Constantinople, v. 1

De Amicis, Edmondo, 1846-1908Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 388K words
Chapters: 39

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Constantinople, v. 1 (of 2) by Edmondo De Amicis. Author: De Amicis, Edmondo, 1846-1908. Language: English. Class: DR: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Balkan Peninsula, Turkey. Release Date: Apr 10, 2016

Editor's review

Constantinople, v. 1 is the first volume of Italian writer Edmondo De Amicis's travelogue on Constantinople, released free of charge in English translation by Project Gutenberg. De Amicis was known for travel literature, and this book records, through an observer's eye, the cityscape, street life, crowds, and scenes of late nineteenth-century Constantinople, bearing distinct personal impressions and the marks of its era. It can serve both as an accessible introduction to the social life of the Ottoman capital in its late period and as a text for the study of travel writing and urban representation. It is best read as a travel record shaped by the perspective of its time: enjoy its vivid scene painting while remaining aware of its possible Eurocentric gaze. The public-domain electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable for reading alongside maps and historical background materials.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in the urban history of late nineteenth-century Constantinople and Ottoman society
Readers who enjoy travel literature, city travelogues, and scenic description
English majors and researchers studying travel writing and cross-cultural observation
History enthusiasts who need free English public-domain material for background reading

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a systematic, rigorous general history of the Ottoman Empire or a scholarly monograph
Travelers who prefer contemporary guidebooks and need practical information
Readers uninterested in or sensitive to the observational perspective of nineteenth-century European travelers

Reading tips

Read with a map of Constantinople/Istanbul at hand, connecting the places in the book with today's urban spaces.
Begin with the chapters on streets, crowds, and daily life before moving on to the sections on history and architecture.
Keep notes on passages that reflect the prejudices of the era, and reflect on them afterward in light of modern historiography.
If time is limited, read by theme, such as the chapters on markets, religious sites, and harbor life.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book the complete travelogue or an excerpt?

This is the first volume of the English translation of De Amicis's travelogue on Constantinople, the upper volume of a two-volume work, not the whole book. Readers should note that only together with the second volume does it form the complete travelogue; reading the first volume alone leaves out what follows.

What English level is the book suited to?

It is nineteenth-century literary English, detailed in description and long in sentence structure, but not altogether difficult. Readers with college-level English reading ability, or who can work through long English texts with a dictionary, will manage; beginning English readers may find it demanding.

Can the content be cited as historical material?

It can be used as primary material reflecting the observational perspective of a late nineteenth-century European traveler, but it should not be cited directly as objective historical fact. Its descriptions carry the author's personal impressions and the prejudices of the era; it is advisable to use it alongside scholarly historical works and to note its nature as travel literature.

What background knowledge is needed before reading?

It helps to first understand the basic situation of the late nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire and the urban layout and multiethnic social composition of Constantinople. With this background, the descriptions of streets, religious sites, and crowds are easier to understand, and the tendencies in the author's observations easier to discern.

Comments

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About the author

De Amicis, Edmondo, 1846-1908 Author

Edmondo De Amicis (1846-1908) was an Italian writer best known to Chinese readers for his children's book Cuore (often translated as The Heart), subtitled "An Italian Schoolboy's Journal." The library holds 19 of his works, including, besides Cuore, the travel books Morocco, Its People and Places, Spain, v. 1, Constantinople, v. 1, Constantinople, v. 2 and Holland, v. 1, as well as the military sketches La vita militare: bozzetti and the Finnish translation Sydän: Kirja nuorisolle. These works draw on school, family, army life and foreign travel, written in a warm, realistic style that stresses feeling and moral education; Cuore is the most widely read and has had a lasting influence among inspirational coming-of-age books. Public information on his life dates and nationality is limited, so such details are omitted here.