French Literature Reviews - 2026

Th. Gautier, Constantinople
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

Théophile Gautier, Constantinople

(foreword by Stéphane Guégan)

Paris, Éditions Bartillat, 2008, 417 p.

ISBN: 9782841004225

22 €

Publisher's overview:

Summer 1852.
Like many 19th-century writers, Théophile Gautier boards the Léonidas in Marseille and sets sail for Constantinople. Commissioned by Émile de Girardin's La Presse, he creates vivid sketches of the oriental world finally unfolding before him. Following in the footsteps of his friend Nerval, he explores the markets, mosques, coffeehouses, and all the places that fuel his mesmerized wandering.
His prose sparkles. Yet the text also surprises with its modernity, its attentiveness to the present and to the transformations taking place at the heart of Turkish society. He already questions and frequently laments the creeping westernization invading even the old city. Stepping off the beaten path and away from tourists, he plunges into the labyrinth of "impoverished and neglected Istanbul." Readers will find the complete Gautier here—poet and novelist, sensual chronicler and ironic traveler—whom our era is rediscovering.
His Constantinople helps us better understand and appreciate modern-day Istanbul.

Théophile Gautier’s journey to Constantinople in the summer of 1852 reflects a nineteenth-century tradition of Mediterranean travel writing, following a maritime route from Marseille that many French writers undertook. Commissioned by Émile de Girardin for the newspaper La Presse, such dispatches offered European readers vivid impressions of the Ottoman capital. This edition includes a foreword by Stéphane Guégan, framing a work that sits within the context of nineteenth-century literature, sharing imaginative territory with travelers like Gérard de Nerval.

The publisher's overview presents a text that captures both the vibrant street life of markets and mosques and an early critique of westernization affecting Turkish society. The page notes that Gautier wanders through impoverished neighborhoods away from standard tourist paths, balancing sensual description with ironic commentary. Readers interested in nineteenth-century travel literature and French prose may find this edition relevant for its portrayal of Istanbul through the eyes of a major romantic poet and novelist.