Literary Notes
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the British Ambassador to Turkey in 1716-18, was a well-known socialite at Pera and openly admired the sensuality of Ottoman daily life. She was an avid correspondent, describing life in the city to her friends in England, including Alexander Pope. Her Letters from Constantinople were published posthumously in 1763 and give a fascinating insight into upper-class 18th-century Istanbul.

Many writers have described the filth, the narrowness of the streets, the lack of women in evidence and the quantity of stray dogs. Those things have certainly changed but the Turks' love of bargaining and shopping has not, nor has the difficulty of finding grave space, as cremation is forbidden by Islam. 'It is as if the Turks are entirely absorbed in buying goods, selling goods and dying,' noted French writer A de Chateaubrian in 1806. American satirist Mark Twain (1835-1910) found even Haghia Sophia dark and dirty and the dance of the Mevlevi dervishes 'the most barbaric manifestation I have seen to this day'. During the same period, naval officer and romantic writer, Pierre Loti was among many Orientalist Europeans disgusted by the fashion for Art Nouveau in Istanbul at the turn of the century, while Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was written when she stayed at the Pera Palas Hotel. The work of exiled Communist poet Nazim Hikmet (d 1963) is still widely read and admired, as are the novels of Yasar Kemal (b 1922). Istanbul's most famous contemporary writer is Orhan Pamuk, whose books White Castle, Black Book and The New Life have been translated worldwide.