Constantinople and the Bosphorus

This is the first translation of three accounts by Pierre Loti (1850-1923) of his visits to Constantinople: a description of his brief visit in 1890; of his stay in 1910 in order to visit the tomb of his lover; and the account of his visit in 1913, invited as he then was by the Turkish authorities as their thank-you for all his support of their cause on the international scene after the Balkan Wars.

Pierre Loti (1850-1923) was born Louis-Marie-Julien Viaud into a Protestant family in Rochefort in Saintonge, South-West France (now Charente Maritime). He was an officer of the French Navy and a prolific author of considerable note in 19th-/early-20th-century France, publishing many novels and numerous accounts of his travels around the world. He was a member of the French Academy.

Loti's book was published in 1921, by which time he was ill and unable to continue. Publication was completed by his son, Samuel Viaud (1889-1969), who appears on the title page. Loti was a photographer of note and the volume is greatly enhanced by the reproduction of some of his photographs taken in and around Constantinople at the time of his visits.

The book is translated from the French and annotated by G. Rex Smith and Jonathan M. G. Smith.