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The Last Odalisque
Publisher
:
Stock
Parution date
:
2001
EAN
:
9782234053465
Description
Prince Faisal Bey is the last descendant of the Ottoman Turk dynasty of Tunisia. La dernière odalisque is a novel in which he recounts the incredible destiny of his grandmother, the last odalisque, Safiyé. With true storytelling talent, Prince Faisal Bey takes us on marvelous historical quest. A fascinating and delightful fresco, La dernière odalisque is a hymn to love, to the love of a Prince for his country and that of a grandchild for his grandmother.
Safiyé was 10 when she escaped the massacre of her entire family in 1919 and fled to the Caucasian Mountains with her best friend, Sursam. Finding refuge in a harem after the death of her friend, she was drugged in her sleep by a jealous slave and taken to the luxurious palace of Istanbul, where she thought she’d find happiness. But, the decline of the Ottoman Empire annihilated her dreams for a better life in the Turkish capital. Safiyé was offered to the Bey of Tunis’s wife, who was herself a former slave, and as her attendant, she discovered the intrigues taking place in the Sultan’s palace. Years later, she married a Prince whom she had never met before and who would become the love of her life. After years of happiness and tragedy, through political conflicts and manipulation, Safiyé and her family were put in jail by Bourguiba, the newly elected ruler who put an end to the Tunisian Monarchy.
Author
Faisal Bey : Prince Faisal Bey was born in Carthage in the reign of Bey Lamine I, his great-grandfather. He was two years old when Bourguiba abolished the monarchy in 1957.
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