (known to Europeans as Roxelana) who became the wife of Suleyman the Magnificent during the 16th century.

Hurrem was a member of Suleyman's harem who rose to become his wife. While the broad historical setting provides a framework for this novel, I'd urge those who are interested in the history of this period to read broadly. It is a fascinating historical period and those interested particularly in the magnificence of the Sublime Porte (Constantinople, Istanbul, Stamboul) may find this novel particularly engaging.

The character of Hurrem, as depicted in this novel is ambitious and not particularly endearing. However, in the world of intrigue that constitutes the harem, she shines. Firstly by undermining Gulbehar, the woman she replaces, and then by captivating Suleyman so completely that his decision-making appears in some instances to be flawed and bewitched. The third woman in this story is Julia, who is captured while attempting to flee Venice with her lover. Julia's story is interesting in its own right because of the links with and through other characters. However, there is no doubt that the main character is Hurrem herself.

This is a relatively complex work of fiction (as befits the time and location) and can sometimes be difficult to follow because the world of intrigue knows few boundaries and so many characters are involved. I found it fascinating but at times frustrating because the historical setting kept slipping out of focus. For me, this is less a work of historical fiction and more a work of fiction in an historical setting. It is essentially about power and revenge: both of which are timeless.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith